OMB has created a new privacy office within its Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, to be headed by a career official “dedicated to strengthening the government’s privacy practices and continuing to make privacy a more comprehensive, strategic, and continuous function of government,” director Shaun Donovan said in an announcement.
The office will be tasked to: “develop and implement consistent, comprehensive, and forward-looking federal privacy policies, strategies, and practices across agencies . . . ; collaborate with the Federal Privacy Council and privacy leaders across the government to identify government-wide trends and issues related to privacy that require government-wide solutions; and oversee and evaluate agency regulatory initiatives, privacy policies, information collection and related policies, and other policy initiatives that impact the privacy of information about people.”
“The actions announced today will increase OIRA’s capacity to match the growing importance of privacy matters and ensure continuity of leadership on federal privacy policy over time. Further, they will strengthen and leverage OIRA’s existing privacy functions, including its existing staff resources, statutory responsibilities related to privacy, and coordinating role in several statistical and information policy areas,” he said.
OMB recently told agencies to assess their privacy programs and specified the expertise and authority that their senior privacy officials should have. The actions follow a February executive order that among other things created the privacy council to oversee policies on creating, collecting, using, storing and disclosing personally identifiable information.
