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Government Agency Waiver Requests

Executive Law § 108 requires state and local government entities to accept and use ACP substitute addresses. This statute authorizes the Secretary of State to grant waivers of this requirement to state and local government agencies that demonstrate a bona fide need for the actual addresses of ACP participants that cannot be met through changes to the government agency’s internal procedures. The regulations governing this waiver process are codified at 19 NYCRR 134.8.

A request for a waiver must:

• identify the agency program or activity for which a waiver is sought


• describe how actual addresses are currently used in the administration of the program activity


• identify the statute or administrative rule that demonstrates the agency’s bona fide need for and authority to use the actual addresses of ACP participants


• explain how using an ACP substitute address will prevent the agency from meeting a statutory or administrative obligation


• explain why the agency cannot meet its statutory or administrative obligations by changing its internal procedures


• identify and describe the specific record or record series for which the waiver is requested


• identify the individual(s) who will have access to the record or record series that would contain actual address information.


• Describe how the confidentiality of the record or record series will be maintained

Government agencies that maintain the actual addresses of ACP participants in their records are generally not permitted to release those confidential records to other agencies or the public. There are some circumstances, however, when a government agency must exchange information with another government agency or the federal government in order to meet its statutory or administrative obligations.

A waiver application that is requesting authority to communicate to or receive communication from another agency or to the federal government of the actual addresses of ACP participants must also:

• identify the agency or federal government agency with whom the actual addresses of program participants would be communicated;


• identify the statute or administrative rule that demonstrates the agency’s bona fide need for and authority to communicate the actual addresses of ACP participants with another agency


• explain how communicating an ACP substitute address instead of an actual address will prevent the agency from meeting a statutory or administrative obligation


• indicate the status of the other agency’s waiver application, if applicable and if known

Each application for a waiver must include certification by the head of the agency that the agency will maintain the confidentiality of actual address information collected and maintained pursuant to the requested waiver by redacting the actual address information from a record when it is released to any person and will not make the Program Participant’s actual address available unless authorized or required to do so pursuant to Executive Law § 108(4)(b).

An agency that has requested a waiver, or requested review and reconsideration of the denial of a waiver request, must accept and use ACP substitute addresses while that review is pending for any records for which the waiver was requested.

Waiver requests should be mailed to:
NYS Department of State
Address Confidentiality Program
P.O. Box 1110
Albany, NY 12201-1110

Or faxed to the ACP at: (518) 474-0709