EPIC Objects to USDA Proposal to Disclose Troves of Sensitive Data to Treasury

On May 13, EPIC and three other civil society organizations submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture strongly objecting to the agency’s proposal to disclose vast amounts of sensitive information to the Department of the Treasury. 

The USDA’s recent System of Records Notice proposed to add a routine use to 12 systems of records that would allow the agency to release sensitive details about every person who has: applied for or received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, received childcare tuition assistance, ran a farm receiving USDA funds, or expressed even an interest in the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program. 

The Notice blatantly violates the Privacy Act in two key ways: its proposal is incompatible with the original purpose for collecting the information housed in these systems, and its significant deficiencies and omissions violate the agency’s mandate to safeguard its records. 

The USDA and other federal agencies repeatedly have made unsubstantiated claims that creating this automatic information pipeline is necessary to address rampant payment fraud against the government. 

“The Notice furthers the federal government’s ongoing efforts to amass personal information into a reckless and illegal national databank, creating a singularly rich target for hackers and fraudsters and duplicating the functions of other, far more secure methods of payment verification,” EPIC’s filing notes. 

EPIC has long fought federal overreach of our most sensitive data. Notably in Pallek v. Rollins, EPIC was part of a coalition of plaintiffs challenging a previous USDA demand for states and third-party vendors to turn over the personal data of the tens of millions of Americans who receive SNAP benefits. The case remains in litigation.