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5 U.S.C. §552a
Privacy Act of 1974
Privacy Act of 1974: United States
Prepared by Shubhank Suman · Last reviewed
CURRENT
- Legal character
- Federal statute
- Region
- North America
What it covers
The Act regulates:
- collection
- maintenance
- use
- disclosure
- access
- correction/amendment
- agency safeguards
- matching programmes
- civil remedies
- certain exemptions.
Why it matters
It is one of the foundational federal information-privacy statutes in the United States and remains particularly important for government AI/data systems.
Refer to it when
- A federal agency holds personal records
- determining whether information is part of a system of records
- accessing/amending federal records
- analysing disclosure
- studying federal data matching
- government algorithmic systems.
AI, privacy and cybersecurity relevance
- AI: Moderate
- Privacy: Very High
- Cyber: High
AI
MODERATE / INDIRECT
The statute predates AI but can become relevant to:
- federal AI systems
- algorithmic matching
- automated government decision systems
- datasets contained in systems of records.
It does not constitute a general federal AI statute.
Cybersecurity
HIGH
The safeguards requirement under §552a(e)(10) is particularly important.
Applicability
Federal agencies and covered federal systems of records.
Current validity
CURRENT FEDERAL LAW.
Read first
§552a(a) → (b) → (c) → (d) → (e) → (g) → (o)–(p).
Provisions / sections covered
§552a(a)
Definitions.
§552a(b)
General conditions of disclosure.
The section generally restricts disclosure of records without consent except for specified statutory exceptions.
§552a(c)
Accounting of disclosures.
§552a(d)
Access and amendment rights.
§552a(e)
Agency obligations.
Particularly important for:
- accuracy
- relevance
- collection
- safeguards
- transparency.
§552a(e)(10)
Requires administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect records.
§552a(g)
Civil remedies.
§§552a(o)–(p)
Government computer-matching programmes and related procedural safeguards.
CRITICAL SCOPE POINT
This is not a general US consumer privacy law.
It governs federal-agency records in systems of records.
That distinction should be extremely prominent in the PrivacyLawHub card.
Subject-matter tags
- Consent
- Data subject rights
- Government data
- Transparency
Subject-matter tags describe what the indexed text discusses. They are not legal conclusions.
Document page in the Knowledge Base - full text or PDF where it is available for this record.
This library locates primary and official sources. It does not interpret the law and it is not legal advice.