[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 240 (Wednesday, December 14, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 90319-90322]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-30014]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Census Bureau


Confidentiality Pledge Revision Notice

AGENCY: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of revision of the confidentiality pledge under Title 13 
United States Code, Section 9.

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SUMMARY: Under 44 U.S.C. 3506(e) and 13 U.S.C. Section 9, the U.S. 
Census Bureau is announcing revisions to the confidentiality pledge it 
provides to its respondents under Title 13, United States Code, Section 
9. These revisions are required by the passage and

[[Page 90320]]

implementation of provisions of the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement 
Act of 2015 (H.R. 2029, Division N, Title II, Subtitle B, Sec. 223), 
which permit and require the Secretary of Homeland Security to provide 
Federal civilian agencies' information technology systems with 
cybersecurity protection for their Internet traffic. More details on 
this announcement are presented in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION 
section below.

DATES: These revisions become effective upon publication of this notice 
in the Federal Register. In a separate companion Federal Register 
notice, the U.S. Census Bureau is seeking public comment on these 
confidentiality pledge revisions.

ADDRESSES: Questions about this notice should be addressed to Jennifer 
Jessup, Departmental Paperwork Clearance Officer, Department of 
Commerce, Room 6616, 14th and Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 
20230 (or via the Internet at [email protected]).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
should be directed to Robin J. Bachman, Policy Coordination Office, 
Census Bureau, HQ-8H028, Washington, DC 20233; 301-763-6440 (or via 
email at [email protected]). Due to delays in the receipt of 
regular mail related to security screening, respondents are encouraged 
to use electronic communications.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Federal statistics provide key information 
that the Nation uses to measure its performance and make informed 
choices about budgets, employment, health, investments, taxes, and a 
host of other significant topics. The overwhelming majority of Federal 
surveys are conducted on a voluntary basis. Respondents, ranging from 
businesses to households to institutions, may choose whether or not to 
provide the requested information. Many of the most valuable Federal 
statistics come from surveys that ask for highly sensitive information 
such as proprietary business data from companies or particularly 
personal information or practices from individuals. Strong and trusted 
confidentiality and exclusively statistical use pledges under Title 13, 
U.S.C. and similar statistical confidentiality pledges are effective 
and necessary in honoring the trust that businesses, individuals, and 
institutions, by their responses, place in statistical agencies.
    Under the authority of Title 13, U.S.C. and similar statistical 
confidentiality protection statutes, many Federal statistical agencies 
make statutory pledges that the information respondents provide will be 
seen only by statistical agency personnel or their sworn agents, and 
will be used only for statistical purposes. Title 13, U.S.C. and 
similar statutes protect the confidentiality of information that 
agencies collect solely for statistical purposes and under a pledge of 
confidentiality. These acts protect such statistical information from 
administrative, law enforcement, taxation, regulatory, or any other 
non-statistical use and immunize the information submitted to 
statistical agencies from legal process. Moreover, many of these 
statutes carry criminal penalties of a Class E felony (fines up to 
$250,000, or up to five years in prison, or both) for conviction of a 
knowing and willful unauthorized disclosure of covered information.
    As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2016 
signed on December 17, 2015, the Congress included the Federal 
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (H.R. 2029, Division N, Title II, 
Subtitle B, Sec. 223). This Act, among other provisions, permits and 
requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to provide Federal civilian 
agencies' information technology systems with cybersecurity protection 
for their Internet traffic. The technology currently used to provide 
this protection against cyber malware is known as Einstein 3A; it 
electronically searches Internet traffic in and out of Federal civilian 
agencies in real time for malware signatures.
    When such a signature is found, the Internet packets that contain 
the malware signature are shunted aside for further inspection by 
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel. Since it is possible 
that such packets entering or leaving a statistical agency's 
information technology system may contain a small portion of 
confidential statistical data, statistical agencies can no longer 
promise their respondents that their responses will be seen only by 
statistical agency personnel or their sworn agents. However, they can 
promise, in accordance with provisions of the Federal Cybersecurity 
Enhancement Act of 2015, that such monitoring can be used only to 
protect information and information systems from cybersecurity risks, 
thereby, in effect, providing stronger protection to the integrity of 
the respondents' submissions.
    Consequently, with the passage of the Federal Cybersecurity 
Enhancement Act of 2015, the Federal statistical community has an 
opportunity to welcome the further protection of its confidential data 
offered by DHS' Einstein 3A cybersecurity protection program. The DHS 
cybersecurity program's objective is to protect Federal civilian 
information systems from malicious malware attacks. The Federal 
statistical system's objective is to ensure that the DHS Secretary 
performs those essential duties in a manner that honors the 
Government's statutory promises to the public to protect their 
confidential data. Given that the Department of Homeland Security is 
not a Federal statistical agency, both DHS and the Federal statistical 
system have been successfully engaged in finding a way to balance both 
objectives and achieve these mutually reinforcing objectives.
    Accordingly, DHS and Federal statistical agencies, in cooperation 
with their parent departments, have developed a Memorandum of Agreement 
for the installation of Einstein 3A cybersecurity protection technology 
to monitor their Internet traffic and have incorporated an associated 
Addendum on Highly Sensitive Agency Information that provides 
additional protection and enhanced security handling of confidential 
statistical data.
    However, many current Title 13, U.S.C. and similar statistical 
confidentiality pledges promise that respondents' data will be seen 
only by statistical agency personnel or their sworn agents. Since it is 
possible that DHS personnel could see some portion of those 
confidential data in the course of examining the suspicious Internet 
packets identified by Einstein 3A sensors, statistical agencies need to 
revise their confidentiality pledges to reflect this process change. 
Therefore, the U.S. Census Bureau is providing this notice to alert the 
public to the confidentiality pledge revisions in an efficient and 
coordinated fashion.
    The following is the revised statistical confidentiality pledge for 
the Census Bureau's data collections:

    The U.S. Census Bureau is required by law to protect your 
information. The Census Bureau is not permitted to publicly release 
your responses in a way that could identify you. Per the Federal 
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, your data are protected from 
cybersecurity risks through screening of the systems that transmit 
your data.

    The following listing includes Census Bureau information 
collections which are confidential under 13 U.S.C. Section 9, as well 
as information collections that the Census Bureau conducts on behalf of 
other agencies which are confidential under 13 U.S.C. Section 9 and for 
which

[[Page 90321]]

the confidentiality pledges will also be revised.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
         OMB No.                  Title of information collection
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0607-0008................  Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and
                            Orders Survey.
0607-0013................  Annual Retail Trade Report.
0607-0049................  Current Population Survey (CPS) Basic
                            Demographics.
0607-0104................  Advance Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MARTS).
0607-0110................  Survey of Housing Starts, Sales, and
                            Completions.
0607-0117................  U.S. Census-Age Search.
0607-0151................  The Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) &
                            Boundary Validation Program (BVP).
0607-0153................  Construction Progress Reporting Surveys.
0607-0175................  Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity
                            Utilization.
0607-0179................  Housing Vacancy Survey (HVS).
0607-0189................  Business and Professional Classification
                            Report.
0607-0190................  Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey.
0607-0195................  Annual Wholesale Trade Survey (AWTS).
0607-0354................  Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the
                            Current Population Survey.
0607-0368................  Special Census Program.
0607-0422................  Service Annual Survey.
0607-0432................  Quarterly Financial Report (QFR).
0607-0444................  2014-2016 Company Organization Survey.
0607-0449................  Annual Survey of Manufactures.
0607-0464................  October School Enrollment Supplement to the
                            Current Population Survey.
0607-0466................  Current Population Survey, Voting and
                            Registration Supplement.
0607-0561................  Manufacturers' Unfilled Orders Survey.
0607-0610................  Current Population Survey June Fertility
                            Supplement.
0607-0717................  Monthly Retail Trade Survey.
0607-0725................  Generic Clearance for Questionnaire
                            Pretesting Research.
0607-0757................  2017 New York City Housing and Vacancy
                            Survey.
0607-0782................  Annual Capital Expenditures Survey.
0607-0795................  Generic Clearance for Geographic Partnership
                            Programs.
0607-0809................  Generic Clearance for MAF and TIGER Update
                            Activities.
0607-0810................  The American Community Survey.
0607-0907................  Quarterly Services Survey.
0607-0909................  Information and Communication Technology
                            Survey.
0607-0912................  Business R&D and Innovation Survey.
0607-0921................  2017 Economic Census--Commodity Flow Survey
                            (CFS)--Advance Questionnaire.
0607-0932................  2017 Economic Census--Commodity Flow Survey.
0607-0936................  American Community Survey Methods Panel
                            Tests.
0607-0963................  2015 Management and Organizational Practices
                            Survey.
0607-0969................  Federal Statistical System Public Opinion
                            Survey.
0607-0971................  Generic Clearance for 2020 Census Tests to
                            Research the Use of Automation in Field Data
                            Collection Activities.
0607-0977................  2014 Survey of Income and Program
                            Participation (SIPP) Panel.
0607-0978................  Generic Clearance for Internet Nonprobability
                            Panel Pretesting.
0607-0983................  Comparing Health Insurance Measurement Error
                            (CHIME).
0607-0986................  Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs.
0607-0987................  The School District Review Program (SDRP).
0607-0988................  The Redistricting Data Program.
0607-0989................  2016 Census Test.
0607-0990................  National Survey of Children's Health.
0607-0991................  2017 Economic Census Industry Classification
                            Report.
0607-0992................  Address Canvassing Testing.
0607-XXXX................  2017 Census Test--currently submitted for
                            clearance.
0607-0760................  Economic Census Round 3 Focus Group
                            Discussion--currently submitted for
                            clearance.
0607-XXXX................  Collection of State Administrative Records
                            Data--currently submitted for clearance.
0607-XXXX................  2020 Census Local Update of Census Addresses
                            Operation (LUCA)--currently submitted for
                            clearance.
2528-0017................  2015 American Housing Survey.
1220-0175................  American Time Use Survey (ATUS).
1220-0050................  Consumer Expenditure Quarterly and Diary
                            Surveys (CEQ/CED).
1220-0100................  Current Population Survey (CPS)--Basic Labor
                            Force.
1121-0317................  Identify Theft Supplement to the NCVS.
1121-0111................  National Crime Victimization Survey 2015-
                            2018.
3145-0141................  National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG).
1018-0088................  National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and
                            Wildlife-Associated Recreation.
1121-0260................  2015 Police Public Contact Supplement.
1121-0184................  2017 School Crime Supplement to the NCVS.
1121-0302................  Supplemental Victimization Survey.
2528-0013................  Survey of Market Absorption (SOMA).
2528-0276................  Rental Housing Finance Survey (RHFS).
1905-0169................  Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey
                            (MECSA).
2528-0029................  Manufactured Housing Survey (MHS).
0935-0110................  Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).
1220-0187................  ATUS-Eating and Health Supplement.
0536-0043................  Food Security Supplement to the Current
                            Population Survey.

[[Page 90322]]

 
1220-0153................  Contingent Worker Supplement to the Current
                            Population Survey--(Currently in Federal
                            Register Notice Stage--has not been fully
                            approved).
1220-0102................  Veterans Supplement to the Current Population
                            Survey.
0970-0416................  Child Support Supplement to the Current
                            Population Survey.
3064-0167................  National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked
                            Households.
1220-0102................  Volunteers Supplement.
1220-0104................  Displaced Workers Supplement.
3135-0136................  Survey of Public Participation in the Arts.
0660-0221................  Computer and Internet Use.
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Sheleen Dumas,
PRA Departmental Lead, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2016-30014 Filed 12-13-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P