Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties

DOJ Building and Flag

Mission

The Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties (OPCL) supports the Department’s Chief Privacy and Civil Liberties Officer (CPCLO). The CPCLO is a member of the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and the principal advisor to the Attorney General, Department Leadership, and components on issues involving privacy and civil liberties policy and compliance. Under the CPCLO’s leadership, OPCL has two general functions:

(1) it plays a central policy-making role in the Department’s development and evaluation of legislative, regulatory, and other policy proposals affecting privacy, both domestically and internationally; and

(2) it is responsible for helping to ensure the compliance of the Department’s components with existing laws, regulations and policies protecting privacy.

General Information

Leadership

Peter A. Winn
Acting Chief Privacy and Civil Liberties Officer

Kathy Harman-Stokes
Acting Director, Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties

Contact

Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties
privacy@usdoj.gov

Redress in the Data Protection Review Court

Section 3 of the Executive Order of October 7, 2022, "Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities," authorizes and directs the Attorney General to issue regulations to establish a Data Protection Review Court ("DPRC") as the second level of a two-level redress mechanism.

Legislation
Judicial Redress Act of 2015 & U.S.-EU Data Protection and Privacy Agreement
The Judicial Redress Act of 2015, 5 U.S.C. § 552a note, extends certain rights of judicial redress established under the Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a, to citizens of certain foreign countries or regional economic organizations.
E-Government Act of 2002

The availability of information, from personal to public, is made easier today due to technological changes in computers, digitized networks, internet access, and the creation of new information products.