The Privacy Act (1974)

This law provides that government agencies must make known to the public their data collection and storage activities and must provide copies of pertinent records to the individual citizen when requested—with some specific exemptions. Those exemptions include law enforcement, congressional investigations, Census use, “archival purposes,” and other administrative purposes. In all, there are 12 statutory exemptions from disclosure requirements. If employees are concerned about employers using their Social

Security numbers in records sent to the government, this act ensures privacy. Although such private information is required by the government, the government is prohibited from releasing it to third parties without proper authorization or court order.  See www.justice.gov/opcl/privstat.htm.