Privacy Act System of Records Notice (SORN)

A Record is a collection or grouping of information about an individual that is maintained by an agency.

A System of Records (SOR) is a group of records (regardless of storage media) from which information is retrieved by a unique personal identifier (i.e., name, social security number, etc.) assigned to an individual.

Whenever a Federal agency maintains information about an individual in a system of records and retrieves the information by the name of the individual or by any personal identifier, the Privacy Act requires that the agency publish a System of Records Notice (SORN) in the Federal Register.

The SORN is a formal notice to the public published in the Federal Register that identifies the purpose for which Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is collected, from whom, what type, how information is shared, and how to access and correct information maintained by the agency.  The notice allows questions to be raised and resolved before the system is put into effect and ensures that privacy considerations have been addressed.