Fair Information Practice Principles

Based in a 1973 Federal Government report from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Advisory Committee, "Records, Computers and the Rights of Citizens," the Fair Information Practice principles (FIPPs) have informed Federal statute and the laws of many U.S. states and foreign nations and have been incorporated in the policies of many organizations around the world. The FIPPs are critical to how the federal government approaches information management, especially information about people. While the precise expression of the FIPPs has varied over time and in different contexts, the FIPPs always retained a consistent set of core principles that are broadly relevant to agencies' information management practices.