Coast Guard privacy policy requires protection of privacy under which laws?

• A. Privacy Act of 1974 (as amended) and HIPAA
• B. Privacy Act of 1974 (as amended)
• C. HIPAA
• D. Freedom of Information Act

Answer: (A)

Protecting privacy in Coast Guard operations relies on both the Privacy Act of 1974 (as amended) and HIPAA. The Privacy Act governs how federal agencies collect, maintain, use, and disclose records about individuals and gives people rights to access and amend their records. Since the Coast Guard is a federal agency, its handling of personal information in systems of records falls under this statute. HIPAA provides privacy protections specifically for health information—limiting how protected health information is used and disclosed by entities covered by the law and their associates. When the Coast Guard handles health records or health information in its medical programs, HIPAA protections apply in addition to the Privacy Act. Therefore, privacy protection for Coast Guard information is governed by both laws. The FOIA is about access to government records and has privacy-related exemptions, but it is not the primary framework that requires privacy protections in the way these two statutes do, and HIPAA alone would miss the broader agency record-keeping obligations.