[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 224 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 224
To support research on privacy enhancing technologies and promote
responsible data use, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 4, 2021
Ms. Cortez Masto (for herself and Mrs. Fischer) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation
_______________________________________________________________________
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 ``Promoting Digital Privacy
Technologies Act''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Personal data.--The term ``personal data'' means
information that identifies, is linked to, or is reasonably
linkable to, an individual or a consumer device, including
derived data.
(2) Privacy enhancing technology.--The term ``privacy
enhancing technology''--
(A) means any software solution, technical
processes, or other technological means of enhancing
the privacy and confidentiality of an individual's
personal data in data or sets of data; and
(B) includes anonymization and pseudonymization
techniques, filtering tools, anti-tracking technology,
differential privacy tools, synthetic data, and secure
multi-party computation.
SEC. 3. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION SUPPORT OF RESEARCH ON PRIVACY
ENHANCING TECHNOLOGY.
The Director of the National Science Foundation, in consultation
with other relevant Federal agencies (as determined by the Director),
shall support merit-reviewed and competitively awarded research on
privacy enhancing technologies, which may include--
(1) fundamental research on technologies for de-
identification, pseudonymization, anonymization, or obfuscation
of personal data 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, or aggregating data;
(3) fundamental research on technologies that promote data
minimization principles in data collection, sharing, and
analytics; and
(4) research awards on privacy enhancing technologies
coordinated with other relevant Federal agencies and programs.
SEC. 4. 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 to read as
follows:
``(D) privacy enhancing technologies and
confidentiality;''.
SEC. 5. COORDINATION WITH THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND
TECHNOLOGY AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS.
(a) 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, and the Federal Trade
Commission to accelerate the development and use of privacy enhancing
technologies.
(b) Outreach.--The Director of the National Institute of Standards
and Technology shall conduct outreach to--
(1) receive input from private, public, and academic
stakeholders, including the National Institutes of Health and
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for the purpose
of facilitating public health research, on the development of
privacy enhancing technologies; and
(2) develop ongoing public and private sector engagement to
create and disseminate voluntary, consensus-based resources to
increase the integration of privacy enhancing technologies in
data collection, sharing, and analytics by the public and
private sectors.
SEC. 6. REPORT ON RESEARCH AND STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT.
Not later than 2 years after the date of 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 and the Director of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, 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--
(1) the progress of research on privacy enhancing
technologies;
(2) the progress of the development of voluntary resources
described under section 5(b)(2); and
(3) any policy recommendations of the Directors that could
facilitate and improve communication and coordination between
the private sector, the National Science Foundation, and
relevant Federal agencies through the implementation of privacy
enhancing technologies.
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