{"data":{"id":"us/20-cfr-401.25","jurisdiction":"us","citation":"20 CFR 401.25","heading":"Terms defined.","body":"Access means making a record available to a subject individual.\nAct means the Social Security Act.\nAgency means the Social Security Administration.\nCommissioner means the Commissioner of Social Security.\nDisclosure means making a record about an individual available to or releasing it to another party.\nFOIA means the Freedom of Information Act.\nIndividual when used in connection with the Privacy Act or for disclosure of nonprogram records, means a living person who is a citizen of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence. It does not include persons such as sole proprietorships, partnerships, or corporations. A business firm which is identified by the name of one or more persons is not an individual. When used in connection with the rules governing program information, individual means a living natural person; this does not include corporations, partnerships, and unincorporated business or professional groups of two or more persons.\nInformation means information about an individual, and includes, but is not limited to, vital statistics; race, sex, or other physical characteristics; earnings information; professional fees paid to an individual and other financial information; benefit data or other claims information; the social security number, employer identification number, or other individual identifier; address; phone number; medical information, including psychological or psychiatric information or lay information used in a medical determination; and information about marital and family relationships and other personal relationships.\nMaintain means to establish, collect, use, or disseminate when used in connection with the term record; and, to have control over or responsibility for a system of records when used in connection with the term system of records.\nNotification means communication to an individual whether he is a subject individual. (Subject individual is defined further on in this section.)\nProgram information means personal information and records collected and compiled by SSA in order to discharge its responsibilities under titles I, II, IV part A, X, XI, XIV, XVI and XVIII of the Act and parts B and C of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act.\nRecord means any item, collection, or grouping of information about an individual that is maintained by SSA including, but not limited to, information such as an individual's education, financial transactions, medical history, and criminal or employment history that contains the individual's name, or an identifying number, symbol, or any other means by which an individual can be identified. When used in this part, record means only a record which is in a system of records.\nRoutine use means the disclosure of a record outside SSA, without the consent of the subject individual, for a purpose which is compatible with the purpose for which the record was collected. It includes disclosures required to be made by statutes other than the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552. It does not include disclosures which the Privacy Act otherwise permits without the consent of the subject individual and without regard to whether they are compatible with the purpose for which the information is collected, such as disclosures to the Bureau of the Census, the General Accounting Office, or to Congress.\nSocial Security Administration (SSA) means (1) that Federal agency which has administrative responsibilities under titles, I, II, X, XI, XIV, XVI, and XVIII of the Act; and (2) units of State governments which make determinations under agreements made under sections 221 and 1633 of the Act.\nSocial Security program means any program or provision of law which SSA is responsible for administering, including the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act. This includes our responsibilities under parts B and C of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act.\nStatistical record means a record maintained for statistical research or reporting purposes only and not maintained to make determinations about a particular subject individual.\nSubject individual means the person to whom a record pertains.\nSystem of records means a group of records under our control from which information about an individual is retrieved by the name of the individual or by an identifying number, symbol, or other identifying particular. Single records or groups of records which are not retrieved by a personal identifier are not part of a system of records. Papers maintained by individual Agency employees which are prepared, maintained, or discarded at the discretion of the employee and which are not subject to the Federal Records Act, 44 U.S.C. 2901, are not part of a system of records; provided, that such personal papers are not used by the employee or the Agency to determine any rights, benefits, or privileges of individuals.\nWe and our mean the Social Security Administration.","path":["Title 20—Employees' Benefits","CHAPTER III—SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION","PART 401—PRIVACY AND DISCLOSURE OF OFFICIAL RECORDS AND INFORMATION","Subpart A—General"],"source_url":"https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2026-08-25/title-20.xml","current_through":"2026-08-25","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T02:24:45Z","sha256":"d5f4db02656a81aa2a1bd0e379d3101fbc4c4b4bd8ef5de3cbadd1ce7e263304","source_id":"us-cfr","stale":true,"prev":"us/20-cfr-401.20","next":"us/20-cfr-401.30"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}