Gina Stevens’s research while affiliated with Cornell University and other places

[Excerpt] There is no comprehensive federal privacy statute that protects personal information. Instead, a patchwork of federal laws and regulations govern the collection and disclosure of personal information and has been addressed by Congress on a sector-by-sector basis. Federal laws and regulations extend protection to consumer credit reports, electronic communications, federal agency records, education records, bank records, cable subscriber information, video rental records, motor vehicle records, health information, telecommunications subscriber information, children’s online information, and customer financial information. Some contend that this patchwork of laws and regulations is insufficient to meet the demands of today’s technology. Congress, the Obama Administration, businesses, public interest groups, and citizens are all involved in the discussion of privacy solutions. This report examines some of those efforts with respect to the protection of personal information. This report provides a brief overview of selected recent developments in the area of federal privacy law. This report does not cover workplace privacy laws or state privacy laws.

Congress continues to consider how to balance the federal government's growing need for sensitive or confidential business information, the public's right of access to information about government activities, and the private sector's interest in keeping its sensitive or proprietary information protected from public disclosure. In enacting the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. section 552, Congress sought to balance the right of the public to know and the need of the government to protect certain information. FOIA's broad provisions favoring disclosure, coupled with the specific exemptions, represent the balance Congress achieved. The federal FOIA is an information access statute enacted in 1966 that applies to agency records of the executive branch of the federal government. FOIA requires that certain types of records be published in the Federal Register, that certain types of records be made available for public inspection and copying, and that all other records be subject to request in writing. Exemption 3 of FOIA provides that in order for a federal law other than FOIA to qualify as a withholding statute, it must require that information be withheld or permit information to be withheld by particular statutory criteria or permit information to be withheld based upon a statutory reference to particular types of information and must specifically cite to Exemption 3. Courts have taken different approaches over whether the withholding criteria in nondisclosure statutes should be construed narrowly, consistent with FOIA's strong preference for disclosure, or broadly, consistent with the deferential standards of administrative law. Congress has enacted legislative exemptions from FOIA to provide assurance that private information submitted to government agencies will not be disclosed or will only be disclosed in limited situations. Generally, the legislation has exempted covered information from disclosure under FOIA.