Perhaps the biggest concern with regards to intelligence fusion centers at the federal, state, and local levels is the concern over privacy. Since their inception, fusion center officials have taken a number of steps to embed privacy policies and practices into the management of the program.

You are the chief privacy officer (CPO) for the Department of Homeland Security assigned to the DHS privacy office. As the CPO, you are responsible for enforcing fusion center privacy policies, including specifically insuring that the methods and technologies used by the fusion centers for intelligence collection and dissemination do not violate privacy protections and that the fusion center complies with fair information practices in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974. One of your primary responsibilities as the CPO is to conduct a privacy impact assessment of the current policies, practices, and proposals involving the collection and disclosure of personal information by fusion centers.