The Privacy Act of 1974 (Privacy Act; 5 U.S.C. §552a) prescribes how federal agency records with individually identifying information are to be stored, who may access such information, and when the government may use or disclose it. The act represents an expansion of the concept of privacy beyond a narrow, property-based concept and the beginnings of understanding privacy based on the content of the information itself rather than its paper or electronic format.