<Li> House agreed to Senate amendment on December 18, 1974 (agreed) </Li> <Li> Signed into law by President Gerald R. Ford on December 31, 1974 </Li> <P> The Privacy Act of 1974 (Pub. L. 93--579, 88 Stat. 1896, enacted December 31, 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a), a United States federal law, establishes a Code of Fair Information Practice that governs the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information about individuals that is maintained in systems of records by federal agencies . A system of records is a group of records under the control of an agency from which information is retrieved by the name of the individual or by some identifier assigned to the individual . The Privacy Act requires that agencies give the public notice of their systems of records by publication in the Federal Register . The Privacy Act prohibits the disclosure of information from a system of records absent of the written consent of the subject individual, unless the disclosure is pursuant to one of twelve statutory exceptions . The Act also provides individuals with a means by which to seek access to and amendment of their records and sets forth various agency record - keeping requirements . Additionally, with people granted the right to review what was documented with their name, they are also able to find out if the "records have been disclosed"... and are also given the rights to make corrections . </P> <P> The Privacy Act states in part: </P>

What is the purpose of the privacy act of 1974