Privacy Act
The Privacy Act establishes practices governing the collection, maintenance, use and dissemination of information about individuals maintained by federal agencies.
The purpose of the Act is to balance the government's need to maintain information about individuals with the rights of individuals to be protected against unwarranted invasions of their privacy stemming from federal agencies' collection, maintenance, use and disclosure of their personal information.
The Act has four objectives:
Restrict disclosure of personally identifiable information maintained by agencies
Grant individuals the right of access to agency records on them
Grant individuals the right to amend agency records that are not accurate, relevant, timely or complete
Establish a code of "fair information practices" for agencies
