digital divide on the following student pop-
ulations: independent students, adults, and 
dependent students. 
‘‘(4) ELECTRONIC FORMAT.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 
produce, distribute, and process common forms 
in electronic format to meet the requirements of 
paragraph (1). The Secretary shall develop 
common electronic forms for applicants who do 
not meet the requirements of subparagraph (C) 
of this paragraph. 
‘‘(B) STATE
DATA.—The Secretary shall 
include on the common electronic forms space 
for information that needs to be submitted from 
the applicant to be eligible for State financial 
assistance, as provided under paragraph (6), ex-
cept the Secretary shall not require applicants 
to complete data required by any State other 
than the applicant’s State of residence. 
‘‘(C) SIMPLIFIED APPLICATIONS: FAFSA ON 
THE WEB.— 
‘‘(i) IN
GENERAL.—The Secretary 
shall develop and use a simplified elec-
tronic application form to be used by appli-
cants meeting the requirements under sub-
section (c) of section 479 and an addi-
tional, separate simplified electronic appli-
cation form to be used by applicants meet-
ing the requirements under subsection (b) 
of section 479. 
‘‘(ii) 
REDUCED
DATA
REQUIRE-
MENTS.—The simplified electronic applica-
tion forms shall permit an applicant to 
submit for financial assistance purposes, 
only the data elements required to make a 
determination of whether the applicant 
meets the requirements under subsection 
(b) or (c) of section 479. 
‘‘(iii) STATE
DATA.—The Secretary 
shall include on the simplified electronic 
application forms such data items as may 
be necessary to award state financial as-
sistance, as provided under paragraph (6), 
except that the Secretary shall not require 
applicants to complete data required by 
any State other than the applicant’s state 
of residence. 
‘‘(iv) 
AVAILABILITY
AND
PROC-
ESSING.—The data collected by means of 
the simplified electronic application forms
shall be available to institutions of higher 
education, guaranty agencies, and States 
in accordance with paragraph (9). 
‘‘(v) TESTING.—The Secretary shall 
conduct appropriate field testing on the 
forms developed under this subparagraph. 
‘‘(D) USE
OF
FORMS.—Nothing in this 
subsection shall be construed to prohibit the use 
of the forms developed by the Secretary pursu-
ant to this paragraph by an eligible institution, 
eligible lender, guaranty agency, State grant 
agency, private computer software provider, a 
consortium thereof, or such other entities as the 
Secretary may designate. 
‘‘(E) PRIVACY.—The Secretary shall en-
sure that data collection under this paragraph 
complies with section 552a of title 5, United 
States Code, and that any entity using the elec-
tronic version of the forms developed by the 
Secretary pursuant to this paragraph shall 
maintain reasonable and appropriate adminis-
trative, technical, and physical safeguards to 
ensure the integrity and confidentiality of the 
information, and to protect against security 
threats, or unauthorized uses or disclosures of
the information provided on the electronic 
version of the forms. Data collected by such 
electronic version of the forms shall be used 
only for the application, award, and administra-
tion of aid awarded under this title, State aid 
awarded under section 415C, or aid awarded by 
eligible institutions or such entities as the Sec-
retary may designate. No data collected by such 
electronic version of the forms shall be used for 
making final aid awards under this title until 
such data have been processed by the Secretary 
or a contractor or designee of the Secretary, ex-
cept as may be permitted under this title. 
‘‘(F) SIGNATURE.—Notwithstanding any 
other provision of this Act, the Secretary may 
permit an electronic form under this paragraph 
to be submitted without a signature, if a signa-
ture is subsequently submitted by the applicant 
or if the applicant uses a personal identification 
number provided by the Secretary under sub-
paragraph (G) of this paragraph. 
‘‘(G) PERSONAL
IDENTIFICATION
NUM-
BERS AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary may assign 
to applicants personal identification numbers—