Privacy Act of 1974

Privacy Act of 1974

Long title	An Act to amend title 5, United States Code, by adding a section 552a, to safeguard individual privacy from the misuse of Federal records, to provide that individuals be granted access to records concerning them which are maintained by Federal agencies, to establish a Privacy Protection Study Commission, and for other purposes.
Enacted by	the 93rd United States Congress
Effective	December 31, 1974
Citations
Public law	93-579
Statutes at Large	88 Stat. 1896
Codification
Acts amended	Freedom of Information Act
Titles amended	5 U.S.C.: Government Organization and Employees
U.S.C. sections created	5 U.S.C. ch. 5 § 552a
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 3418 by Samuel Ervin Jr. (D–NC) on May 1, 1974 Committee consideration by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Passed the Senate on November 21, 1974 (74-9) Passed the House on December 11, 1974 (passed, provisions of H.R. 16373) with amendment Senate agreed to House amendment on December 17, 1974 (77-8) with further amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on December 18, 1974 (agreed) Signed into law by President Gerald R. Ford on December 31, 1974

The Privacy Act of 1974 (Pub.L. 93–579, 88 Stat. 1896, enacted December 31, 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a), a United States federal law, establishes a Code of Fair Information Practice that governs the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information about individuals that is maintained in systems of records by federal agencies. A system of records is a group of records under the control of an agency from which information is retrieved by the name of the individual or by some identifier assigned to the individual. The Privacy Act requires that agencies give the public notice of their systems of records by publication in the Federal Register. The Privacy Act prohibits the disclosure of information from a system of records absent the written consent of the subject individual, uunless the disclosure is pursuant to one of twelve statutory exceptions. The Act also provides individuals with a means by which to seek access to and amendment of their records, and sets forth various agency record-keeping requirements. Additionally, with people granted the right to review what was documented on their irname, they are also able to find out if the "records have been disclosed".. and are also given the rights to make corrections.

The Privacy Act states in part:

There are specific exceptions for the record allowing the use of personal records:

The Privacy Act mandates that each United States Government agency have in place an administrative and physical security system to prevent the unauthorized release of personal records.

To protect the privacy and liberty rights of individuals, federal agencies must state "the authority (whether granted by statute, or by Executive order of the President) which authorizes the solicitation of the information and whether disclosure of such information is mandatory or voluntary" when requesting information. (5 U.S.C. § 552e) This notice is common on almost all federal government forms which seek to gather information from individuals, many of which seek personal and confidential details.

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