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
