Title: Privacy
Description: Approximately 90 percent of all federal background investigations are provided by the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) Federal Investigative Services (FIS) division. In fiscal year 2009, FIS conducted over 2 million investigations of varying types, making the organization a major steward of personal information on U.S. citizens. GAO was asked to (1) describe how OPM uses personally identifiable information (PII) in conducting background investigations and (2) assess the extent to which OPM's privacy policies and procedures for protecting PII related to investigations meet statutory requirements and align with widely accepted privacy practices. To address these objectives, GAO compared OPM and FIS policies and procedures with key privacy laws and widely accepted practices. GAO is recommending that the Director of OPM (1) develop guidance for analyzing and mitigating privacy risks in privacy impact assessments, and (2) develop and implement oversight mechanisms for ensuring that investigators properly protect PII and that customer agencies adhere to agreed-upon privacy protection measures. OPM agreed with our recommendations.
Subjects: Rules and practice, Evaluation, Security clearances, Right of Privacy, Privacy, Government policy, United States. Office of Personnel Management. Federal Investigative Services Division, United States
Places: United States