What information is exempt under FOIA?
While the focus of the FOIA is on making government information available to the public, the statute recognizes that disclosure of certain kinds of information would be harmful. For this reason, the FOIA exempts nine categories of information from the general mandatory disclosure rule, and excludes certain records from coverage under the FOIA. Information About Internal Personnel Rules and Practices All agency records must be made available to the public under the FOIA, except for records that are: • Properly classified as secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy (b)(1). • Related solely to internal personnel rules and practices (b)(2). • Specifically exempted by other statutes (b)(3). • Concerning trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person that is privileged or confidential (b)(4). • Privileged interagency or intra-agency memoranda or letters, except under certain circumstances (b)(5). • Personnel and medical files and similar file
