FOIA & Privacy Act
- Electronic Reading Room
- Freedom of Information Act Program
- Defense Privacy Office / Defense Security Service Notices Table of Contents
- Amendment - Correction Instruction
- DoD FOIA Handbook
***Notice***: On February 2, 2010, a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was signed that detailed actions to be taken to transfer DoD enterprise personnel security IT systems from the Defense Security Service (DSS) to the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC). This transfer was directed by Gordon England, then Deputy Secretary of Defense on January 15, 2009. The IT systems to be transferred include the Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS), the Defense Central Index of Investigations (DCII), the Secure Web Fingerprint Transmission (SWIFT), and the DSS Investigative Records Repository (IRR).
As a result of the above referenced MOA, the DSS Office of FOIA/PA will no longer be processing Federal Agency or Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act (FOIA/PA) requests for records maintained in the IRR, DCII, SWFT, or JPAS. Effective Feb. 28, 2011, all such requests for records should be submitted to the DMDC Office of FOIA/PA at:
Defense Manpower Data Center
ATTN: Privacy Act Office
P.O. Box 168
Boyers, PA 16020-0168
In laymen terms, DSS no longer maintains any personnel security investigative records on DoD employees/DoD contractors. Personnel Security Investigation (PSI) records which were maintained by DSS prior to the transfer of function to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in 2005 have been transferred to DMDC's Investigative Records Repository (IRR). Therefore, individual's seeking these older DSS records or agencies referring such records in response to a FOIA/PA request, should submit their requests directly to DMDC. Individuals seeking background investigative records on themselves, to include SF-86 records, completed by OPM after February 2005, should submit their FOIA/PA request directly to OPM at the address identified below in the FOIA paragraph. Individuals seeking security clearance adjudicative information maintained in the JPAS system should be submitting their request to DMDC. This would include requests for current clearance status, incident reports, and past adjudicative history.
Freedom of Information Office (FOIA)
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (Title 5 United States Code 552, as amended) generally provides that any person has a right, enforceable in court, of access to Federal agency records, except to the extent that such records (or portions thereof) are protected from release/disclosure by one of the nine FOIA exemptions or by one of the three special law enforcement record exclusions. The FOIA website provides policies and procedures for the DSS implementation of the FOIA, complete with electronic links to the types and categories of DSS information available.
Due to the transfer of the personnel security investigations (PSI) function to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on February 20, 2005, any request for copies of investigations completed after February 20, 2005, should be mailed to the Office of Personnel Management at: OPM-FIPC, P.O. BOX 618, 1137 Branchton Road, Boyers, PA 16018-0618.
Privacy Act
The purpose of the Privacy Act (PA) (Title 5 United States Code 552a), is to balance the government's need to maintain information about individuals with the rights of those individuals to be protected against unwarranted invasions of their privacy stemming from Federal agencies' collection, maintenance, use, and disclosure of personal information about them.
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