Protection of Civilians

• The Privacy Act protects United States citizens from having their records be transferred in any means to any other person without their prior written consent. The Privacy Act only applies to personal records held by a government agency.
  
  

Exceptions

• Certain government organizations can access parts of an individual's records for statistical purposes. Examples of this include the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Congress can also acquire records as part of any investigation it undertakes.
  
  

Personal Access to Records

• Any individual citizen has the right under the Privacy Act to access his own personal information and to request that changes be made if it is inaccurate.
  
  

Amendments

• A 1988 amendment requires agencies to create data integrity boards that monitor the use of matching software when using automated records searches. Further, in 2007, the United States Department of Homeland Security was exempted from the Privacy Act.