Title 15 - COMMERCE AND FOREIGN TRADE 

PART 4--DISCLOSURE OF GOVERNMENT INFORMATION

Subpart B--Privacy Act

Sec. 4.21  Purpose and scope.

    (a) This subpart establishes policies and procedures for 
implementing the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (5 U.S.C. 552a). The 
main objectives of the subpart are to facilitate full exercise of 
rights conferred on individuals under the Act, and to protect the 
privacy of individuals on whom the Department maintains records in 
systems of records under the Act.
    (b) The Department shall act promptly and in accordance with the 
Act upon receipt of any inquiry, request or appeal from a citizen of 
the United States or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence 
into the United States, regardless of the individual's age. Further, 
the Department shall maintain only such information on individuals as 
is relevant and necessary to the performance of its lawful functions; 
maintain that information with such accuracy, relevancy, timeliness, 
and completeness as is reasonably necessary to assure fairness in 
determinations made by the Department about the individual; obtain 
information from the individual to the extent practicable; and take 
every reasonable step to protect that information from unwarranted 
disclosure. The Department shall maintain no record describing how an 
individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment unless 
expressly authorized to do so by statute or by the individual about 
whom the record is maintained, or unless to do so is pertinent to and 
within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity. An 
individual's name and address shall not be sold or rented by the 
Department unless such action is specifically authorized by law.
    (c) This subpart applies to all components of the Department. 
Components may promulgate supplementary orders and rules not 
inconsistent with this subpart.
    (d) The Assistant Secretary for Administration is delegated 
responsibility for maintaining this subpart, for issuing such orders 
and directives internal to the Department as are necessary for full 
compliance with the Act, and for publishing all required notices 
concerning systems of records.
    (e) Matters outside the scope of this subpart include:
    (1) Requests for records that do not pertain to the requester, or 
to the individual about whom the request is made if the requester is 
the parent or guardian of the individual;
    (2) Requests involving information pertaining to an individual that 
is in a record or file but not within the scope of a system of records 
notice published in the Federal Register;
    (3) Requests to correct a record if a grievance procedure is 
available to the individual either by regulation or through a provision 
in a collective

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bargaining agreement with the Department or a component of the 
Department, and the individual has initiated, or expressed in writing 
the intention of initiating, such a grievance procedure; and
    (4) Requests for employee-employer services and counseling that 
were routinely granted prior to enactment of the Act, including, but 
not limited to, test calculations of retirement benefits, explanations 
of health and life insurance programs, and explanations of tax 
withholding options.
    (f) Any request for records that pertains to the requester, or to 
the individual about whom the request is made if the requester is the 
parent or guardian of the individual, shall be processed under the Act 
and this subpart and under the Freedom of Information Act and the 
Department's implementing regulations at subpart A of this part, 
regardless whether the Act or the Freedom of Information Act is 
mentioned in the request.