PIH updates guidance on privacy protection

Late yesterday HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) issued Notice PIH 2015-06 to provide guidance on safeguarding personally identifiable information. The notice, which revises Notice PIH 2014-10, defines personally identifiable information, or PII, as follows:

Information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, such as his/her name, social security number, biometric records, etc., alone or when combined with other personal or identifying information that is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.

The notice begins by stating that HUD expects all of its third-party business partners, including PHAs, to safeguard the PII that they collect in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974 and other federal, state, and local laws that regulate the treatment of this information. After citing basic requirements for protecting PII and listing sources of federal guidance on the subject, the notice goes on to enumerate the rules that PHAs should follow to ensure compliance with these requirements. The notice also contains new guidance to assist PHA system administrators and users to fulfill their requirements for information technology security awareness training.

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