I work for the federal government and must fill out a lengthy application in order to apply for other positions within the agency that I work for. The application contains a fair amount of information that is listed as protected in the Privacy Act of 1974. If the manager of the area that I am applying for distributes copies of my complete application to other employees that are not in a managerial role, is this a violation of my privacy?
Posted 11-08-2012
Steve Duggan replies:
The simple answer is “yes”, you do have a right to privacy and it must be protected by management. It would be a clear violation of that right if a manager distributed your private information to employees who do not have a need to know. If that has happened, you have remedies under federal laws that are available to you, and you should complain either to human resources or someone in upper manager. You also have the right to go to the inspector general for your agency.
Information here is correct at the time it is posted. Case decisions cited here may be reversed. Please do not rely on this information without consulting an attorney first.
