OMB directs agencies to increase privacy protections

The White House Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday ordered government agencies to significantly increase the protection of citizens' personal information collected during the course of daily business, a move hailed by privacy advocates as the most significant privacy guidance to agencies since the Privacy Act took effect in 1975.

The directive requires federal agencies to conduct "privacy-impact assessments" before deploying information technology systems that use or collect personally identifiable information. The directive also would require agencies to update the assessments whenever new risks arise and report to OMB annually on their electronic privacy activities.

Under the new directive, visitors to federal Web sites will be informed of their privacy rights when they are submitting information voluntarily and be told how to give consent to the use of personal data. Government sites also must disclose what type of information they are collecting and for what purpose.