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Privacy Act Issuances: About

According to the Privacy Act of 1974, the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) must biennially compile and publish (1) descriptions of system of records maintained on individuals by Federal agencies which were published in the Federal Register; and (2) rules of each agency which set out the procedures that agencies will follow in helping individuals who request information about their records. In addition, the Privacy Act of 1974 requires OFR to publish the compilation in a form available to the public at a low cost.

The Act provides safeguards against unwarranted invasions of privacy through the misuse of records by Federal agencies by restricting disclosure of personally identifiable records maintained by agencies; granting individuals increased rights of access to records maintained about them; granting individuals the right to seek amendment of records maintained about them upon a showing that the records are not accurate, relevant, timely or complete; and establishing a code of "fair information practices" which requires agencies to comply with statutory norms for collection, maintenance, use and dissemination of records.

The Privacy Act Compilation was published first published in 1976. From 1976 through 1979, the Compilation was published in five volumes and sold by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). After 1979, the Compilation was still published in five volumes, which were made available to Federal depository libraries nationwide.

Since 1995, the Privacy Act Compilations have been published online via GPO Access. Documents are available as ASCII text files. The categories of documents in this database are individual Privacy Act system descriptions and agency record keeping policies and practices. Meanwhile, there are two sources of Privacy Act Notices: the Privacy Act Issuances (Compilations 1995-Forward) and the Federal Register which has updates to the most recent Compilation.

Related publications available from GPO include: