[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4755 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4755

   To support research on privacy enhancing technologies and promote 
             responsible data use, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 19, 2023

  Ms. Stevens (for herself and Mr. Kean of New Jersey) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, 
                             and Technology

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To support research on privacy enhancing technologies and promote 
             responsible data use, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Privacy Enhancing Technology 
Research Act''.

SEC. 2. PRIVACY ENHANCING TECHNOLOGY.

    (a) National Science Foundation Support of Research on Privacy 
Enhancing Technology.--The Director of the National Science Foundation, 
in consultation with the heads of other relevant Federal agencies (as 
determined by the Director), shall support merit-reviewed and 
competitively awarded research on privacy enhancing technologies, which 
may include the following:
            (1) Fundamental research on technologies for de-
        identification, pseudonymization, anonymization, or obfuscation 
        to mitigate individuals' privacy risks in data sets while 
        maintaining fairness, accuracy, and efficiency.
            (2) Fundamental research on algorithms and other similar 
        mathematical tools used to protect individual privacy when 
        collecting, storing, sharing, analyzing, or aggregating data.
            (3) Fundamental research on technologies that promote data 
        minimization in data collection, sharing, and analytics that 
        takes into account the trade-offs between the data minimization 
        goals and the informational goals of data collection.
            (4) Research awards on privacy enhancing technologies 
        coordinated with other relevant Federal agencies and programs.
            (5) Supporting education and workforce training research 
        and development activities, including re-training and 
        upskilling of the existing workforce, to increase the number of 
        privacy enhancing technology researchers and practitioners.
            (6) Multidisciplinary socio-technical research that fosters 
        broader understanding of privacy preferences, requirements, and 
        human behavior to inform the design and adoption of effective 
        privacy solutions.
            (7) Development of freely available privacy enhancing 
        technology software libraries, platforms, and applications.
            (8) Fundamental research on techniques that may undermine 
        the protections provided by privacy enhancing technologies, the 
        limitations of such protections, and the trade-offs between 
        privacy and utility required for the deployment of such 
        technologies.
    (b) Integration Into the Computer and Network Security Program.--
Subparagraph (D) of section 4(a)(1) of the Cyber Security Research and 
Development Act (15 U.S.C. 7403(a)(1)(D)) is amended by inserting ``, 
including privacy enhancing technologies'' before the semicolon.
    (c) Coordination With the National Institute of Standards and 
Technology and Other Stakeholders.--
            (1) In general.--The Director of the Office of Science and 
        Technology Policy, acting through the Networking and 
        Information Technology Research and Development Program, shall 
        coordinate with the Director of the National Science 
        Foundation, the Director of the National Institute of Standards 
        and Technology, the Federal Trade Commission, and the heads of 
        other Federal agencies, as appropriate, to accelerate the 
        development, deployment, and adoption of privacy enhancing 
        technologies.
            (2) Outreach.--The Director of the National Institute of 
        Standards and Technology shall conduct outreach to--
                    (A) receive input from private, public, and 
                academic stakeholders on the development of privacy 
                enhancing technologies; and
                    (B) facilitate and support ongoing public and 
                private sector engagement to inform the development and 
                dissemination of voluntary, consensus-based technical 
                standards, guidelines, methodologies, procedures, and 
                processes to cost-effectively increase the integration 
                of privacy enhancing technologies in data collection, 
                sharing, and analytics performed by the public and 
                private sectors.
    (d) Report on Privacy Enhancing Technology Research.--Not later 
than three years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, acting through 
the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development 
Program, shall, in coordination with the Director of the National 
Science Foundation, the Director of the National Institute of Standards 
and Technology, and the heads of other Federal agencies, as 
appropriate, submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation of the Senate, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, 
Science, and Related Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations of the 
Senate, the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of 
Representatives, and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, 
and Related Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations of the House of 
Representatives, a report containing information relating to the 
following:
            (1) The progress of research on privacy enhancing 
        technologies.
            (2) The progress of the development of voluntary resources 
        described under subsection (c)(2)(B).
            (3) Any policy recommendations that could facilitate and 
        improve communication and coordination between the private 
        sector and relevant Federal agencies for the implementation and 
        adoption of privacy enhancing technologies.
    (e) Protecting Personal Identifying Information.--Any personal 
identifying information collected or stored through the activities 
authorized under this section shall be done in accordance with part 690 
of title 45, Code of Federal Regulations (relating to the protection of 
human subjects), or any successor regulation.
    (f) Definition.--In this section, the term ``privacy enhancing 
technology''--
            (1) means any software or hardware solution, technical 
        process, or other technological means of mitigating 
        individuals' privacy risks arising from data processing by 
        enhancing predictability, manageability, disassociability, and 
        confidentiality; and
            (2) may include--
                    (A) cryptographic techniques for facilitating 
                computation or analysis on data while mitigating 
                privacy risks;
                    (B) techniques for--
                            (i) publicly sharing data without enabling 
                        inferences to be made about specific 
                        individuals;
                            (ii) giving individuals' control over the 
                        dissemination, sharing, and use of their data; 
                        and
                            (iii) generating synthetic data; and
                    (C) any other technology or approach that reduces 
                the risk of re-identification, including when combined 
                with other information.
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