privacy law

privacy law

There is no single statute called the privacy law;however,a variety of statutes attempt to protect the privacy of citizens.They include as follows:

• The Buckley-Pell Amendment to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act denies federal funds to educational institutions that do not maintain the confidentiality of student records.

• The government may not obtain bank records without first informing the account holder and giving the account holder an opportunity to protest, by virtue of the Privacy Act of 1974, found at 5 U.S.C. §552a.

• Privacy of medical records and health information is guaranteed under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, typically called HIPAA (pronounced “hip-uh” for short). See 42 U.S.C. §3201.