OPM Issues Privacy Assessment in Suit Over Government-Wide Email System

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has submitted a privacy assessment in an ongoing lawsuit over the Trump administration’s plan to implement a government-wide email system for communication with federal employees. The Feb. 5 filing was made after a lawsuit in which two anonymous employees alleged that the Trump administration had failed to issue a privacy impact assessment (PIA) purportedly required by federal law. A subsequent motion for a temporary restraining order requested that a federal judge in Washington prevent the OPM from operating computer systems tied to an email address—HR@opm.gov—associated with the administration’s project. OPM had announced on Jan. 23 that it was “testing a new capability allowing it to send important communications to ALL civilian federal employees from a single email address.”...