Excerpt from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 2010 report that provides some background:
This is the DHS Privacy Office’s fifth comprehensive report to Congress on DHS activities that involve data mining, and the third report pursuant to the Data Mining Reporting Act. The Homeland Security Act expressly authorizes the Department to use data mining, among other analytical tools, in furtherance of its mission. DHS exercises this authority to engage in data mining in the programs discussed in this report, all of which have been reviewed by the Chief Privacy Officer for potential impacts on privacy. The DHS Chief Privacy Officer’s authority for reviewing DHS data mining activities stems from three principal sources: the Privacy Act, the EGovernment Act, and the Homeland Security Act, which states, in part, that the DHS Chief Privacy Officer is responsible for “assuring that the [Department’s] use of technologies sustains, and does not erode, privacy protections relating to the use, collection, and disclosure of personal information.”
The DHS Privacy Office’s privacy compliance policies and procedures are based on the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs), which are rooted in the tenets of the Privacy Act and memorialized in the December 2008 Privacy Policy Guidance Memorandum 2008-01, The Fair Information Practice Principles: Framework for Privacy Policy at the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS Privacy Office compliance process discussed below is designed to identify and mitigate risks to privacy that may be posed by any DHS program, project, or information technology system.
DHS uses three main documents related to privacy compliance: (1) the Privacy Threshold Analysis (PTA); (2) the PIA; and (3) the System of Record Notice (SORN). While each of these documents has a distinct function in implementing privacy policy at DHS, together these documents further the transparency of Department activities and demonstrate accountability.
The full report is available on DHS’s web site (pdf)
(Via BeSpecific)