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1992-10-22
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A COMPARISON OF THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
AND THE PRIVACY ACT
** What is the relationship between FIOA and the Privacy Act?
Although the two laws were enacted for different purposes,
there is some similarity in their provisions. Both the FIOA
and the Privacy Act give people the right of access to
records held by agencies of the federal government. The
FIOA's access rights are given to "any person," but the
Privacy Act's access rights are only for the individual who
is the subject of the records sought. The FIOA applies to all
records of federal agencies; the Privacy Act applies only to
federal agency records in "systems of records" which contain
information about an individual that can be retrieved by the
use of a name or personal identifier. Each law has a somewhat
different set of fees, time limits, and exemptions from its
rights of access. If you request records about yourself under
both laws, federal agencies may withhold the records from
you only to the extent the records are exempt under both
laws.
If the information you want pertains to the activities of
federal agencies or another person, you should make your
request under the FIOA, which covers all agency records. If
the information you want is about yourself and you wish to
avoid possible search fees, you should make the request under
the Privacy Act, which covers most records of agencies that
pertain to individuals. Sometimes you can use the FIOA to
help you get records about yourself that are not in a Privacy
Act "record system." However, if the records you seek are
covered only by the FIOA, you must "reasonably describe" them
and you may be charged search fees. If you are in doubt about
which law applies or would better suit your needs, you may
refer to both in your request letter.
** Can I request information about other people?
The FOIA contains a very important provision concerning
personal privacy: Exemption 6. It protects you from others
who may seek information about you, but it also may block you
if you seek information about others. FOIA Exemption 6
permits an agency to withhold information about individuals
if disclosing it would be a "clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy." This includes, for example, almost all of
the information in medical files and much of the information
in personnel files.
The FOIA's Exemption 6 cannot be used to deny you access to
information about yourself,only to deny you information about
other persons. To be covered by Exemption 6, the information
requested must be (1) about an identifiable individual, (2)
an invasion of the individual's privacy if disclosed to
others, and (3) "clearly unwarranted" to disclose. Release of
information about an individual is considered an invasion of
privacy if he or she could reasonably object because of its
personal nature or its possible adverse effects upon himself
or herself or family. But such information is not protected
by Exemption 6 if the injury to the individual is outweighed
by a public interest favoring disclosure. For example, home
addresses are generally exempt from release for unspecified
or random uses as commercial solicitation, but are not exempt
from release to state income tax authorities for state law
enforcement. If you were seeking information about a federal
employee's working status, an agency usually would disclose
at least his or her name, grade, salary, job title, and
permanent work location, but an agency will not usually
disclose similar information about an employee of a private
business. However, federal employees do receive some privacy
protection. For example, if you want to see the details of an
investigative report which led to an employee's demotion, an
agency might decide that disclosure of these details is not
justified on public interest grounds. This would be so even
though the information generally would be available to the
demoted employee.
******