Laws and Privacy

Laws and Privacy
This is a page relating to several laws in place that protect a user's Data Privacy. The United States does not have a centralized, formal legislation regarding data privacy, but relies on a sectoral approach to protect a user's data. The sectoral approach relies on a combination of legislation, regulation rather than direct government interference. This creates patchwork network of laws that govern data privacy. These laws covers a wide variety of categories from financial to health information but the laissez-faire approach to these laws  creates significant overlap between these laws leading to conflicts and overlaps all across state and federal lines. Sometimes these laws are merely guidelines which companies are forced to follow. While these guidelines have some power, they do not have the force of law. This type of regulation for data privacy has lead to many controversies such as the passage of laws that may impact data privacy such as the repeal of net neutrality as well as third parties exploiting user's private data such as the currently ongoing Facebook controversy. In the United States there are several important data privacy laws in place which regulate and protect what certain types of data from being harvested from US citizens. The laws have in some part been influenced by the Privacy Act of 1974.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
This law centralized the otherwise patchwork set of laws that regulate a person's health data. Under this law, it is forbidden to distribute personal health information of a patient without authorization of that patient. This law creates safeguards to protect the confidentially of information as sets a standard in which all states must meet or exceed. This law over time evolved to keep up with the increasing use of private health info being transmitted electronically.

Fair Credit Reporting Act
The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a set of rules that help protect the consumer from credit agencies via stating what kinds of situations were it is appropriate to verify or release any credit information. This means that users have certain control their credit information, this