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EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES

Subcommittee Analysis

The Export-Import Bank indicated in its response that it does not maintain any data banks on individuals; therefore, a Subcommittee Analysis is not included.

Agency Response

The Export-Import Bank ("Eximbank") January 14, 1972 response to the subcommittee's December 23, 1971, inquiry appears below. EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES, Washington, D.C., January 14, 1972.

Hon. SAM J. ERVIN, Jr.,

Chairman, Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.

DEAR SENATOR ERVIN: Regarding your letter of December 23, 1971, we will, of course, be most pleased to cooperate fully with you and your Subcommittee in your forthcoming study of computers, privacy, and constitutional rights. We share with you your admirable concern about the rights of individuals in this regard.

I am pleased to be able to tell you that the Export-Import Bank has no data banks of the type or nature to which your letter refers nor do we intend to create any such files in the future.

Accordingly, the answer to most of your specific questions is "Non-applicable to Eximbank". On the attached schedule we have answered those few questions which are applicable to the operations, present and future, of Eximbank.

So.

If we can be of any further assistance in this matter, we will be pleased to do

Sincerely yours.

HENRY KEARNS.

EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES

REPLIES TO SPECIFIC QUESTIONS ASKED BY SENATOR ERVIN'S LETTER OF DECEMBER 23, 1971

The data files maintained by Eximbank in computerized form have to do with the foreign obligors and guarantors under Eximbank's lending and guarantee programs. With the very rare exception of those few cases when the foreign purchaser might be an individual rather than a business entity, there is no data whatsoever in these files related to individuals. In those few cases where the obligor or guarantor is an individual rather than a business entity, the only information maintained on computer file is a historical accounting record of the authorizations made by the Bank and the related disbursements and repayments thereof. Clearly, this is not the type of data file which the Subcommittee investigation is aimed at.

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(9) The Export-Import Bank has no written procedures or guidelines concerning the maintenance of our various data systems or access to them. Because of the small size of the Bank's operations, such guidelines are adequately implemented by oral instructions and surveillance. Only the EDP staff, under the direction of the Senior Vice President and Treasurer-Controller, has access to the data system for updating or maintenance. Review and disclosure of material within our data system is monitored by the Senior Vice President and Treasurer-Controller and no such data is released from the Bank without his prior knowledge and consent.

(17) Again, because of the small size of the Bank's staff and the fact that its EDP equipment is all located within one relatively small room, security devices and procedures consist of the fact that the EDP staff does not allow anyone else other than appropriate Officers and Directors of the Bank to have access to the EDP room without prior clearance by the Senior Vice President and TreasurerController.

(18) The Export-Import Bank has no formal or informal arrangements with any Congressional Committee for the authorizing or reviewing of new data banks or the clearance of new electronic or mechanized record management techniques; however, the Bank has always answered openly and candidly any questions in this regard and will continue to do so.

(19A) No.

(19B) No.

(19C) Not applicable.

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The answer to all other questions is "Not applicable to Eximbank”.

Attachments

No attachments were submitted with the Export-Import Bank

response.

FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION

Subcommittee Analysis

The Farm Credit Administration maintains three major data banks, one of which is partially computerized.

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The Farm Credit Administration apparently surmised that since Farm Credit Administration files are not automated, the questions posed in the Subcommittee inquiry were not applicable. Because the questions pertaining to statutory authority, notification of subject individual and his access to files, access by parties other than the subject individual, security precautions and sources of information were not answered in the response, no further analysis is possible.

Agency Response

The Farm Credit Administration response of March 16, 1973 to the subcommittee's February 8, 1973, request for replies to the subcommittee's standard questionnaire (see inside back cover) appears below.

Hon. SAM J. ERVIN, Jr.,
U.S. Senate,

Washington, D.C.

FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION,
Washington, D.C., March 16, 1973.

DEAR SENATOR ERVIN: Your letter of February 8, 1973 transmitted a questionnaire for the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights' survey of federally-administered or federally-sponsored data banks containing personal information about individuals for statistical, administrative or intelligence purposes. Our responses to the questionnaire are submitted as an attachment to this letter.

The Subcommittee also requested a statement regarding law enforcement oriented or intelligence type files (1) for surveillance of demonstrators and others involved in political activities either for or against various governmental policies; or (2) on persons who are either no longer dealing with the agency; or (3) on persons who have not yet dealt with it.

The Farm Credit Administration does not conduct any data collection, processing and storage programs or maintain any files of a law enforcement or intelligence type pertaining to individuals. There are no agency plans for automating, filming, or computerizing any such files, or creating an automated data bank of

information about individuals in any form. Accordingly, the Farm Credit Adṛmnistration has not incorporated, and does not plan to incorporate any other agency's file system or data bank as part of any file system or data bank in this agency. The Farm Credit Administration supervises and audits a system of farmerowned institutions which make agricultural loans to farmers, ranchers and their cooperatives. These institutions collect information from their borrower-owners for credit evaluation and loan servicing purposes. Some of this information is computer processed for accounting, management, and research purposes by the Farm Credit banks. The Farm Credit Administration has access to these files in its role as supervisor and auditor. We believe that the business-oriented data processing activities of these privately owned banks and associations are outside the intended scope of the Subcommittee's survey, since they are not administered or sponsored by the Farm Credit Administration.

If any further information will be helpful in the survey, please let us know. Sincerely,

E. A. JAENKE,

Governor.

RESPONSES TO INQUIRIES OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS Inquiry: (1) Describe briefly the major categories of data on individuals presently maintained and stored under auspices of the Farm Credit Administration and its agencies and the approximate number of subject individuals covered in each category.

Response: (1) The Farm Credit Administration maintains routine personnel and pay information on approximately 500 individuals who are Farm Credit Administration_employees, district Farm Credit directors, and Farm Credit Bank officers. In addition, loan records are maintained on approximately 1,900 loans to individual farmers for loan review and approval purposes under the provisions of the Farm Credit Act of 1971, PL 92-181. These are paper files only, which are limited in content to their administrative purposes. No automated data bank exists in the Farm Credit Administration. The Farm Credit banks and associations are privately owned institutions under the general supervision of the Farm Credit Administration, and not agencies of the Farm Credit Administration.

Inquiry: (2) Under what statutory and administrative authority was each data bank established and for what purpose? Please supply copies of pertinent federal statutes, regulations and memoranda on which this authority is based and by which it is implemented.

Response: (2) The Farm Credit Administration has established no automated data banks.

Inquiry: (3) Are Administration controls, guidelines or advice required by or offered to state officials and private individuals who either administer or who utilize this data-gathering program? Please supply copies of pertinent rules of advisory documents as issued by federal and state agencies.

Response: (3) The Farm Credit Administration has issued no rules or advisory documents regarding automated data banks.

Inquiry: (4) For each category and each conglomerate of data, indicate its present state of computerization or other mechanization for access and retrieval as well as for evaluation and analysis.

Response: (4) All information maintained by the Farm Credit Information is in paper form in files maintained manually.

Inquiry: (5) Describe plans for further computerization or mechanization in each program.

Response: (5) There are no specific plans to computerize or mechanize the limited, routine administrative information maintained by the Farm Credit Administration.

Inquiry: (6) Within your agency in what instances would each system ordinarily be utilized? By what officials and by what agencies?

Response: (6) The Farm Credit Administration has no specifically known need for a data bank system of computerized information about individuals.

Inquiry: (7) For each new data storage and processing program, please describe: (a) the advantages; and (b) the extent to which it permits correlating common storage and multi-faceted analysis of data on a scale not hitherto available.

Response: (7) The Farm Credit Administration has no automated data storage and processing programs.

Inquiry: (8) What specific data elements concerning an individual (including but not limited to his background, personal life, personality and habits) are in each program?

Response: (8) The Farm Credit Administration has no automated data storage and processing programs.

Inquiry: (9) Has the Administration and its component agencies developed comprehensive guidelines governing maintenance of any or all the various data systems, access to them, review and disclosure of material in them, and distribution of data to other agencies? If so, please supply copies.

Response: (9) The Farm Credit Administration has not developed guidelines because it has no automated data systems.

Inquiry: (10) A. Is the subject individual or his representative notified of the fact that he is in the data bank?

B. Is he allowed to review the data on record about him; to supplement his file; or to explain or rebut inaccurate material? Please describe the precise limitations on such rights for each restriction.

Response: (10) A. The Farm Credit Administration has no automated data banks.

B. The Farm Credit Administration has no automated data banks. Inquiry: (11) What aspects of the recorded data are available to private persons? Who, specifically? For what purpose? By what authority?

Response: (11) The Farm Credit Administration has no automated data banks. Inquiry: (12) Is a record maintained of each inspection or use of the individual's record?

Response: (12) The Farm Credit Administration has no automated data banks. Inquiry: (13) For each data bank, please indicate how the information is collected, whether it is solicited from the individual, from third persons, or from existing records.

Response: (13) The Farm Credit Administration has no automated data banks. Inquiry: (14) What officials in your agency are responsible for determining the accuracy of information in the data bank? What provisions are made, procedurally, for deleting information found to be inaccurate or inappropriate, either on the initiative of the agency or on motion of the individual?

Response: (14) The Farm Credit Administration has no automated data banks. Inquiry: (15) What other agencies, federal or otherwise, have access to information or use of information in each data bank on a regular or onetime basis? By what authority?

Response: (15) The Farm Credit Administration has no automated data banks. Inquiry: (16) How many of the agencies referred to in (15) may utilize the data in your computerized files by interfacing with their own computers?

Response: (16) The Farm Credit Administration has no automated data banks. Inquiry: (17) What security devices and procedures are utilized to prevent: (a) unauthorized access to the data file; and (b) improper use of the information? Response: (17) The Farm Credit Administration has no automated data banks. Inquiry: (18) What formal or informal arrangement does the Administration have with congressional committees for the authorizing and reviewing of new data banks and the clearance of new electronic or mechanized record-management techniques?

Response: (18) The Farm Credit Administration has no formal or informal arrangement with congressional committees for authorizing, reviewing, or clearing automated data banks or mechanized record-management techniques.

Inquiry: (19) A. Have any data programs or the development of other comprehensive records systems been discussed before other congressional committees by Administration representatives?

B. Have any been specifically approved by Congress or congressional committees?

C. If so, would you please supply any available testimony, or citations to such hearings?

Response: (19) A. No.

B. No.

C. Not applicable.

Attachments

No attachments accompanied the Farm Credit Administration

response.

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