Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

WPF asks Office of Management and Budget to re-evaluate plan to request social media account information on entry/exit forms; requests pilot study

The World Privacy Forum filed comments today with the US Office of Management and Budget regarding a US Customs and Border Protection agency proposal to request social media account information from arriving and departing travelers on entry/exit forms. Earlier this year, WPF wrote comments to CBP directly and urged the agency to drop its proposal to request social media profile information from travelers on these key entry/exit forms due to procedural and policy concerns.

WPF files comments on federal information handling to the Office of Management and Budget

The World Privacy Forum filed comments today on the Office of Management and Budget’s proposed revision to a document that advises Federal agencies on how to handle the information they store. The document, OMB Circular A-130, Managing Information as a Strategic Resource, establishes policies for the management of federal information resources, including information the US holds

WPF Report – Data Brokers and the Federal Government: A New Front in the Battle for Privacy Opens, Part III in a series

This report focuses on government use of commercial data brokers, the implications for that usage, and what needs to be done to address privacy problems. The government must bring itself fully to heel in the area of privacy. If it is going to outsource its data needs to commercial data brokers, it needs to attach the privacy standards it would have been held to if it had collected the data itself. Outsourcing is not an excuse for evading privacy obligations. Report authors: Bob Gellman and Pam Dixon.

Data Brokers and the Federal Government: A New Front in the Battle for Privacy Opens | Introduction and Background

The US federal government uses commercial data brokers [1] extensively for a wide variety of governmental activities. It is unquestioned that the government provides considerable revenue to commercial data brokers. How much? A reasonable and conservative estimate is that the number ranges in the billions of dollars. Over the course of the last 20 years, the extent of the relationship has become clear through a series of detailed investigations and scholarly research. For background purposes, we reference a leading study and discuss a newer use. This report does not seek to reinvestigate and re-document known uses.

Data Brokers and the Federal Government: A New Front in the Battle for Privacy Opens | Recommendations

Recommendations for the Office of Management and Budget:

OMB should establish privacy standards that are at least a good as those in and recommended for the Do Not Pay Initiative to cover all government purchases of commercial databases with personal information. OMB should consider accomplishing an expansion by establishing a task force that includes representatives of consumer and privacy groups.