DHS/ALL/PIA-019 DHS Our Border Network

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Public Affairs, in coordination with the Office of International Affairs plans to use the social networking site Ning.com to facilitate the creation of a “civic network” focused on southwest border issues. To become a member of the DHS network hosted by Ning, individuals must be a member of Ning.com which requires the collection of certain personally identifiable information (PII). Although Ning is not collecting this PII on behalf of DHS, DHS will be able to review PII as part of its participation in the social network; therefore, DHS conducted this privacy impact assessment (PIA) to identify and mitigate privacy issues associated with the administration of a DHS-created social media network hosted on a non-DHS platform. August 2009