The Digital Privacy and Encryption Protection Act

Art. 1.

1. Definition of Covered Products: For the purposes of this Act, "Covered Products" includes any consumer electronic device, computer hardware, operating system, software application, or digital service designed to store or transmit data, regardless of whether it is provided for a fee or free of charge.

2. Prohibition on Mandated Weaknesses: No federal or state agency shall mandate, coerce, or request that a manufacturer or developer of Covered Products design or alter the security functions of its product to allow third-party surveillance (commonly known as "backdoors").

3. Right to End-to-End Encryption (E2EE): The provision of E2EE services, where the provider does not possess the decryption keys, is explicitly protected. It is prohibited to compel a provider to implement "Key Escrow" or any mechanism that would grant third-party access to private keys.

4. Vulnerability Equities Process:

a) A Vulnerability Review Board (VRB) is hereby established under the oversight of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

b) Composition & Appointment: The VRB shall consist of 5 members: 1 representative from the Intelligence Community (as defined in 50 U.S.C. § 3003(4)), 1 from Law Enforcement, and 3 independent civilian experts in cryptography appointed jointly by the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader. To prevent conflicts of interest, civilian members must not have held employment or financial ties with government defense contractors for at least 5 years prior to appointment.

c) Mandate: Government agencies discovering non-public vulnerabilities ("Zero-Days") must submit them to the VRB. The VRB shall presume a bias towards immediate disclosure to the vendor. Withholding a vulnerability requires a unanimous vote.

Art. 2.

1. Definition: "Client-Side Scanning" (CSS) refers to any system that analyzes the content of a user's digital communication (text, images, video) on the user's local device prior to encryption or transmission, for the purpose of matching against a database of prohibited content.

2. Strict Prohibition: The mandate or deployment of CSS by government decree is prohibited. Such measures constitute a general warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

3. Anti-Circumvention: It is prohibited to use "Upload Filters" or "Hash Matching" on private, non-public messaging services to bypass the protections of End-to-End Encryption.

Art. 3.

1. Prohibition on Coerced Signing: No court or agency may compel a software developer to write code that undermines the security of their own software. Furthermore, it is strictly prohibited to compel any entity to use their private cryptographic keys to sign code, updates, or certificates that they did not authorize or that contain government-mandated vulnerabilities.

2. Open Source Liability Shield: The publication of cryptographic source code is protected speech. No civil or criminal liability shall attach to the authors of open-source security tools for the misuse of their software by third parties.

Art. 4.

1. Inadmissibility of Evidence: Any evidence obtained through the compelled weakening of encryption, backdoor access, or unlawful Client-Side Scanning shall be inadmissible in any court of law.

2. Officer Liability & Override: Any government official who knowingly orders the implementation of a backdoor or CSS system in violation of this Act shall be subject to expedited disciplinary action resulting in termination and a permanent ban from federal service.

a) Statutory Override: Notwithstanding any other provision of law, including civil service protections under Title 5 of the U.S. Code, ordinary appeal procedures shall not apply to officials found guilty of violating this Act, provided minimum Due Process rights are respected.

b) Criminal Penalty: Willful violation constitutes a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison.

3. Civil Remedy: Users whose devices have been subjected to unlawful scanning or surveillance have the right to sue the government agency for statutory damages.

Art. 5.

1. Compliance Audit: Within 6 months of enactment, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shall conduct a classified audit of all federal agencies to identify existing programs that violate Art. 1 or Art. 2 of this Act.

2. Remediation Period: Agencies found to be in violation shall have a strictly limited period of 6 months following the audit (Total: 12 months from enactment) to dismantle unlawful surveillance systems and patch mandated vulnerabilities.

3. Immediate Evidentiary Application: Notwithstanding the remediation period, the exclusionary rule (Art. 4.1) applies immediately upon enactment to all pending and future judicial proceedings. No evidence derived from prohibited surveillance methods may be used in court from this day forward.

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM (EXPOSÉ)

1. THE PROBLEM

Governments often argue for "backdoors" to catch criminals. However, mathematical reality dictates that a vulnerability created for law enforcement will inevitably be exploited by foreign adversaries, putting the entire nation's digital infrastructure at risk.

2. THE OBJECTIVE

This Act protects the digital infrastructure of the nation. It codifies the reality that secure systems cannot coexist with mandated weaknesses. By banning CSS and establishing a civilian-controlled Vulnerability Review Board, we ensure that citizens and critical infrastructure (banking, power grids) remain secure.

3. FINANCIAL & COMPETITIVENESS IMPACT

Global Competitiveness: If U.S. technology products are known to contain government-mandated backdoors, international customers will turn to competitors. By legally guaranteeing the integrity of American encryption, this Act safeguards the dominance of the U.S. technology sector.
Funding Estimate: The operational cost of the Vulnerability Review Board (VRB) is estimated at less than $10 million annually. This amount shall be covered by a Specific Congressional Authorization, representing a negligible fraction of the federal cybersecurity budget while yielding immense value in critical infrastructure protection.