The FOIA Ombudsman About The FOIA Ombudsman Blog Reconciling FOIA and the Privacy Act October 26, 2012 by US National Archives, posted in definitions and concepts, Ombudsman, Privacy, Requester Roundtable When you request records about yourself from the Federal government, agencies apply both the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act of 1974 (Privacy Act) to grant the most access possible. FOIA and the Privacy Act have different purposes. FOIA provides the public with a right of access to government records while the Privacy Act was created to protect information about individuals from release to others while allowing them to access it. OGIS has written about the basic differences between both laws before, and on October 24, 2012, we partnered with the Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy for our quarterly Requester Roundtable to tackle this topic in person. About 20 requesters and agency FOIA and Privacy Act professionals covered many of the technical provisions of the laws and posed some helpful questions—and answers.
