Public records exemptions:

Exemption (c) – The Privacy Exemption Exemption (c), the privacy exemption, is the most frequently invoked exemption. The language of the exemption limits its application to: personnel and medical files or information; also any other materials or data relating to a specifically named individual, the disclosure of which may constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy (43)
43 G. L. c. 4, § 7(26)(c).

The privacy exemption is made up of two separate clauses, the first of which exempts personnel and medical files. As a general rule, medical information will always be of a sufficiently personal nature to warrant exemption.44 The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court determined that exempting personnel information from disclosure serves to protect the government’s ability to function effectively as an employer.45 The release of certain personnel information could disrupt the government’s capability to conduct sensitive and careful investigations regarding employees.46 While statutorily exempting personnel information from the expansive definition of public records, the legislature did not explicitly define personnel information.47 However, judicial decisions acknowledge that the term is neither rigid, nor exact, and that the determination is case-specific.48 The custodian’s classification of materials as “personnel information” is not conclusive.49 Instead, the nature or character of the documents, as opposed to the documents’ label, is crucial to the analysis.50 The nature of some materials and the context in which they arise take them beyond what the legislature contemplated when exempting personnel information.51


Public employees have a diminished expectation of privacy in matters relating to their public employment.56 Consequently, the public will have greater access to information that relates to an individual’s public employment than to the same individual’s private activities.57 For example, an individual’s public employment salary is a public record, but the source or amount of private income generally is not public information.

The public interest in the financial information of a public employee outweighs the privacy interest where the financial compensation in question is drawn on an account held by a government entity and comprised of taxpayer funds.


posted by Jeff Bennett