Over the years, several laws have been put in place to safeguard PII. These include the Privacy Act of 1974, which sets forth requirements for the collection, use, and disclosure of PII by government agencies; the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which applies to medical information gathered by health care providers and insurance companies; the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), which requires financial institutions to take strict steps to safeguard customers' financial information; and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which governs websites that collect information from children under the age of 13.