HHS System of Records Notices (SORNs)
As required by The Privacy Act, HHS publishes SORNs to provide public notice of the records it maintains about individuals which are retrieved by personal identifier. Each SORN describes the types of information contained in the records, the legal authority for collecting and maintaining the records, how the records are used within HHS, and the purposes (referred to as “routine uses”) for which HHS may disclose the records to non-HHS parties without the individual record subject’s consent. SORNs also indicate whether any records are exempt from certain Privacy Act requirements. Only certain types of records, described in subsections (j) and (k) of the Privacy Act, can be exempted. Exemptions require a rulemaking and are not effective until published in a Final Rule. For more information about systems of records and exemptions, see OMB Circular A-108 (Dec. 2016).
HHS SORNs are posted to each Operating Division’s SORN webpage; each webpage can be accessed using the links provided below.
HHS SORN Webpages
HHS SORNs are grouped by Operating Division. Some SORNs posted by the HHS Office of the Secretary (OS) are department-wide and therefore may also be posted to other Operating Divisions' SORN webpages.
The Operating Divisions marked with an asterisk (*) maintain one or more systems of records which are exempt from certain Privacy Act requirements:
- OS Office of the Secretary*
- ACF Administration for Children and Families
- AHRQ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality*
- CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention*
- CMS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services*
- FDA Food and Drug Administration*
- HRSA Health Resources and Services Administration*
- IHS Indian Health Service
- NIH National Institutes of Health*
- SAMHSA Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
- Government-wide SORNs
Office of the Secretary (OS) SORNs
Note that some OS SORNs are department-wide but were published by a particular OS Staff Division.