NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-42(4) — Notice Of Collection

What this control requires

Implement measures to ensure that individuals are informed when personally identifiable information is being collected by organizational sensors. These measures may include written notices or sensor configurations that make individuals aware, either directly or indirectly, through other devices that their information is being collected. The clarity and effectiveness of these notifications are critical to user privacy management. This control supports the Sensor data collection notification and awareness systems capability within the System and Communications Protection family.

In plain English

Implement measures to ensure that individuals are informed when personally identifiable information is being collected by organizational sensors. In practice, this means you can prove you information management-level controls on a defined cadence.

Why it matters

SP 800-53 is the catalogue every U.S. federal authorisation (FedRAMP, FISMA, CMMC) and most regulated industries point at. A missing control surfaces as a Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M) item that an Authorizing Official must approve before the Authority To Operate is granted or renewed.

This control is rated high. Auditors expect a named owner, a remediation SLA, and a tooling artefact that evidences continuous operation.

What an auditor looks for

A 3PAO (FedRAMP) or Independent Assessor (NIST RMF) tests against NIST SP 800-53A assessment procedures. For each control they expect a documented implementation that addresses every assessment objective (Examine, Interview, Test) and an implementation summary in the System Security Plan.

Within System and Communications Protection, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control SC-42(4)) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Endpoint Protection

MDM. Make MDM enrollment a hard gate for device access (Intune compliance + Conditional Access, or Jamf + Okta device trust). Unmanaged devices simply don't get a session token.

EDR. Deploy CrowdStrike / SentinelOne / Defender for Endpoint to every server and laptop; alert on any host that stops sending telemetry for >24h.

Operational checklist

• Information. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Security. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Data. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Notification. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Protection. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: management, information, privacy, system, notification, personally identifiable information, protection, capability.

Evidence to collect

• User Device Scan. MDM compliance state per user device (Intune / Jamf / Workspace ONE).

Endpoint compliance telemetry (Intune, Jamf) proves managed coverage. Focus: Notice Of Collection.

Common pitfalls

• Pilot MDM rollouts that quietly exclude executives or engineers; carving out the highest-risk users is the most common audit failure.

Related controls in NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5

• Control SI-18(5) — Notice Of Correction Or Deletion
• Control SI-18(3) — Collection
• Control SC-5(1) — Restrict Ability To Attack Other Systems
• Control PT-5(1) — Just-In-Time Notice
• Control SC-15(1) — Physical Or Logical Disconnect
• Control SC-42 — Sensor Capability And Data

References

• NIST Computer Security Resource Center — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5
• Catalogue identifier: Control SC-42(4)

Topics: endpoint securitydata protectionawareness trainingendpoint protectionprivacy management