The Postal Service is reminding employees to follow the mandates of the Privacy Act.
The 1974 federal law governs the collection, use and maintenance of the personal information that federal agencies gather and hold in their systems of records.
Under the law, all USPS employees and contractors must protect such information from unauthorized disclosure and misuse, whether it is the information of other employees, customers or business partners.
Employees and contractors are prohibited from:
• Disclosing information about another individual to any person or organization without authorization;
• Sharing personally identifiable information with co-workers or postal contractors unless they need to know it to perform their official job duties; and
• Maintaining an unauthorized system of records — such as a file, database or program — that contains personally identifiable information about individuals.
When an employee or contractor is authorized to share records or files with the public, such as in response to a valid Freedom of Information Act request, they should:
• Redact any information a requester is not entitled to receive;
• Edit PDF files to remove attachments, hidden information and links before releasing them; and
• Closely review all records and files prior to release to ensure that only information that can legitimately be shared is being released.
Employees and contractors can refer to the USPS privacy policy and Handbook AS-353, Guide to Privacy, the Freedom of Information Act, and Records Management, for more information.
Those who have questions should email the Privacy and Records Management Office.