Systems of Records
The Privacy Act of 1974 provides a number of protections for your personal information, including how information is collected, used, disclosed, stored and disposed.
A system of records is a group of any records under the control of any agency from which information is retrieved by the name of the individual or by some identifying number, symbol, or other identifier assigned to the individual.
The Privacy Act requires that each agency that maintains a system of records (as VA does) must publish a notice in the Federal Register identifying the purpose for which information about an individual is collected, what type of information is being collected, how the information is shared, and what an individual must do if they want to access or amend any record maintained about them.
These notices are commonly referred to as systems of records notices or SORNs.
NOTE: Links to SORNs Published Prior to 1995 and Consolidated SORNs are included in the Current SORN List.
For an additional tool to view SORNs from the Federal Register, the Federal Privacy Council has provided a SORNs Dashboard that will regularly pull newly published SORNs.
Privacy Act Exemptions
The Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. § 552a) provides that agencies will provide access to records on individuals within its possession unless one of ten exemptions apply. The exact language of the exemptions can be found in the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. § 552a), https://www.justice.gov/opcl/ten-exemptions. VA regulations at 38 CFR § 1.582 - Exemptions provide a complete listing of all VA exempt Privacy Act systems of records.
VA System of Records Policy