I 
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 fol-
lowing 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 Representa-
tives 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 consulta-
tion with the heads of other relevant Federal agencies (as 
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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 in-
dividual privacy when collecting, storing, sharing, 
analyzing, or aggregating data. 
(3) Fundamental research on technologies that 
promote data minimization in data collection, shar-
ing, and analytics that takes into account the trade- 
offs between the data minimization goals and the in-
formational goals of data collection. 
(4) Research awards on privacy enhancing tech-
nologies coordinated with other relevant Federal 
agencies and programs. 
(5) Supporting education and workforce train-
ing research and development activities, including re- 
training and upskilling of the existing workforce, to 
increase the number of privacy enhancing technology 
researchers and practitioners. 
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(6) Multidisciplinary socio-technical research 
that fosters broader understanding of privacy pref-
erences, requirements, and human behavior to in-
form the design and adoption of effective privacy so-
lutions. 
(7) Development of freely available privacy en-
hancing 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 pro-
tections, and the trade-offs between privacy and util-
ity required for the deployment of such technologies. 
(b) INTEGRATION INTO THE COMPUTER AND NET-
WORK SECURITY PROGRAM.—Subparagraph (D) of sec-
tion 4(a)(1) of the Cyber Security Research and Develop-
ment Act (15 U.S.C. 7403(a)(1)(D)) is amended by in-
serting ‘‘, including privacy enhancing technologies’’ be-
fore the semicolon. 
(c) COORDINATION WITH THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE 
OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY AND OTHER STAKE-
HOLDERS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of 
Science and Technology Policy, acting through the 
Networking and Information Technology Research 
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Science and Technology Policy, acting through the Net-
working and Information Technology Research and Devel-
opment 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 Transpor-
tation 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 Rep-
resentatives, and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Jus-
tice, 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 enhanc-
ing technologies. 
(2) The progress of the development of vol-
untary 
resources 
described 
under 
subsection 
(c)(2)(B). 
(3) Any policy recommendations that could fa-
cilitate and improve communication and coordination 
between the private sector and relevant Federal 
agencies for the implementation and adoption of pri-
vacy enhancing technologies. 
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(e) PROTECTING PERSONAL IDENTIFYING INFORMA-
TION.—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, manage-
ability, disassociability, and confidentiality; and 
(2) may include— 
(A) cryptographic techniques for facili-
tating computation or analysis on data while 
mitigating privacy risks; 
(B) techniques for— 
(i) publicly sharing data without ena-
bling 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 
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(C) any other technology or approach that 
reduces the risk of re-identification, including 
when combined with other information. 
Æ 
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