The Department's Privacy Office is staffed by the Chief Privacy Officer and Privacy Analysts. Our main objective and purpose is to safeguard Personally Identifiable Information (PII); We have an obligation under the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, to protect the privacy of individuals from whom we collect personal information.

The USDA Privacy Policy statement is very clear, we collect PII with your consent.

	Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act (PA) Requests are handled by USDA's FOIA Office. (Please click here to be redirected to FOIA/PA webpage)

Privacy Council

To fulfill its Privacy responsibilities, USDA has assembled a Privacy Council comprising of a Senior Agency Official for Privacy (SAOP), USDA Chief Privacy Officer (CPO), USDA Privacy Act Officer (PAO), and Agency Privacy Officers (APOs). Privacy Council meetings are facilitated by the CPO and their staff.  This group will be responsible for developing and ensuring compliance of a comprehensive, Department-wide privacy program.   Click here for members (login required).

Resources

Please note: To view the following resources, login is required.

• Privacy Threshold Analysis (PTA) Template Guidance
• Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) Template Guidance
  • Privacy Review Checklist
• System of Record Notice (SORN) Template Guidance
  • SORN Checklist
• Computer Matching Agreement (CMA) Template Guidance
  • CMA Checklist

	Additional resources, workshops, and materials for Privacy Office (Login required)

	HOTLINE NUMBER FOR PII INCIDENTS: 1-877 PII 2YOU (1-877-744-2968)

Laws, Regulations, Standards, Requirements, and Policies:

• Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 and (PDF 667KB)
• E-Gov Act of 2002 (PDF 308KB)
• Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (PDF 34KB)
• FISMA Reporting Instructions for Agency Privacy Management (PDF 246KB)
• OCIO Policy and Directives Policies
• OMB Circular A-130, Appendix I (marked) (PDF 445KB)
• OMB M-03-22, OMB Guidance for Implementing the Privacy Provisions of the E-Government Act of 2002
• OMB Memo M-05-08, Designation Senior Agency Officials for Privacy (SAOP) (PDF 31KB)
• OMB Memo M-17-12, Preparing for and Responding to a Breach of Personally Identifiable Information (PDF 26.5MB)
• OMB Instructions for Complying with the President’s Memorandum of May 14, 1998, “Privacy and Personal Information in Federal Records
• Paper Reduction Act of 1995
• Privacy Act of 1974
• Physical Transport Double Wrap Procedures (PDF  227KB)
• Section 1619 of the 2008 Farm Bill (PDF 18KB)
• USDA Computer Matching Agreement (CMA) Report:
  • Computer Matching Act Report to Congress - 2017
• USDA electronic information systems Computer Matching Agreements (CMA):

  • Computer Matching Agreement Between Food Nutrition Service (FNS) and State Agencies Administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

• USDA electronic information systems Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA)
• USDA electronic information systems System of Record Notice (SORN)