Removal of Personally Identifiable Information From Registration Records

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From The Federal Register:

The U.S. Copyright Office is issuing a final rule to allow authors and claimants to replace or remove personally identifiable information (‘‘PII’’) from the Office’s online registration catalog. This rule allows authors and claimants, or their authorized representatives, to request the replacement or removal of certain PII that is requested by the Office and collected on a registration application, such as a home addresses or personal phone numbers, from the Office’s internet-accessible public catalog, while retaining that information in the Office’s offline records as required by law. The rule also codifies an existing practice that removes extraneous PII, such as driver’s license numbers, social security numbers, banking information, and credit card information, on the Office’s  own volition or upon request by authors, claimants, or their authorized representatives.

Link to the rest at The Federal Register and thanks to Laura, who reads the Federal Register’s table of contents every day, for the tip.

7 thoughts on “Removal of Personally Identifiable Information From Registration Records”

  1. This is interesting because from 1980 to 1984 I was one of the catalogers inputting title, author, claimant, and other information into the Copyright Office’s online catalog. Personal info NEVER went into the public catalog, although things like the claimant’s address may have been kept on file somewhere else for the CO’s use.

    Of course I am aware that many changes in procedure have happened since I left in ’84.

    Lyle Blake Smythers

    • Yeah, I wonder about this. I thought after Rebecca Shaeffer agencies made a point of not making PII accessible to just anyone. Glad they’ve cleared up this oversight.

  2. When can we USE this? Addresses of authors should not be easily accessible. Maybe the big publishers don’t care, but I was unhappy having to give up real information, and then finding out it was readily available online.

    • Heh, maybe the first ‘readily available’ information they can access should be your concealed carry permit number. (That might give some pause to looking for more info. 😉 )

  3. Also from the official announcement in the Federal Register:

    FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cindy Abramson, Assistant General Counsel, by email at ciab@loc.gov, or Abioye Mosheim, Attorney Advisor, by email at abmo@loc.gov. Each can be reached by telephone by calling 202– 707–8350.

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