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Slide 9 of 25

In 1974 Congress passed the Privacy Act. This law is about data protection, but it only applies to the gathering and use of data by Federal agencies. The Act was based on the Code of Fair Information Practices. Unfortunately, there is no enforcement of the act other within the government structure. Individuals who feel that their rights have been violated by a government agency can sue the agency in court, but, not surprisingly, few choose to do so.

The U.S. is one of the few industrialized countries that does not have a privacy office to oversee the enforcement of government privacy regulations. For example, in Canada citizens who feel that an agency has violated the privacy law can file a complaint with the privacy agency which will then investigate the complaint. This agency also does general auditing of government privacy practices.