n. (abbr. SOR)a group of records under the control of a US government agency that are housed, indexed, or otherwise retrievable by use of an individual’s name or other personal identifierUS CGR 2005, 3–4Another important feature of the Privacy Act is the requirement that each Federal agency publish a description of each system of records maintained by the agency that contains personal information. This prevents agencies from keeping secret records.Behrnd-Klodt 2015, 7The Privacy Act protects personal information in a “record” kept in an agency’s “system of records,” defined as any group of records under agency control and housed, indexed, or otherwise retrievable by use of an individual’s name or other identifier.US DOJ 2022The Privacy Act prohibits the disclosure of a record about an individual from a system of records absent the written consent of the 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.US DOD 2023A system of records (SOR) is a group of records, whatever the storage media (paper, electronic, etc.), under the control of a Department of Defense (DoD) Component from which personal information about an individual is retrieved by the name of the individual, or by some other identifying number, symbol, or other identifying particular assigned, that is unique to the individual.US DOT 2023A 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.
