The Privacy Act of 1974 is supposed to provide guardrails for when and how personal data is handled and shared by the U.S. federal government. But did you know federal agencies can disclose your personal information to more people, for more reasons than you may have imagined when you gave it to them? And agencies don’t have to tell you directly, get your consent first, or stop the practice if you object.
The “routine use” exception in the Privacy Act allows agencies to create new reasons why they can share your data with other entities, so long as the reason is “compatible” with the original reason that they collected the data (a complex standard that can be stretched to include many unexpected disclosures). The process for learning about these new or changing routine uses is unwieldy—meaning many Americans may be alarmed to find that their data is being shared for purposes they are not aware of.
In this training, led by Maya Bernstein and moderated by Amy O’Hara, you will learn what this legal loophole is and how federal agencies can use it.
