| name | arckit-us-privacy-pia |
| description | [COMMUNITY] Generate a Privacy Impact Assessment under E-Government Act §208 and OMB M-03-22 for a US federal civilian system handling PII, including Privacy Act §552a alignment and SORN trigger check. |
⚠️ Community-contributed command — not part of the officially-maintained ArcKit baseline.
Output should be reviewed by qualified US federal counsel, your agency's Senior Agency Official
for Privacy (SAOP), CISO, Chief AI Officer (CAIO), and (for FedRAMP matters) the agency PMO
and 3PAO before reliance.
Statutory currency: EO 14110 was revoked January 2025; the active AI assurance mandates
are OMB M-24-10 (use of AI) and OMB M-25-21 (acquisition of AI). FedRAMP completed the
transition to NIST 800-53 Rev 5 baselines in 2024 — Rev 4 references are deprecated. Verify
all citations against the current Federal Register, OMB Circulars page, NIST publications, and
FedRAMP.gov before relying on this output.
You are an enterprise architect producing a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for a US federal civilian agency system under E-Government Act §208 and OMB M-03-22.
User Input
$ARGUMENTS
Context
Section 208 of the E-Government Act of 2002 requires federal agencies to conduct a PIA before developing or procuring information technology that collects, maintains, or disseminates personally identifiable information (PII), and before initiating a new electronic collection of PII from ten or more persons (excluding agencies, instrumentalities, or employees of the Federal Government). OMB M-03-22 is the implementing guidance and specifies PIA content and process.
The PIA must align with the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. §552a). If the system meets the Privacy Act definition of a System of Records — records about individuals retrieved by a personal identifier — the agency must publish (or update) a System of Records Notice (SORN) in the Federal Register before the system goes operational. PII handling must conform to the Privacy Act's Fair Information Practice Principles, NIST SP 800-122 protections, and any sector-specific overlays (HIPAA, FERPA, IRS Publication 1075 for Federal Tax Information, CJIS for criminal-justice information).
This US PIA is distinct from the Canadian PIA ($arckit-ca-pia), Australian PIA ($arckit-au-pia), and UK DPIA ($arckit-dpia) — do not confuse the statutory bases, terminology, or oversight bodies. The PIA is signed off by the agency's Senior Agency Official for Privacy (SAOP) and published (with appropriate redactions) on the agency's privacy page per M-03-22 §II.B.4.
Authoritative anchors:
Process
-
Read prerequisites:
projects/000-global/ARC-000-PRIN-*.md (architecture principles, if present)
- The project's REQ artefact — extract
DR-* (data requirements), NFR-SEC-* (security NFRs), INT-* (integration requirements)
- The project's DATA / data-model artefact — for PII inventory, retention, lineage
- The project's STKE artefact — for affected individuals and data subjects
- The project's ICAM artefact (if present) — for identity-proofing PII flows
.arckit/templates/_partials/RENDERING.md
-
Read the template:
- First, check
.arckit/templates-custom/us-privacy-pia-template.md (user override)
- Then,
.arckit/templates-custom/us-privacy-pia-template.md
- Fallback,
.arckit/templates/us-privacy-pia-template.md
-
Use scripts/bash/create-project.sh --json --name "<project-name>" if the project does not yet exist; otherwise locate it.
-
Use node scripts/generate-document-id.mjs <PROJECT_ID> USPIA --filename for the artefact filename. The type code for this command is USPIA (US-prefixed to avoid collision with the Canadian PIA doc type).
-
Resolve the <!-- DOC-CONTROL-HEADER --> marker per RENDERING.md before writing the artefact. RENDERING.md hard-routes the US regime to _partials/document-control-us.md, which already carries the EO 13526 / 32 CFR Part 2002 marking ladder — no per-command classification override is needed.
-
Generate the following sections:
- System Overview — system name, agency component owner, mission served, in-scope IT components, user populations, operational status.
- PII Inventory — table of every PII element: data element name, category (sensitive vs non-sensitive per NIST SP 800-122), source (subject / third party / government records), purpose of collection, lawful authority citation, retention period, disposal method.
- PII Lifecycle Map — Mermaid data-flow diagram covering Collection → Use → Disclosure → Retention → Disposal, with each flow annotated by the lawful authority and any Privacy Act §552a(b) exception relied upon.
Handoffs
Identity-proofing PII flows reconcile with $arckit-us-icam. AI systems processing PII require $arckit-us-ai-impact for the M-24-10 rights-impacting determination. PII elements, lawful authorities, and retention rules flow into $arckit-data-model as data classifications and access-control attributes.
Important Notes
- This is the US PIA, not the Canadian PIA, UK DPIA, or Australian PIA — different statutory bases, different oversight bodies (SAOP, not OPC / ICO / OAIC), different terminology (SORN, not PIB / ROPA). Do not blend frameworks; the
$arckit-ca-pia, $arckit-au-pia, and $arckit-dpia commands exist precisely because the regimes differ.
- SORN publication is a hard prerequisite — if a SORN is required, the SORN must be published in the Federal Register and the comment period closed (typically 30 days) before the System of Records is operational. Do not treat this as a parallel task to launch.
- SAOP sign-off is non-delegable for high-risk systems — agency policy may permit privacy-officer sign-off for low-risk PIAs, but high-risk systems require the SAOP. Confirm the agency's delegation policy before assuming any officer can sign.
- PIAs are not one-shot — re-trigger on substantial modifications: new PII elements, new uses, new disclosure recipients, change of processor / contractor, change of cloud region or hosting model, or any change that materially alters the privacy risk posture.
- Publication is mandatory — M-03-22 §II.B.4 requires publication of the PIA on the agency website, subject only to legitimate redactions for sensitive information. An unpublished PIA fails the statutory transparency obligation.
Suggested Next Steps
After completing this command, consider running:
$arckit-us-icam -- PII collected by identity proofing (IAL2/IAL3) and authentication processes is documented in the PIA; the ICAM data flows must reconcile with the PIA inventory.
$arckit-us-ai-impact -- AI systems processing PII require both the PIA and the M-24-10 rights-impacting determination; the PIA feeds the AI Impact Assessment.
$arckit-data-model -- PII fields and lawful authorities surface as data-model attributes and access-control rules.