Is it a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974 if an agency loses paperwork with your personal information?

Answer 1

The answer depends partly on what you mean by "loses".

If by "loses" you mean that they can't find your information then they might be in violation by failing to be able to provide it to you when requested - but then again, if they can't find it, then there may be difficulty proving that they are withholding information if you can't prove they actually have it (which, if they can't find it sort of leans towards demonstrating that they DON'T have it, even if the SHOULD)

If by "loses" you mean loses control of the information - for example because someone (unauthorized) intercepted the transmission or grabbed a fax, or hacked into the system, the Act probably doesn't cover that. It is designed to instruct agencies as to what they can intentionally do with the data they have and who they can intentionally disclose it to. In fact there are court cases that indicate that a plaintiff has the burden of demonstrating that a disclosure by the agency has occurred. One court stated that:

"As the district court noted, [appellant] cites 'no authority to suggest that the possibility that a record might be revealed to unauthorized readers by negligent or reckless transmission is sufficient to constitute a prohibited disclosure under the Act,' . . . nor have we found any authority so holding."

That sort of suggests that that particular act doesn't do anything to protect you if an agency allows someone to get your information because they are sloppy - just if they INTENTIONALLY give to someone they were not supposed to.