Privacy Act

Passed in 1974, legislation that restricts the dissemination of personal information by federal agencies and requires that when information is collected, the individual be told of the ways in which the information could be used. The Privacy Act was passed in the wake of the abuse of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records by the administration of President Richard Nixon. The act created checks on the transfer of personal information between agencies. The law provided for 12 exceptions, including one that permits law-enforcement agencies to obtain records without a subpoena and another that allows federal agencies to share any information for routine uses after publishing in the Federal Registry a statement of their intent to release such information.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a companion to the Privacy Act passed in 2000, allows individuals the right to see the contents of files maintained about them by federal executive branch agencies, such as the FBI, the State and Defense departments, and the IRS. Files maintained by Congress, the judicial system, and state governments are not covered by this law, although many states and courts have similar access rules for their files.

Critics of the Privacy Act claim that the law is outof-date and does not allow for modern information-sharing technologies. In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, there have been calls to reduce access to public information, citing the use of FOIA requests by people with links to terrorist groups to obtain blueprints for public buildings and power plants, and other sensitive data.