Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Oct 26 2016

New proposed Privacy Act guidance: Federal Agency Responsibilities for Review, Reporting, and Publication under the Privacy Act

The World Privacy Forum submitted comments today on an important proposal from the US Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget regarding a circular directing agencies how to write, post, review, and generally handle Privacy Act notices. The proposal, called Circular A-108 Federal Agency Responsibilities for Review, Reporting, and Publication under the

Sep 29 2016

WPF asks Office of Management and Budget to re-evaluate plan to request social media account information on entry/exit forms; requests pilot study

The World Privacy Forum filed comments today with the US Office of Management and Budget regarding a US Customs and Border Protection agency proposal to request social media account information from arriving and departing travelers on entry/exit forms. Earlier this year, WPF wrote comments to CBP directly and urged the agency to drop its proposal to request social media profile information from travelers on these key entry/exit forms due to procedural and policy concerns.

Nov 17 2015

WPF files comments on federal information handling to the Office of Management and Budget

The World Privacy Forum filed comments today on the Office of Management and Budget’s proposed revision to a document that advises Federal agencies on how to handle the information they store. The document, OMB Circular A-130, Managing Information as a Strategic Resource, establishes policies for the management of federal information resources, including information the US holds

Oct 30 2013

WPF Report – Data Brokers and the Federal Government: A New Front in the Battle for Privacy Opens, Part III in a series

This report focuses on government use of commercial data brokers, the implications for that usage, and what needs to be done to address privacy problems. The government must bring itself fully to heel in the area of privacy. If it is going to outsource its data needs to commercial data brokers, it needs to attach the privacy standards it would have been held to if it had collected the data itself. Outsourcing is not an excuse for evading privacy obligations. Report authors: Bob Gellman and Pam Dixon.

Oct 30 2013

Data Brokers and the Federal Government: A New Front in the Battle for Privacy Opens | Introduction and Background

The US federal government uses commercial data brokers [1] extensively for a wide variety of governmental activities. It is unquestioned that the government provides considerable revenue to commercial data brokers. How much? A reasonable and conservative estimate is that the number ranges in the billions of dollars. Over the course of the last 20 years, the extent of the relationship has become clear through a series of detailed investigations and scholarly research. For background purposes, we reference a leading study and discuss a newer use. This report does not seek to reinvestigate and re-document known uses.

National IDs Around the World — Interactive map

About this Data Visualization: This interactive map displays the presence...
Report: From the Filing Cabinet to the Cloud: Updating the Privacy Act of 1974

This comprehensive report and proposed bill text is focused on the Privacy Act of 1974, an important and early Federal privacy law that applies to the government sector and some contractors. The Privacy Act was written for the 1970s information era -- an era that was characterized by the use of mainframe computers and filing cabinets. Today's digital information era looks much different than the '70s: smart phones are smarter than the old mainframes, and documents are now routinely digitized and stored and perhaps even analyzed in the cloud, among many other changes. The report focuses on why the Privacy Act needs an update that will bring it into this century, and how that could look and work. This work was written by Robert Gellman, and informed by a two-year multi-stakeholder process.
COVID-19 and HIPAA: HHS’s Troubled Approach to Waiving Privacy and Security Rules for the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic strained the U.S. health ecosystem in numerous ways, including putting pressure on the HIPAA privacy and security rules. The Department of Health and Human Services adjusted the privacy and security rules for the pandemic through the use of statutory and administrative HIPAA waivers. While some of the adjustments are appropriate for the emergency circumstances, there are also some meaningful and potentially unwelcome privacy and security consequences. At an appropriate time, the use of HIPAA waivers as a response to health care emergencies needs a thorough review. This report sets out the facts, identifies the issues, and proposes a roadmap for change.