Privacy Act of 1974

On January 25, 2017, President Trump signed a new Executive Order on Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the U.S.  Among other elements, the Executive Order directs U.S. government agencies to “ensure that their privacy policies exclude persons who are not United States citizens or lawful permanent residents from the protections of the Privacy Act regarding personally identifiable information,” but only if doing so is “consistent with applicable law.”

This prompted certain commentators, such as Member of the European Parliament Jan-Philipp Albrecht, to question whether the Executive Order would have an impact on the robustness of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield data transfer framework
Continue Reading European Commission Dismisses Privacy Shield Concerns Over Trump Executive Order

Yesterday, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management held a hearing to consider updates to the Privacy Act of 1974.  The Privacy Act of 1974 governs federal government agencies’ collection, use, and transfer of individuals’ personal information.  In general, the Act limits federal agencies’ disclosure of such information