(a) General policy. The Privacy Act permits certain types of specific systems of records to be exempt from some of its requirements. Our policy is to exercise authority to exempt systems of records only in compelling cases.
(b) Specific systems of records exempted.
(1) Those systems of records listed in paragraph (b)(2) of this section are exempt from the following provisions of the Act and this part:
(i) 5 U.S.C. 552a(c)(3) and paragraph (c) of § 401.80 of this part which require that you be granted access to an accounting of disclosures of your record.
(ii) 5 U.S.C. 552a (d) (1) through (4) and (f) and §§ 401.35 through 401.75 relating to notification of or access to records and correction or amendment of records.
(iii) 5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(4) (G) and (H) which require that we include information about SSA procedures for notification, access, and correction or amendment of records in the notice for the systems of records.
(iv) 5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(3) and § 401.30 which require that if we ask you to provide a record to us, we must inform you of the authority for our asking you to provide the record (including whether providing the record is mandatory or voluntary, the principal purposes for maintaining the record, the routine uses for the record, and what effect your refusal to provide the record may have on you), and if you are not required by statute or Executive Order to provide the record, that you agree to provide the record. This exemption applies only to an investigatory record compiled by SSA for criminal law enforcement purposes in a system of records exempt under subsection (j)(2) of the Privacy Act to the extent that these requirements would prejudice the conduct of the investigation.
(2) The following systems of records are exempt from those provisions of the Privacy Act and this part listed in paragraph (b)(1) of this section:
(i) Pursuant to subsection (j)(2) of the Privacy Act, the Investigatory Material Compiled for Law Enforcement Purposes System, SSA.
(ii) Pursuant to subsection (k)(2) of the Privacy Act:
(A) The General Criminal Investigation Files, SSA;
(B) The Criminal Investigations File, SSA; and,
(C) The Program Integrity Case Files, SSA.
(D) Civil and Administrative Investigative Files of the Inspector General, SSA/OIG.
(E) Complaint Files and Log. SSA/OGC.
(F) Anti-Harassment & Hostile Work Environment Case Tracking and Records System, SSA.
(G) Social Security Administration Violence Evaluation and Reporting System, SSA.
(iii) Pursuant to subsection (k)(5) of the Privacy Act:
(A) Security and Suitability Files.
(B) [Reserved]
(iv) Pursuant to subsection (k)(6) of the Privacy Act, the Personnel Research and Merit Promotion Test Records, SSA/DCHR/OPE.
(c) Notification of or access to records in exempt systems of records.
(1) Where a system of records is exempt as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, you may nonetheless request notification of or access to a record in that system. You should make requests for notification of or access to a record in an exempt system of records in accordance with the procedures of §§ 401.35 through 401.55.
(2) We will grant you notification of or access to a record in an exempt system but only to the extent such notification or access would not reveal the identity of a source who furnished the record to us under an express promise, and prior to September 27, 1975, an implied promise, that his or her identity would be held in confidence, if:
(i) The record is in a system of records which is exempt under subsection (k)(2) of the Privacy Act and you have been, as a result of the maintenance of the record, denied a right, privilege, or benefit to which you would otherwise be eligible; or,
(ii) The record is in a system of records which is exempt under subsection (k)(5) of the Privacy Act.
(3) If we do not grant you notification of or access to a record in a system of records exempt under subsections (k) (2) and (5) of the Privacy Act in accordance with this paragraph, we will inform you that the identity of a confidential source would be revealed if we granted you notification of or access to the record.
(d) Discretionary actions by SSA. Unless disclosure of a record to the general public is otherwise prohibited by law, we may at our discretion grant notification of or access to a record in a system of records which is exempt under paragraph (b) of this section. Discretionary notification of or access to a record in accordance with this paragraph will not be a precedent for discretionary notification of or access to a similar or related record and will not obligate us to exercise discretion to grant notification of or access to any other record in a system of records which is exempt under paragraph (b) of this section.
[62 FR 4143, Jan. 29, 1997, as amended at 82 FR 16510, Apr. 5, 2017; 83 FR 63416, Dec. 10, 2018; 84 FR 45901, Sept. 3, 2019]