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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:
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