268 PART ThRee • InsTITuTIons oF AmeRIcAn GoveRnmenT
The federal government collects billions of pieces
of information on tens of millions of Americans
each year. These data are stored in files and some-
times are exchanged among agencies. You are
probably the subject of several federal records (for
example, in the Social Security Administration, the
Internal Revenue Service, and, if you are a male,
the Selective Service).Why should you Care? Verifying the infor-
mation that the government has about you can be
important. On several occasions, the records of two
people with similar names have become confused.
Sometimes innocent persons have had the criminal
records of other persons erroneously inserted into
their files. Such disasters are not always caused by
bureaucratic error. One of the most common crimes
in today’s world is “identity theft,” in which one
person makes use of another individual’s personal
identifiers (such as a Social Security number) to
commit fraud. In some instances, identity thieves
have been arrested or even jailed under someone
else’s name.What Can you Do? The 1966 Freedom of
Informa tion Act (FOIA) requires that the federal
government release, at your request, any identi-
fiable information it has about you or about any
other subject. Nine categories of material are
exempted, however (classified material, confiden-
tial material on trade secrets, internal person-
nel rules, personal medical files, and the like). To
request mate rial, write directly to the Freedom of
Information Act officer at the agency in question
(say, the Department of Education). You must have
a relatively specific idea about the document or
information you want to obtain.
A second law, the Privacy Act of 1974, gives
you access specifically to information the govern-making a difference
WhAT The GoveRnmenT knoWs ABouT you
ment may have collected about you. This law allows you
to review records on file with federal agencies and to
check those records for possible inaccuracies.
If you want to look at any records or find out if an
agency has a record on you, write to the agency head or
Privacy Act officer, and address your letter to the specific
agency. State that “under the provisions of the Privacy
Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. 522a, I hereby request a copy of (or
access to) _____.” Then describe the record that you wish
to investigate.
The General Services Administration (GSA) has pub-
lished a citizen’s guide, Your Right to Federal Records,
that explains both the FOIA and the Privacy Act, and how
to go about using them. You can locate this manual by
entering its name into your favorite search engine.These students are accessing their personal records
to see if they are accurate. (AP Photo/LG Patterson)Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
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