Know Your App Act

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Defunct
• Most recent activity date: 2025-01-03

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Compromise of privacy
• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
• Governance failure

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has minimal to good coverage of approximately 5-6 subdomains, with primary focus on malicious actors (4.1), AI system security vulnerabilities (2.2), privacy compromise (2.1), and governance failure (6.5). The Act addresses transparency and user protection mechanisms related to foreign government control and data access risks.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Information

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Professional & Technical Services
• National Security

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

The document primarily governs the Information sector (application stores, software distribution platforms) and has broad applicability across all sectors that develop or distribute applications through app stores. It does not target specific industry verticals but rather establishes transparency requirements for the application distribution ecosystem.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative act from the United States Congress with mandatory requirements, enforcement mechanisms through civil actions, and specific obligations imposed on covered companies and developers.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The document is titled as an Act to be cited as the 'Know Your App Act' and contains findings and sense of Congress sections, indicating it is proposed legislation from the U.S. Congress.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Deployer, AI_Developer
• Summary: The Act explicitly defines and imposes requirements on 'covered companies' (application store operators) and 'developers' (application creators), requiring them to provide transparency about country of origin and beneficial ownership.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The Act explicitly grants enforcement authority to the Attorney General to bring civil actions against violating covered companies, and assigns regulatory authority to the Assistant Secretary to require compliance with the Act's provisions.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The Act requires the Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of Commerce to jointly develop and annually update a list of foreign countries with concerning national laws, and establishes reporting mechanisms overseen by the Assistant Secretary for monitoring compliance.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document does not explicitly focus on AI development lifecycle stages but rather on application distribution and transparency requirements. It primarily addresses the deployment and operation/monitoring stages through requirements for application store listings, ongoing certification, and user reporting mechanisms.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

No technical scope terms identified.

Technical Scope Summary

The document does not explicitly mention AI models, AI systems, or any AI-specific technical categories. It broadly covers 'applications' and 'software applications' without distinguishing AI from non-AI applications. There is no mention of compute thresholds, model types, or AI-specific technical classifications.