Trio of Groups Blasts USDA's Request for SNAP Recipients' Personal Info as Unlawful
Three organizations called on contractors involved in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) to reject a request from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) for access to personally identifiable information (PII) of SNAP recipients. A Monday letter from Protect Democracy, the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said the USDA's demand for data ignores the Federal Privacy Act, the Paperwork Reduction Act and several USDA regulations. EPIC released the letter Wednesday.
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Earlier in May, USDA ordered state agency directors to submit their SNAP data so it could create a consolidated data hub in compliance with President Donald Trump’s “Information Silos” executive order. According to the USDA's Economic Research Center, just over 42 million Americans received SNAP benefits every month in 2023.
“USDA’s requests disregard the basic protections enacted by Congress to protect Americans’ sensitive data, and do not comply with the many legal requirements Congress placed on agencies before they are permitted to collect and store sensitive information about individual Americans,” the letter said. “USDA has not complied with basic requirements to safeguard sensitive PII, such as promulgating privacy and security rules and defining the purposes for which the sensitive information may be used.”
The letter said the order from the USDA isn't a “legally authorized government [request] for information,” and therefore “companies may incur liability under state law for sharing individuals’ PII in the absence of a valid government request.”
“Because USDA’s requests for beneficiary data lack legal basis and may contradict contractual and state law privacy requirements, you should refuse them,” the organizations' letter said.
“At a minimum, you should decline to fulfill the requests until USDA has provided more information about the legal basis for its request and its compliance with Privacy Act, Paperwork Reduction Act, and E-Government Act requirements, including its plans for protecting beneficiaries’ sensitive personal data, in particular Social Security numbers.”