Published: March 2015
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was passed in 1966 and became effective July 4, 1967, and the Privacy Act was passed in 1974 and became effective September 25, 1975. Both Acts were passed as a result of hearings on the abuse of power and information. However, the Privacy Act was particularly inspired by not only the abuses of power and information from the collection of information on American citizens but also the Watergate scandal and the rising growth of the use of computers to store information on the public. While at first glance the FOIA and the Privacy Act seem quite similar, there are in fact distinct and important differences in their objectives. Click here to read the accompanying article.
- Attorney-Work Product Privilege
- Attorney-Client Privilege
- Deliberative Process Privilege
- Presidential Communications Privilege
- Denial or procedural matters.
- Option for immediate judicial review in timeliness cases.
- Attorney fees and litigation costs.
- Civil and criminal penalties.
- Requesters can appeal the adequacy of search, no record responses, fees, full, or partial denial of information.
- Requesters can appeal adverse determinations.
- Can seek amendment of “factual” information (not opinions).
- Reasonable description of records being sought
- Acknowledge the request with an acknowledgement letter
- Conduct a reasonable search for responsive records.
- First party of authorized representative
- Disclosure pursuant to a published routine use.
- Conduct line by line review.
- Properly published exemptions, except (d)(5) which is self-executing.
- Records must be exempt under one of the 9 exemptions and/or be shown to cause harm to the agency, if released to be withheld.
- Withhold segregable portions of otherwise releasable documents.
- Records must contain both a Privacy Act exemption and a FOIA exemption to be withheld.