Opinion ID: 463476
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Accuracy and the Privacy Act.

Text: 19 When confronted with Doe's request that her records be amended, the State Department conducted an investigation and placed Doe's rebuttal in her records. The Department, however, did not determine the truth or falsity of its agent's allegations or Doe's rebuttal. The Department explained that: The State Department did not issue a conclusive determination saying, in so many words, that plaintiff made the statments attributable [sic] to her in the report. However, the State Department did expressly determine that the report met the accuracy requirements of the Privacy Act. Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support of Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (Dec. 20, 1983), Doe v. United States, supra. The district court agreed that the Department's action, under the circumstances, met the requirements of the statute. 20 The Department asserts that it complied with section 552a(e)(5) and (d)'s requirement of accuracy by keeping records that concluded nothing, but merely contained conflicting allegations. The Department argues that the Act does not require perfect accuracy and that its records, inconclusive as they are, satisfy the Act's requirements. We disagree. The Act requires more of the Department than what it did here. 21 We fail to understand how Doe's records can be said to have been maintained with such accuracy ... as is reasonably necessary to assure fairness to the individual, Sec. 552a(e)(5), when all they contain are two sets of conflicting allegations. Because the records in question here do not state anything, but merely contain the contrary allegations of two parties to a conversation, it is beyond cavil that at least one of the statements in the records is false. 22 The legislative history of the Privacy Act makes clear Congress' concern with the dangers attendant in any but the most scrupulous and ethical system of record-keeping. In the Senate Report on S. 3418, the Senate's version of what became the Privacy Act, the Senate stated that an individual should have the right to discover if he is the subject of a government file, to be granted access to it, [and] to be able to ensure the accuracy of it.... S.Rep. No. 93-1183, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 20 (1974), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1974, 6916, 6935 (emphasis added). The Senate also stated that the purpose of the legislation is to promote accountability, responsibility, ... and open government ... with respect to all of [the government's] manual or mechanized files. Id. at 1, U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1974, at 6916. The individual's right to accuracy and the government's corresponding duty of responsibility cannot be vindicated by mere compilation of conflicting reports. 23 To hold otherwise would be to open the files of government wide to unsubstantiated rumors and character assassination of the most damaging sort. The Privacy Act leaves no room for the retention of records that will have a highly damaging effect on individuals--unless, of course, they are accurate. The House Report on the Privacy Act vividly expresses Congress' desire that government be accountable in its record-keeping procedures. The House stated that: 24 George Orwell's famous book 1984, published a generation ago, focused public attention on the fictional fish bowl existence of human life in the Big Brother era and the potential threats to any free system posed by some political-technical-social innovations. 25 During the cold war period of the late 1940s and 1950s, widespread abuses engulfed various governmental and private efforts to ferret out alleged subversives. Intellectual dissent was driven somewhat into hiding. Terms such as security risk, loyalty oaths, pinko, and guilt by association came into common usage.... Indiscriminate use of dubious informers, wiretapping, surveillance, neighborhood snooping, and other flagrant invasions of personal privacy were seen more and more. 26 H.R. Rep. No. 93-1416, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 4-5 (1974). 27 We are not unmindful of the State Department's dilemma, and its efforts to resolve the matter. The State Department's actions here are hardly equivalent to the abuses of the McCarthy era. The intention of the drafters of this statute, however, was to ensure a high degree of integrity in the records and record-keeping procedures of government. The Privacy Act serves as a first line of defense against government irresponsibility. More than just the most flagrant abuses are prohibited. Thus, if the individual's right to be protected from McCarthyesque innuendo in government records is to be vindicated, the government cannot casually file damaging reports with merely a nod in the direction of the protesting individual. Even though the informer who has so harmed Doe's chances of achieving governmental office works for the government itself, we cannot allow the government to rely on his bare assertions without at least affirming that it believes what he has reported. Without this requirement, the sort of unsubstantiated character assassination that the Privacy Act was, in part, designed to guard against would have a foot in the door of government. 28 We agree with the common-sense observation that the Act does not require perfect accuracy. The State Department is correct in pointing out that, ultimately, what transpired in its agent's interview with Doe is unknowable and that no procedure will guarantee perfect accuracy in the records. To err in decision is unfortunately unavoidable even for judges, as well as juries and administrative decision-makers. But these decision-makers have to reach a decision. It will not be easy to decide which of the two reports here is correct. Nor will the process be perfect or error-free. Such a determination, however, is required by the Privacy Act. If the State Department chooses to believe and stand behind its agent's report, it is free to include that report in its files. It is not free, however, to include that report without concluding that it is correct. 29 Our dissenting colleague states that Doe did urge a matter which, if borne out, would have placed her case in a very different posture. She accused the interviewing agent of 'sexual misconduct'.... Dissent at 917. The dissent implies that the Department investigated these charges and determined that they had no bearing on Doe's contention that the agent's interview report was inaccurate. See dissent at 917. This is simply not the case. The State Department's investigation of Doe's allegations of sexual misconduct occurred after it had decided not to amend her records in conformance with her Privacy Act request. The investigation was designed to determine if there was cause to bring sexual misconduct charges against the agent, and it was concluded that no such charges were warranted. The Department did not focus on the question of whether the alleged sexual misconduct, even if not proved to the degree necessary to support any action against the agent, had any impact on the believability of the agent's interview report. For reasons known only to itself, the State Department was not willing to devote the same energy and attention to determine what really transpired at the interview as it was to the question of its agent's alleged sexual misconduct. Despite Doe's specific assertion that the only reason she had come forward with the allegations of sexual improprieties was her desire to vindicate her version of the interview, the Department declined to consider Doe's amendment request in light of the allegations. 30 Nor is the dissent correct to say that Doe did not further pursue those [sexual] misconduct allegations. Dissent at 917. The district court was informed of this aspect of Doe's encounter with the State Department. The Privacy Act requires de novo review in the district court. Had the district court properly conducted such a review, it would have taken Doe's allegations into account in determining the accuracy of the record. This is all Doe wanted to accomplish in coming forward with the allegations. Doe had no responsibility or reason to pursue the charges with an eye toward punitive action against the special agent; that she declined to do so is completely without bearing on her Privacy Act claim. 31 Thus, we would have been much less troubled had the State Department retained the records in question here and opted for the agent's side of the story. The difference between this and what the Department actually did is crucial. We have every confidence that the members of the executive, sworn to uphold the law and faithfully perform their duties, will not affirm that they stand behind the accuracy of a record unless they are in fact convinced that it is accurate. Assuring that only when the government stands behind the material in its files will that material be retained is an important safeguard against abuse and is mandated by the Privacy Act. This standard is far different from merely requiring agencies to act reasonably. The Privacy Act requires that government records themselves be maintained with such accuracy ... as is reasonably necessary, not that government officials must act reasonably. It may be reasonable, as the district court here held, to fill government records with conflicting allegations, but it does not ensure reasonably accurate records. Inaccurate records, not unreasonable procedures per se, are what the Privacy Act was designed to eliminate. 32