20 C.F.R. § 401.25
Terms defined.
Cite as 20 C.F.R. § 401.25 (2026)
Access
means making a record available to a subject individual.
Act
means the Social Security Act.
Agency
means the Social Security Administration.
Commissioner
means the Commissioner of Social Security.
Disclosure
means making a record about an individual available to or releasing it to another party.
FOIA
means the Freedom of Information Act.
Individual
when used in connection with the Privacy Act or for disclosure of nonprogram records, means a living person who is a citizen of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence. It does not include persons such as sole proprietorships, partnerships, or corporations. A business firm which is identified by the name of one or more persons is not an individual. When used in connection with the rules governing program information,
individual
means a living natural person; this does not include corporations, partnerships, and unincorporated business or professional groups of two or more persons.
Information
means information about an individual, and includes, but is not limited to, vital statistics; race, sex, or other physical characteristics; earnings information; professional fees paid to an individual and other financial information; benefit data or other claims information; the social security number, employer identification number, or other individual identifier; address; phone number; medical information, including psychological or psychiatric information or lay information used in a medical determination; and information about marital and family relationships and other personal relationships.
Maintain
means to establish, collect, use, or disseminate when used in connection with the term
record
; and, to have control over or responsibility for a system of records when used in connection with the term
system of records.
Notification
means communication to an individual whether he is a subject individual. (
Subject individual
is defined further on in this section.)
Program information
means personal information and records collected and compiled by SSA in order to discharge its responsibilities under titles I, II, IV part A, X, XI, XIV, XVI and XVIII of the Act and parts B and C of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act.
Record
means any item, collection, or grouping of information about an individual that is maintained by SSA including, but not limited to, information such as an individual's education, financial transactions, medical history, and criminal or employment history that contains the individual's name, or an identifying number, symbol, or any other means by which an individual can be identified. When used in this part, record means only a record which is in a system of records.
Routine use
means the disclosure of a record outside SSA, without the consent of the subject individual, for a purpose which is compatible with the purpose for which the record was collected. It includes disclosures required to be made by statutes other than the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552. It does not include disclosures which the Privacy Act otherwise permits without the consent of the subject individual and without regard to whether they are compatible with the purpose for which the information is collected, such as disclosures to the Bureau of the Census, the General Accounting Office, or to Congress.
Social Security Administration (SSA)
means (1) that Federal agency which has administrative responsibilities under titles, I, II, X, XI, XIV, XVI, and XVIII of the Act; and (2) units of State governments which make determinations under agreements made under sections 221 and 1633 of the Act.
Social Security program
means any program or provision of law which SSA is responsible for administering, including the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act. This includes our responsibilities under parts B and C of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act.
Statistical record
means a record maintained for statistical research or reporting purposes only and not maintained to make determinations about a particular subject individual.
Subject individual
means the person to whom a record pertains.
System of records
means a group of records under our control from which information about an individual is retrieved by the name of the individual or by an identifying number, symbol, or other identifying particular. Single records or groups of records which are not retrieved by a personal identifier are not part of a system of records. Papers maintained by individual Agency employees which are prepared, maintained, or discarded at the discretion of the employee and which are not subject to the Federal Records Act, 44 U.S.C. 2901, are not part of a system of records; provided, that such personal papers are not used by the employee or the Agency to determine any rights, benefits, or privileges of individuals.
We
and
our
mean the Social Security Administration.
- Cross-references to the US Code
- 44:29015:552.