FOIA Exemptions and Exclusions

(b)(2) - Internal Personnel Rules and Practices of an Agency

This exemption exempts from mandatory disclosure records that are "related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency."

(b)(3) - Information that is Prohibited from Disclosure by Another Federal Law

This exemption incorporates the disclosure prohibitions that are contained in various other federal statutes. Statutes used by Department of Commerce components last Fiscal Year.

(b)(4) - Trade Secrets, Commercial or Financial Information

This exemption protects "trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person [that is] privileged or confidential." This exemption is intended to protect the interest of both the government and submitter of information.

(b)(5) - Privileged Communications Within or Between Agencies, Including:

 
1. Deliberative Process Privilege;
2. Attorney-Work Product Privilege; and
3. Attorney-Client Privilege.

(b)(6) - Personal Information Affecting an Individual's Privacy

This exemption permits the government to withhold all information about individuals in "personnel and medical files and similar files" when the disclosure of such information " would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." This exemption cannot be invoked to withhold from a requester information pertaining to the requester.

(b)(7) - Investigatory Records Compiled for Law Enforcement Purposes

As amended, this exemption protects from disclosure "records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes."

7(A) - Records or information that could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings. This exemption authorizes the withholding of "records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that production of such law enforcement records or information ... could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings."

7(B) - Disclosure which would deprive a person of a fair trial or an impartial adjudication. Records that would prevent prejudicial pretrial publicity that could impair a court proceeding, protects "records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes [the disclosure of which] would deprive a person of the right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication."

7(C) - Personal Information in Law Enforcement Records. This exemption provides protection for personal information in law enforcement records. This exemption is the law enforcement counterpart to Exemption 6, providing protection for law enforcement information the disclosure of which "could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

7(D) - Identity of a Confidential Source. This exemption provides protection for "records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes [which] could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source --including a State, local, or foreign agency or authority or any private institution which furnished information on a confidential basis--and, in the case of a record or information compiled by a criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation, or by an agency conducting a lawful national security intelligence investigation, information furnished by a confidential source."

7(E) -Circumvention of the Law. This exemption affords protection to all law enforcement information which "would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law."

7(F) - Physical Safety to Protect a wide Range of Individuals. This exemption permits the withholding of information necessary to protect the physical safety of a wide range of individuals. Whereas Exemption 7(F) previously protected records that "would ...endanger the life or physical safety of law enforcement personnel," the amended exemption provides protection to "any individual when disclosure of information about him or her "could reasonably be expected to endanger [his/her] life or physical safety."

(b)(8) - Records of Financial Institutions

This exemption covers matters that are "contained in or related to examination, operating, or condition reports prepared by, on behalf of, or for the use of an agency responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions."

(b)(9) - Geographical and Geophysical Information Concerning Wells

This exemption covers "geological and geophysical information and data, including maps, concerning wells.