J.D. Bean
Proposed Amendment to the Privacy Act: The Privacy Act Modernization for the Information Age Act of 2011
– Introduced October 18th, 2011 by Senator Daniel K. Akaka chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia
– Available At: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s1732is/pdf/BILLS-112s1732is.pdf
– More Info At: http://akaka.senate.gov/press-releases.cfm?method=releases.view&id=b5750831-557f-452d-a96d-b98dc967de57
– Relevance: The amended act would overturn Doe v. Chao, update definitions and language to better correspond with modern IT techniques/concepts, codify the OMB definition of “personally identifiable information”, and extend the enhanced authority to investigate privacy act violations currently enjoyed by the Department of Homeland Security’s Chief Privacy Officer to additional agency CPOs. The act would stregthen civil and criminal remedies for Privacy act violations and updates both exceptions for agency notice of disclosure requirements and the requirements to agency publication of notices of systems of records.