Apart from the United States Constitution, another significant source of privacy protections for some public-sector employees is found in the Privacy Act of 1974. The Privacy Act is a federal statute that regulates the circumstances under which information about federal employees can be disclosed by federal agencies. The statute also attempts to ensure that information kept by federal government employers about their employees is accurate and reliable.
It is important to note that despite its title, the Privacy Act does not establish a broad regulatory scheme dealing with all aspects of employee privacy concerns. First, the statute applies only to federal employees. Thus, the Privacy Act provides no protections to either private-sector employees or employees of state or local government entities. Second, the Privacy Act only regulates disclosure of information about federal employees, such as that contained in their personnel or other files maintained by their employers. The Privacy Act contains no provisions limiting searches of employees, drug or other substance testing, or what an employer is permitted to ask a prospective employee during a job interview.
Within the scope of its regulation, the Privacy Act requires managers in charge of maintaining information about federal employees to ensure that the information is accurate, reliable, and used only for proper purposes. Unless disclosure of employee information is required by law, federal employers must ordinarily obtain employee consent prior to disclosing personal employee information to persons requesting it. Employees are given access to their own personnel files by the Privacy Act, and may submit corrections or amendments to their files to enhance the accuracy of the information contained within them.
The Privacy Act does not provide federal employees an absolute right to privacy of information contained within their personnel files. The statute sets forth eleven specific exceptions to the general rule of nondisclosure of employee information without consent. These exceptions include disclosure under circumstances where other government agencies require the information for an important purpose or where nondisclosure could have a compelling negative impact on the health and safety of other persons or the employee herself.