Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), a member of House Democratic Leadership, announced her effort to reform the Privacy Act of 1974, a 51-year-old law regulating how the federal government collects, maintains, utilizes, and disseminates Americans' personally identifiable information. In a Request for Information issued today, Trahan is requesting input from civil society groups, privacy experts, current and recently terminated government technologists, and concerned members of the public.

“Americans’ right to privacy, enshrined in our Constitution, is being fundamentally challenged. Unaccountable billionaires, inexperienced programmers, and unvetted political appointees are perpetrating the biggest government privacy scandal since Watergate, when President Nixon weaponized his access to people’s personal information to target political opponents ranging from companies to politicians to everyday Americans,” Trahan wrote.

The Privacy Act of 1974 was enacted in response to growing concerns about government surveillance and the misuse of personal information, particularly following the Watergate scandal. The law establishes safeguards for how federal agencies collect, maintain, and disclose personal records. It also grants individuals the right to access and amend their records held by federal agencies and restricts unauthorized disclosure of personal information. The Privacy Act has not been updated since its initial passage more than a half-century ago.

Over the past two months, the Trump administration has allowed Elon Musk and “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)” staff to access Americans’ most sensitive data, including through the Treasury Department’s payment system, federal employee personnel records, student loan borrowers’ information, and disaster victims’ claims for emergency assistance. DOGE staff have even requested access to personal taxpayer data through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). These data breaches have sparked at least eight lawsuits under the Privacy Act, but the Trump administration is actively trying to defeat those lawsuits and continue DOGE’s access to Americans’ personally identifiable information.

“The combination of challenges stemming from unchecked government officials and significant technological advances warrant a reevaluation of the Privacy Act of 1974 and related laws governing privacy and federal information technology,” Trahan concluded.

Answers to Trahan’s Request for Information will inform legislation to update the nation’s privacy laws, starting with the Privacy Act. Responses can be emailed to PrivacyActRFI@mail.house.gov by April 30^th.

Trahan’s effort is supported by a number of former government technologists, civil liberty groups, and privacy experts.

“Reforming the Privacy Act of 1974 is essential. The government collects an incredible amount of personal and sensitive data about Americans, and while agencies can choose to adopt best practices around privacy and security, the federal enterprise lacks appropriate safeguards. The Privacy Act lacks necessary provisions to address modern challenges presented by national-scale data breaches, widespread adoption of AI, and the need for secure cross-agency information sharing. Additionally, it lacks sufficient transparency and accountability mechanisms for how agencies use emerging technologies to collect, store, and analyze personal information. Updating the Privacy Act is crucial to ensuring that it remains effective in safeguarding citizens’ data while enabling responsible and efficient governance,” said Ann Lewis, former Director of Technology Transformation Services at the General Services Administration (GSA). “I thank Rep. Trahan for her leadership in taking an important first step with this RFI.” 

“The federal government collects and stores vast quantities of personal data, much of which is sensitive and which can cause severe harm to people if wrongfully disclosed, improperly accessed, or misused. The Privacy Act serves an essential function – to protect people from these harms. The Act, however, is in desperate need of reform. It is a very old law, passed about 50 years ago, and it must be strengthened to deal with the challenges we face today. Through some misguided interpretations, the Supreme Court has unfortunately weakened the enforcement of the Privacy Act, and the Act also has many soft spots and other problems,” said Daniel J. Solove, Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor of Intellectual Property and Technology Law at George Washington University Law School. “Given the enormity of the privacy threats we face today, the need for a stronger Privacy Act is essential.”

“The Privacy Act was enacted before the advent of the personal computer industry, so it comes as no surprise that there are questions about whether this long standing guardrail should be updated to account for today's uses of data and technology,” said Elizabeth Laird, Director, Equity in Civic Technology at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT). “As the past six weeks have shown, existing privacy protections that oversee the federal government's access to and use of Americans' most sensitive data would benefit from additional scrutiny, so we support a public, transparent inquiry.”

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's systems store troves of information, including sensitive financial information, consumers' complaints about shady businesses, and investigations into companies like X. To get access, I had to undergo rigorous cybersecurity and privacy trainings, document my requests for access, and have those requests approved by my supervisor,” said Erie Meyer, former Chief Technology Officer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). “It isn't clear that DOGE employees have had to do any of that, and yet they were granted a level of blanket access to systems that seemingly no employee in CFPB's history has ever received. To me, it is abundantly clear that Americans‘ privacy rights are being violated. I applaud Rep. Trahan's effort to take a hard look at the Privacy Act, and to address privacy abuses and account for the tremendous risks posed by technologies like artificial intelligence.”

“For fifty years, the Privacy Act has stood as a bulwark against the mishandling and political weaponization of personal information held by federal agencies. But decades of technological change and the current administration's assault on privacy underscore the urgent need to strengthen those defenses,” said John Davisson, Director of Litigation at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). “Rep. Trahan's inquiry into how the Privacy Act should be updated and fortified could not be timelier. EPIC strongly endorses this effort, and we look forward to working together with Rep. Trahan to restore privacy protections and the rule of law to the federal government's safekeeping of personal information.”

“I'm delighted to see the effort by Congresswoman Lori Trahan and her staff to begin the process of revising the Privacy Act of 1974,” said Bob Gellman, former Congressional staffer on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and author of the report, From the Filing Cabinet to the Cloud: Updating the Privacy Act of 1974. “There's been a longstanding need to bring the Act up to date to account for modern approaches to privacy protection, new information technologies, and current information sharing activities.”

“Part of the reason we started We the Builders is because we were so alarmed by incursions into previously well-guarded data systems across government. Our mission is informing our readers about how the current administration's activities could affect them. We originally joined government to deliver human-centered programs and services while protecting the privacy of Americans,” said We the Builders, a coalition of current and former federal civil servants. “We believe there are short- and long-term means of addressing this problem. Right now, we are getting information out and collaborating across a wide coalition to fight back against the degradations of service delivery. Longer term, it's critically important we support efforts like Rep Trahan's to modernize laws like the Privacy Act.”

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