My best friend lives in Duval County, and has just undergone an identity theft issue - from what I gather, it's probably due to this leak.
I am undergoing new Federal employee training, and they can't stress the Privacy Act enough. I have seen some stiff penalties for not following the guidelines.
My question - should she press this legally? What options does she have? Am I misreading the Privacy Act? Does it only apply to DoD employees or something like that?
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
This surprised me, I thought the Privacy Act (and FOIA too, for that matter) applied to state and county governments, not just agencies controlled by the Executive branch.
quote: OVERVIEW OF THE PRIVACY ACT OF 1974, 2004 EDITION DEFINITIONS
A. Agency-- "any Executive department, military department, Government corporation, Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of the [federal] Government (including the Executive Office of the President), or any independent regulatory agency." 5 U.S.C. § 552a(1) (incorporating 5 U.S.C. § 552(f) (2000), which in turn incorporates 5 U.S.C. § 551(1) (2000)).
[case references replaced with [...] in the following-Morbo] Comment: The Privacy Act -- like the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 -- applies only to a federal "agency."
Note also that federal entities outside of the executive branch, such as a federal district court, ..., a grand jury,..., a probation office, ..., or a federal bankruptcy court, ...,are not subject to the Act.
http://www.usdoj.gov/04foia/1974definitions.htm#agency States have their own privacy and FOI laws, of course. Not sure if they're applicable to your friend's case. For one thing, the court could enjoy sovereign immunity from most lawsuits, unless a Florida privacy law specifically waives it for cases like this.