U.S. Federal

Various governmental agencies provide educational resources on privacy and data protection topics and links to the statutes they are charged with administering.

The Federal Trade Commission

For Children and Parents

• *NEW* The FTC offers You Are Here, a virtual mall webpage designed for kids from 5^th grade to 8^th grade and parents and educators.  Visitors can play games, design ads, chat with customers and store owners, and learn key consumer concepts, such as how advertising affects you, how you benefit when businesses compete, how (and why) to protect your information, and how to spot scams. Make sure to Visit the Security Plaza to learn about protecting your privacy (online and off), and protect the citizens of Earth against identity-stealing invaders.
• The FTC also offers Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids about Being Online — FTC offers a guide for parents with practical tips to help kids navigate the online world.  The guide encourages parents to reduce the risks by talking to kids about how they communicate – online and off – and helping kids engage in conduct of which they can be proud.  Net Cetera covers what parents need to know, where to go for more information, and issues to raise with kids about living their lives online.  You can order copies of the guide at no charge by visiting this site: http://www.onguardonline.gov/topics/net-cetera.aspx
• FTC’s Children’s Privacy, Education and Guidance
• FTC’s Consumer Information, ID Theft, Privacy & Security: Children’s Privacy
• FTC’s Facts for Businesses:  How to Comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule
• The FTC also offers a COPPA Compliance Hotline: Call (202) 326-3140 for assistance with a specific COPPA question.

For General Consumer Education

• FTC’s Consumer Information, Computers & The Internet: Privacy & Security
• Federal Trade Commission’s Privacy Initiative
• The FTC on Unfairness and Deception: Section 5 of the FTC Act
• FTC’s Unfairness and Deception Education and Guidance
• Keep an eye out for the FTC’s celebration of the Twelfth Annual National Consumer Protection Week, March 7-13, 2010

Financial Privacy

• FTC’s Financial Privacy Rule: Consumer Education
• The FTC on Financial Privacy and the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act
• FTC’s Credit Reporting Consumer Education
• FTC’s Consumer Information, Credit & Loans: Privacy

Behavioral Advertising

• FTC’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising (2009)
• FTC’s Protecting Consumers in the Next Tech-ade (2008)

For Small Businesses

• FTC provides Fighting Fraud with the Red Flags Rule: A How-To Guide for Business, featuring a guide, a Getting Red Flags Ready video, and a Do-It-Yourself Template for Low Risk Businesses.
• FTC offers Protecting Personal Information: A Guide for Business. Featuring a guide, an interactive tutorial, a workshop, resources that will help you train your employees and colleagues,  articles available for republication to your own webpage, related resources, guidance in Spanish, and much more, this FTC page is an invaluable resource for businesses interested in safeguarding sensitive data contained in their files and on their computers.

U.S. Census Bureau

The US Census Bureau will conduct the 2010 Census beginning in March 2010.  Visit the privacy page for United States Census 2010 to learn how the privacy of your personal information is protected in the context of the census.

The Federal Communications Commission

• FCC’s Consumer Facts: Protecting Your Privacy

The Department of Education

• U.S. Department of Education’s Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

The Securities and Exchange Commission

• SEC’s Privacy Choices for Your Personal Financial Information

The Department of Health and Human Services

• HHS’s Understanding HIPAA Privacy for Consumers and Covered Entities
• HHS’s Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule
• HHS’s Health Information Privacy for Small Providers, Small Health Plans and other Small Businesses

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

• The FDIC offers financial privacy information.

Privacy Laws (citations and links provided by federal government sites and by Cornell University Law School Legal Information Institute)

The Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a

Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 41-58, as amended)

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 6501-6506)

Identity Theft Assumption and Deterrence Act of 1998 (codified in relevant part at 18 U.S.C. § 1028 note)

The Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681 et seq.

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (Pub. L.106-102, 113 Stat.1338, codified in relevant part at 15 U.S.C. §§ 6801-6809 and §§ 6821-6827, as amended)

The Laws that Govern the Securities Industry

Cornell Law School, LII, Overview and Resources, Right of Privacy: Access to Personal Information

Note: Links to the texts of these laws are provided for reference only.  Always check the currency of any law before citing to it.

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