State of Federal Privacy and Data Security Law: Lagging Behind the Times?

Testimony Before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

By Peter Swire | July 31, 2012

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SOURCE: Center for American Progress

CAP Senior Fellow Peter Swire testifies before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia. Read the testimony (CAP Action)

Chairman Akaka, Ranking Member Johnson, and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify on “State of Federal Privacy and Data Security Law: Lagging Behind the Times?”

I am the C. William O’Neill professor of law at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University. In 1999 I was named chief counselor for privacy in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. In that role, I was the first—and thus far the only—person to have governmentwide responsibility for privacy policy. As chief counselor for privacy, I worked extensively with the Privacy Act of 1974, helped institutionalize the practice of Privacy Impact Assessments for federal systems, and addressed many other privacy and cybersecurity issues affecting federal agencies. Since then I have continued to write and speak extensively on privacy and security issues.

For this testimony, committee staff requested that I address a range of issues concerning federal agency privacy and data practices. As the other testimony for this hearing demonstrates, there are many different privacy-related challenges facing federal agencies today.

CAP Senior Fellow Peter Swire testifies before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia. Read the testimony (CAP Action)