DHS/ALL/PIA-072 National Vetting Center (NVC)

Through National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM)-9, the President has mandated the Federal Government improve the manner in which executive departments and agencies (agencies) coordinate and use intelligence and other information to identify individuals who present a threat to national security, border security, homeland security, or public safety in accordance with their existing legal authorities and all applicable policy protections. To achieve this mandate, the President directed the establishment of the National Vetting Center (NVC) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with the purpose of coordinating agency vetting efforts to locate and use relevant intelligence and law enforcement information to identify individuals who may present a threat to the homeland. The Secretary of Homeland Security has delegated this responsibility within DHS to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). DHS is conducting this Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) to assess the risks to privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties presented by the NVC and the vetting programs that will operate using the NVC. 

As previously detailed, Vetting Support Agencies electronically transmit relevant and appropriate information (Vetting Support Responses) to Adjudicating Agencies using the NVC technology. The Vetting Support Responses include links or pointers to information that Vetting Support Agencies assess are valid and analytically significant identity matches. These links or pointers allow Analysts to view related information in other (typically classified) systems to which the Analyst has authorized access. Originally, the Vetting Support Responses only included these links or pointers, which meant that Analysts had to search other systems to access additional information. Now, as an update to this Privacy Impact Assessment the Vetting Support Agencies may also provide relevant information from the Vetting Support Request that matches information in Vetting Support Agency holdings. Unlike the links or pointers information, this matched information is presented for Analysts to view in the NVC technology; however, Analysts will still need to access other systems outside of the NVC technology to view all relevant information from Vetting Support Agency holdings.

Additionally, DHS is providing notice about a privacy-related risk in the vetting process regarding the potential for an individual to change legal status during the vetting process. Additionally, the Authority to Operate for the NVC technology was modified and approved in February 2022. There are no other updates to this Privacy Impact Assessment. The descriptions of the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs), risks, and mitigations remain the same as first published on December 11, 2018. April 2023