[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 45, Volume 1]

[Revised as of October 1, 2006]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 45CFR5.67]



[Page 30]

 

                        TITLE 45--PUBLIC WELFARE

 

                    SUBTITLE A--DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

                           AND HUMAN SERVICES

 

PART 5_FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REGULATIONS--Table of Contents

 

             Subpart F_Reasons for Withholding Some Records

 

Sec.  5.67  Exemption six: Clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.



    (a) Documents affected. We may withhold records about individuals if 

disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of their 

personal privacy.

    (b) Balancing test. In deciding whether to release records to you 

that contain personal or private information about someone else, we 

weigh the foreseeable harm of invading that person's privacy against the 

public benefit that would result from the release. If you were seeking 

information for a purely commercial venture, for example, we might not 

think that disclosure would primarily benefit the public and we would 

deny your request. On the other hand, we would be more inclined to 

release information if you were working on a research project that gave 

promise of providing valuable information to a wide audience. However, 

in our evaluation of requests for records we attempt to guard against 

the release of information that might involve a violation of personal 

privacy because of a requester being able to ``read between the lines'' 

or piece together items that would constitute information that normally 

would be exempt from mandatory disclosure under Exemption Six.

    (c) Examples. Some of the information that we frequently withhold 

under Exemption Six is: Home addresses, ages, and minority group status 

of our employees or former employees; social security numbers; medical 

information about individuals participating in clinical research 

studies; names and addresses of individual beneficiaries of our 

programs, or benefits such individuals receive; earning records, claim 

files, and other personal information maintained by the Social Security 

Administration, the Public Health Service, and theCenters for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services.