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  3. Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA) Collection

Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA) Collection

The Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is a decision tool to identify and mitigate privacy risks that notifies the public what Personally Identifiable Information (PII) DHS is collecting, why the PII is being collected and how the PII will be collected, used, accessed, shared, safeguarded and stored.

Use the “Filter” field to search PIAs by keyword and select a “Topic” to narrow results.

Return to the Privacy Impact Assessments page.

  • DHS/USCIS/PIA-057 National Appointment Scheduling System

    The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) uses the National Appointment Scheduling System (NASS), a cloud-operated system, to schedule appointments for biometric collections at Application Support Centers (ASCs). The Canada Appointment Scheduler was created to allow individuals seeking an immigration benefit with Canada to schedule a biometrics collection appointment at an ASC. This Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is being updated to account for the collection, use, maintenance, and dissemination of personally identifiable information (PII) from individuals who are seeking a Canadian immigration benefit and who schedule a biometric collection appointment at an ASC.

  • DHS/ALL/PIA-050 DHS Trusted Identity Exchange

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Trusted Identity Exchange (TIE) is a privacy-enhancing DHS Enterprise Service that enables and manages the digital flow of identity, credential, and access-management data for DHS employees and contractors. It does so by establishing connections to various internal authoritative data sources and provides a secure, digital interface to consuming applications.

  • DHS/USCIS/PIA-056 USCIS Electronic Immigration System (USCIS ELIS)

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Electronic Immigration System (ELIS) serves as an internal case management system for electronically filed benefit request forms and certain paper forms, along with providing services and system interconnections. ELIS is an end-to-end digital case processing “system-of-services” that offers a seamless user experience for USCIS employees to perform highly complex processing and adjudicative tasks. 

  • DHS/CBP/PIA-072 Unified Immigration Portal (UIP)

    The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Unified Immigration Portal (UIP) provides agencies involved in the immigration process a means to view and access certain information from each of the respective agencies from a single portal in near real time (as the information is entered into the source systems). CBP is publishing this Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) to provide notice of implementation of the UIP and assess the privacy risks and mitigations for the UIP.

  • DHS/ALL/PIA-009 Web Time & Attendance System

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHO) has procured a COTS application and customized it to meet DHS standard requirements. This system is designed to implement an enterprise system that can efficiently automate the timesheet collection process and provide robust reporting features and a labor distribution capability.

  • DHS/USCIS/PIA-009 Central Index System

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) maintains the Central Index System (CIS). CIS is a repository of electronic data that contains an index of basic data elements related to an individual as he or she passes through the immigration process. CIS contains information on the status of applicants and petitioners seeking immigrant and non-immigrant benefits, including: lawful permanent residents, naturalized citizens, United States border crossers, aliens who illegally entered the United States, aliens who have been issued employment authorization documents, individuals who petitioned for benefits on behalf of family members, and other individuals subject to the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Recently USCIS migrated records from a legacy mainframe database to a cloud platform and renamed legacy CIS to CIS 2. CIS2 continues to look and function like the CIS mainframe application, with subtle formatting enhancements.

  • DHS/ICE/PIA-056 War Crimes Hunter

    The War Crimes Hunter (WCH) program collects digital media depicting individuals engaged in war crimes and human rights violations, isolates the facial images of the suspected perpetrators, and shares those images with the biometric databases of relevant Federal partners. ICE is conducting this Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) because WCH collects and disseminates personally identifiable information (PII) of individuals who are located overseas and engaging in human rights violations.

  • DHS/USCIS/PIA-044 Validation Instrument for Business Enterprises (VIBE)

    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Service Center Operations Directorate (SCOPS) developed the Validation Instrument for Business Enterprises (VIBE) system.  SCOPS uses VIBE to (1) validate the business operations and financial viability of organizations seeking to employ foreign workers; and (2) identify benefit fraud based on the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) findings and other government agencies’ referrals. USCIS conducted this Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) because VIBE collects, uses, and disseminates Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

  • USCIS Retired PIAs

    USCIS Retired PIAs - DHS/USCIS/PIA-001, 002, 004, 005, 006(a), 006(b), 006, 006(c), 011, 014, 014(a), 020, 024, 025, 026, 028

  • DHS/S&T/PIA-042 DHS Federally Funded Research and Development Centers

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sponsors federally funded research and development centers (FFRDC). The DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) FFRDC Program Management Office (PMO) oversees and manages access to these specialized services in systems engineering, integration, studies, and analysis. The FFRDC services can be accessed by DHS components; external federal, state, and local government; non-governmental organizations and institutions; universities and affiliated research centers; and other public sector and private sector groups, through the PMO. S&T conducted this Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) to address the Department’s FFRDC program as well as two specific FFRDCs (i.e., Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center [HSOAC] and Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute [HSSEDI]) and the privacy risks associated with the collection, use, maintenance, and dissemination of personally identifiable information (PII), privacy sensitive projects and activities, and use of DHS-accredited information systems.