NEWS ROOM   |   Press Releases

For immediate release: April 3, 2003
Contact: Beth Roszman

NASCIO Releases Online Federal Privacy Law Compendium

(Lexington-KY) - The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has released its online Federal Privacy Law Compendium for state CIOs and other state government officials who deal with privacy issues related to state information technology (IT) systems or policies.

States are entrusted with personal information, and they develop policies to protect the privacy of this information. In their role as guardians of personal information, states also must determine whether certain federal privacy laws apply to them and, if so, what steps they must take to comply with such federal privacy laws. The Federal Privacy Law Compendium provides summaries of ten federal privacy laws to serve as a starting point for states in their assessment of whether the summarized federal privacy laws will impact state information system operations and/or policies.

"Protecting the privacy of citizens' information is an important duty of the states. We must foster citizens' trust that the personal information they submit to the state is maintained with the utmost respect for their privacy, and protected by state and federal privacy laws. As we advocate for the citizen, we will take a leadership position and hope that the work we do in this committee will influence public privacy policy in a coherent and reasonable way," said Stuart McKee, Washington State CIO and NASCIO Privacy Committee Chair.

The Federal Privacy Law Compendium summarizes ten federal laws that deal with the privacy of information and highlights instances of potential impact on state government. The federal privacy laws summarized in the Federal Privacy Law Compendium are:

• The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998
• The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984
• The Computer Matching & Privacy Protection Act of 1988 & Amendments of 1990
• The Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994
• The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986
• The Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970
• The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974
• The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999
• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
• The Privacy Act of 1974

The Federal Privacy Law Compendium was developed and published by NASCIO in consultation with its Privacy Committee. It is offered as a membership benefit to NASCIO state and corporate members. The Privacy Committee is chaired by Stuart McKee, Director, Department of Information Services, State of Washington. Lester Nakamura, Administrator, Information and Communication Services Division, State of Hawaii serves as vice chair.

NASCIO represents the state chief information officers from the 50 states, six U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. Members include cabinet and senior level state officials responsible for information resource management. Other IT officials participate as associate members and private sector representatives may become corporate members.

# # # #

For more information about NASCIO's Federal Privacy Law Compendium, please contact Mary Gay Whitmer, NASCIO Issues Coordinator, at mwhitmer@amrinc.net or (859) 514-9209 or Beth Roszman, NASCIO Programs and Communications Coordinator, at broszman@amrinc.net or (859) 514-9167.

Association Management Resources, Inc. (AMR) provides NASCIO's executive staff. For more information about AMR visit http://www.amrinc.net/.