President Obama has issued an executive order creating a Federal Privacy Council to set policies for agencies for collecting, maintaining and using personal information they gather in the course of their work.
The order said that while the government already takes protection of privacy seriously, there is a need for an interagency body that builds those efforts and that “provides expertise and assistance to agencies; expands the skill and career development opportunities of agency privacy professionals; improves the management of agency privacy programs by identifying and sharing lessons learned and best practices; and promotes collaboration between and among agency privacy professionals to reduce unnecessary duplication of efforts.”
“The establishment of the Privacy Council will help senior agency officials for privacy at agencies better coordinate and collaborate, educate the federal workforce, and exchange best practices. The activities of the Privacy Council will reinforce the essential work that agency privacy officials undertake every day to protect privacy,” it says.
The council, with membership from two dozen departments and large independent agencies, is to make recommendations on privacy policies and requirements and “assess and recommend how best to address the hiring, training, and professional development needs of the federal government with respect to privacy matters.”
