FBI Exempts Massive Database from Privacy Act Protections

Epic.org
Oct 15, 2012

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has exempted the FBI Data Warehouse System, from important Privacy Act safeguards.

The database ingests troves of personally identifiable information including race, birthdate, biometric information, social security numbers, and financial information from various government agencies.

The database contains information on a surprisingly broad category of individuals, including “subjects, suspects, victims, witnesses, complainants, informants, sources, bystanders, law enforcement personnel, intelligence personnel, other responders, administrative personnel, consultants, relatives, and associates who may be relevant to the investigation or intelligence operation; individuals who are identified in open source information or commercial databases, or who are associated, related, or have a nexus to the FBI’s missions; individuals whose information is collected and maintained for information system user auditing and security purposes.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has exempted these records from the notification, access, and amendment provisions of the Privacy Act.

Earlier this year, EPIC opposedthe Automated Targeting System, another massive government database that the Department of Homeland Security exempted from Privacy Act provisions.

For more information, see EPIC: The Privacy Act of 1974 and EPIC: Automated Targeting System.

This article was posted: Monday, October 15, 2012 at 7:35 am

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