Swire testifies on federal privacy laws

Peter Swire

Peter Swire, the C. William O’Neill Professor of Law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, testified before a subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing titled “State of Federal Privacy and Data Security Law: Lagging Behind the Times?” on July 31.

The Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia was interested in Swire’s thoughts on a range of issues pertaining to federal agency privacy and data practices.

Swire made four recommendations to committee members:

1.The Senate should promptly confirm the five nominees for the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

2.Congress should create a federal Chief Privacy Officer by statute to improve coordination of privacy policy across federal agencies.

3.Changes to the E-Government Act would best address an important loophole in the Privacy Act.

4.The oversight process should focus more attention on the line between identified and de-identified data in federal agencies.

For a complete transcript of Swire’s testimony, click here.