The Postal Service is reminding employees to not reveal personally identifiable information to co-workers who don’t need to know that information.
The Privacy Act of 1974 prohibits sharing most personal information with anyone at all, unless one of the law’s exceptions applies.
The act’s “need to know” exception allows personal information to be given to other employees, including postal contractors, who need it to do their jobs.
It is a federal crime to intentionally disclose Privacy Act-protected information to other employees if you know they do not need that information to do their jobs and if no other Privacy Act exception applies.
Never give any information that is about another person to your co-workers unless they need that information to do their jobs.
Employees who have questions about privacy should send an email to privacy@usps.gov.
