U.S. Federal

These government agencies provide educational resources on privacy and data protection topics.

The Federal Trade Commission

For Children and Parents

• The FTC offers You Are Here, a virtual mall designed for kids from 5th grade to 8th grade and parents and educators. Visitors can play games, design ads, chat with customers and store owners, and learn key consumer concepts, such as how advertising affects you, how you benefit when businesses compete, how (and why) to protect your information, and how to spot scams. Make sure to visit the Security Plaza to learn about protecting your privacy (online and offline), and protect the citizens of Earth against identity-stealing invaders.

• The FTC also offers Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids about Being Online , which includes a guide for parents with tips to help kids navigate the online world. The guide encourages parents to reduce the risks by talking to kids about how they communicate – online and offline – and helping kids engage in conduct of which they can be proud. You can order copies of the guide at no charge by visiting this site: http://www.onguardonline.gov/topics/net-cetera.aspx

• FTC’s Children’s Privacy, Education and Guidance
• FTC’s Consumer Information, ID Theft, Privacy & Security: Children’s Privacy
• FTC’s Facts for Businesses: How to Comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule
• The FTC also offers a COPPA Compliance Hotline. Call (202) 326-3140 for assistance with a specific COPPA question.

For General Consumer Education

• FTC’s Consumer Information, Computers & The Internet: Privacy & Security
• Federal Trade Commission’s Privacy Initiative
• The FTC on Unfairness and Deception: Section 5 of the FTC Act
• FTC’s Unfairness and Deception Education and Guidance

Financial Privacy

• FTC’s Financial Privacy Rule: Consumer Education
• The FTC on Financial Privacy and the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act
• FTC’s Credit Reporting Consumer Education
• FTC’s Consumer Information, Credit & Loans: Privacy

Behavioral Advertising

• FTC’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising (2009)
• FTC’s Protecting Consumers in the Next Tech-ade (2008)

For Small Businesses

• FTC provides Fighting Fraud with the Red Flags Rule: A How-To Guide for Business, featuring a guide, a Getting Red Flags Ready video, and a Do-It-Yourself Template for Low Risk Businesses.
• FTC offers Protecting Personal Information: A Guide for Business. Featuring a guide, an interactive tutorial, a workshop, resources that will help you train your employees and colleagues, articles available for republication to your own webpage, related resources, guidance in Spanish, and much more, this FTC page is an invaluable resource for businesses interested in safeguarding sensitive data contained in their files and on their computers.

The Federal Communications Commission

• FCC’s Consumer Facts: Protecting Your Privacy

The Department of Education

• U.S. Department of Education’s Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

The Department of Homeland Security

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a supporting partner of the National Cyber Security Alliance and is leading the National Cybersecurity Awareness track of the NICE initiative. DHS is using public service campaigns like "STOP. THINK. CONNECT."  to boost national awareness and promote cyber security and responsible use of the Internet.

You can get involved with STOP. THINK. CONNECT. in a number of ways: join the Friends of the Campaign program, plan and host a cyber citizen forum for your university or in your community, and become a member of the Cyber Awareness Coalition. 

Internal Revenue Service

The Internal Revenue Service describes the steps it is taking to protect taxpayer privacy and IRS steps to reduce the use of Social Security Numbers.  The IRS also makes clear that it does not establish taxpayer communication through email and provides information taxpayers need to know about phishing.

Social Security Administration

The SSA’s Office of the Inspector General published “Kindergarten through 12^th Grade Schools’ Collection and Use of Social Security Numbers, Audit Report“ in July 2010.

The Securities and Exchange Commission

• SEC’s Privacy Choices for Your Personal Financial Information

The Department of Health and Human Services

• HHS’s Understanding HIPAA Privacy for Consumers and Covered Entities
• HHS’s Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule
• HHS’s Health Information Privacy for Small Providers, Small Health Plans and other Small Businesses

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

• The FDIC offers financial privacy information.

National Institute for Standards and Technology

• NIST is coordinating the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education – designed to establish an operational, sustainable and continually improving cybersecurity education program for the nation to use sound cyber practices that will enhance the nation’s security.  Enhancing awareness and developing formal education about cyber security are two main features of the NICE program.

• The Smartgrid Interoperability Standards Project
• Guidelines for Smartgrid Cyber Security: Vol. 2, Privacy and the Smart Grid (August 2010)

Privacy Laws

Citations and links provided by federal government sites and by Cornell University Law School Legal Information Institute.

• The Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a

• Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 41-58, as amended)

• The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 6501-6506)

• Identity Theft Assumption and Deterrence Act of 1998 (codified in relevant part at 18 U.S.C. § 1028 note)

• The Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681 et seq.

• Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (Pub. L.106-102, 113 Stat.1338, codified in relevant part at 15 U.S.C. §§ 6801-6809 and §§ 6821-6827, as amended)

• The Laws that Govern the Securities Industry

• Cornell Law School, LII, Overview and Resources, Right of Privacy: Access to Personal Information

Note: Links to the texts of these laws are provided for reference only. Always check the currency of any law prior to citation.