I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4528 
To preempt State data security vulnerability mandates and decryption 
requirements. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 10, 2016 
Mr. TED LIEU of California (for himself, Mr. FARENTHOLD, Ms. DELBENE, 
and Mr. BISHOP of Michigan) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To preempt State data security vulnerability mandates and 
decryption requirements. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ensuring National 
Constitutional Rights for Your Private Telecommuni-
cations Act of 2016’’ or the ‘‘ENCRYPT Act of 2016’’. 
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SEC. 2. PREEMPTION OF STATE DATA SECURITY VULNER-
ABILITY MANDATES AND DECRYPTION RE-
QUIREMENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—A State or political subdivision of 
a State may not— 
(1) mandate or request that a manufacturer, 
developer, seller, or provider of covered products or 
services— 
(A) design or alter the security functions 
in its product or service to allow the surveil-
lance of any user of such product or service, or 
to allow the physical search of such product, by 
any agency or instrumentality of a State, a po-
litical subdivision of a State, or the United 
States; or 
(B) have the ability to decrypt or otherwise 
render intelligible information that is encrypted 
or otherwise rendered unintelligible using its 
product or service; or 
(2) prohibit the manufacture, sale or lease, of-
fering for sale or lease, or provision to the general 
public of a covered product or service because such 
product or service uses encryption or a similar secu-
rity function. 
(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
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(1) COVERED
PRODUCT
OR
SERVICE.—The 
term ‘‘covered product or service’’ means any com-
puter hardware, computer software, electronic de-
vice, or online service that— 
(A) has traveled in interstate or foreign 
commerce or otherwise affects interstate or for-
eign commerce; and 
(B) is made available to the general public. 
(2) ONLINE SERVICE.—The term ‘‘online serv-
ice’’ means a service provided over the Internet that 
makes available to users— 
(A) the ability to send or receive commu-
nications, such as emails, text messages, 
photos, and audio and video communications; 
(B) the ability to share data files with 
other users; or 
(C) remote computer processing or storage. 
(3) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 
the several States, the District of Columbia, each 
commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United 
States, and each federally recognized Indian tribe. 
Æ 
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