Control statement
Appoint a senior agency official for privacy with the authority, mission, accountability, and resources to coordinate, develop, and implement, applicable privacy requirements and manage privacy risks through the organization-wide privacy program.
Discussion
The privacy officer is an organizational official. For federal agencies—as defined by applicable laws, executive orders, directives, regulations, policies, standards, and guidelines—this official is designated as the senior agency official for privacy. Organizations may also refer to this official as the chief privacy officer. The senior agency official for privacy also has roles on the data management board (see [PM-23](#pm-23) ) and the data integrity board (see [PM-24](#pm-24)).
From control text to operational evidence
Use Privacy Program Leadership Role as a testable risk decision. Translate the official statement into accountable people, repeatable processes, configured technology, and evidence that demonstrates the outcome over time. In this family, pay particular attention to enterprise program governance, accountability, resources, metrics, and organization-wide risk decisions.
Implementation workflow
- Define the control boundary, responsible owner, inherited portions, and systems or processes in scope.
- Resolve each organization-defined parameter before declaring the control implemented.
- Document how the implementation satisfies every clause of the official control statement.
- Collect evidence as a normal byproduct of operation rather than only before an assessment.
- Review exceptions, changes, and monitoring results on a risk-based cadence.
Evidence examples
- program charters and policies
- governance meeting records
- risk and performance metrics
- resource and responsibility assignments
Common failure patterns
- program metrics count activity instead of outcomes
- system-level risks never reach enterprise governance
- responsibilities assigned without authority or resources
- privacy and security managed in separate silos
Questions practitioners should ask
- What risk decision is this control intended to support in this system?
- Which parts are implemented locally, inherited, shared, or not applicable—and what evidence supports that decision?
- Do the documented narrative, deployed configuration, operating process, and collected evidence agree?
- What event or threshold requires the implementation to be reviewed or changed?
Assessment objectives and methods
Show the assessment objective
- PM-19[01]a senior agency official for privacy with authority, mission, accountability, and resources is appointed;
- PM-19[02]the senior agency official for privacy coordinates applicable privacy requirements;
- PM-19[03]the senior agency official for privacy develops applicable privacy requirements;
- PM-19[04]the senior agency official for privacy implements applicable privacy requirements;
- PM-19[05]the senior agency official for privacy manages privacy risks through the organization-wide privacy program.
Examine
- Privacy program documents, including policies, procedures, plans, and reports
- public privacy notices, including Federal Register notices
- privacy impact assessments
- privacy risk assessments
- Privacy Act statements
- system of records notices
- computer matching agreements and notices
- contracts, information sharing agreements, and memoranda of understanding
- governing requirements, including laws, executive orders, regulations, standards, and guidance
- other relevant documents or records
Interview
- Organizational personnel with privacy program planning and plan implementation responsibilities
- organizational personnel with privacy responsibilities
- senior agency official for privacy
- privacy officials
Related controls
These relationships come from the official OSCAL catalog. They indicate useful dependencies or context, not automatic inheritance or equivalence.
Authoritative sources
Bare Metal Cyber is an independent educational publisher and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NIST. Official control requirements and interpretations remain with NIST and the responsible authorizing organization.