NASS Confidentiality Pledge

United States
Department of
Agriculture

National
Agricultural
Statistics
Service

Providing timely, accurate, and useful
statistics in service to U.S. agriculture.

www.nass.usda.gov
(800) 727-9540

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination
in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national
origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status,
familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic
information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an
individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program
(Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with
disabilities who require alternative means for communication of
program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should
contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD).
To file a complaint of discrimination, write to USDA, Director, Office
of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C.
20250-9410, or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382
(TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

November 2000
Revised September 2007

United States
Department of
Agriculture

NASS
Confidentiality
Pledge

National
Agricultural
Statistics
Service

Our Guarantee
for Safeguarding
Your Privacy

NASS CONFIDENTIALITY PLEDGE
When NASS Collects Data for Official
USDA Statistics:
1. Names, addresses, and personal identifiers are
fully protected by NASS with the force of law.
After data collection, the National Agricultural Statistics
Service (NASS) processes the data independent of names
and addresses. Original paper questionnaires are kept in
a secure area, and then destroyed as prescribed by law.
Names, addresses, phone numbers, and other personal
identifiers are held securely by NASS and used only to
conduct official business. Title 7, U.S. Code, Section 2276
and the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical
Efficiency Act prohibit public disclosure of individual
information. Personal information, including reported
data, is protected from legal subpoena and Freedom of
Information Act requests.

2. Only authorized persons working for NASS as
employees or sworn agents, who are subject to
fines and imprisonment for unauthorized
disclosure, can access individual record data
and only for approved official purposes.
All information collected by NASS about individuals or
operations under a pledge of confidentiality is protected
by law. Every person working for or in cooperation with
NASS – from the Agency Administrator to the person
collecting the information – signs a confidentiality form
which states that no confidential reported information
will be compromised. This includes sworn agents who
are authorized by NASS to provide data collection
support or statistical research. Any offender is subject
to a jail term (5 years), a fine ($250,000), or both.

3. Data security is a top priority during preparation
of NASS reports.
Official USDA statistics issued by the NASS Agricultural
Statistics Board (ASB) are prepared under tight security
until public release of the reports at preannounced dates
and times. The ASB restricts prerelease access to and
communication about survey and census results. In many
cases, a locked area with a uniformed guard is employed
to prevent premature disclosure of market-sensitive
information. NASS official statistics are released to
everyone at the same time. Reports are available on the
Internet within seconds of the scheduled release.

4. Published statistics from NASS surveys and
censuses will not disclose reported data from an
individual.
Individual participants in a NASS survey can rest assured
that summary data will not be published in a way that
would identify them or data for their operation without
their written permission. For instance, if only one farm in a
county produced a particular crop, then NASS will protect
the privacy of that individual farm by combining the data
for that crop with reports from other counties to publish
only combined totals.

When NASS Collects Data for Other
Statistical Purposes:
1. NASS will clearly communicate to participants the
survey purpose, the names of any cooperating
sponsors, how the data will be used, and the
confidentiality protections provided.
Data collection for other agencies under the NASS
pledge of confidentiality will afford the same protections
described in 1 through 4 above. Data collected for
analysis by a sponsoring agency will have all personal
identifiers, such as name, address, and telephone number,
removed before access by the analyst. Analysts will sign
confidentiality statements as sworn NASS agents. Results
of the study are released to everyone free of charge. No
organization is given ownership of the data, to eliminate
the possibility of its having an advantage over others. NASS
will not conduct a survey for private, proprietary purposes.

2. Some data collected by NASS are required by law
and subject to audit.
Requests for data required by law and subject to audit
will clearly indicate that the reports have different
confidentiality protections than described earlier since the
data may be audited. NASS and the participating authority
that conducts the audits will protect individually reported
data to the maximum extent provided under the law,
and will work directly with reporting entities to resolve
discrepancies discovered in the audit process. Summary
statistics are provided to the USDA agency responsible
for administering the specific programs that rely upon
the required data. Program results are released at the
discretion of the administering agency without revealing
data reported from an individual.