Subpart B—The Privacy Act

 §401.30 Privacy Act responsibilities.

(a) Policy. Our policy is to protect the privacy of individuals to the fullest extent possible while nonetheless permitting the exchange of records required to fulfill our administrative and program responsibilities, and responsibilities for disclosing records which the general public is entitled to have under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552, and 20 CFR part 402.

(b) Maintenance of records. We will maintain no record unless:

(1) It is relevant and necessary to accomplish an SSA function which is required to be accomplished by statute or Executive Order;

(2) We obtain the information in the record, as much as it is practicable, from the subject individual if we may use the record to determine an individual's rights, benefits or privileges under Federal programs;

(3) We inform the individual providing the record to us of the authority for our asking him or her to provide the record (including whether providing the record is mandatory or voluntary, the principal purpose for maintaining the record, the routine uses for the record, and what effect his or her refusal to provide the record may have on him or her). Further, the individual agrees to provide the record, if the individual is not required by statute or Executive Order to do so.

(c) First Amendment rights. We will keep no record which describes how an individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment unless we are expressly authorized:

(1) By statute,

(2) By the subject individual, or

(3) Unless pertinent to and within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity.