Federal law requires federal agencies to restrict disclosure of personally identifiable information that otherwise would be made available to the public pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552. Personally identifiable information includes social security numbers, dates of birth, personal financial account numbers, and home addresses of students or individuals. If personally identifiable information is neither relevant nor necessary to the case, OHA requests that it not be included in any filing. If such information is otherwise necessary and relevant, OHA recommends that the filing party remove or partially redact the personally identifiable information. For example, if social security numbers must be included, use only the last four digits of the numbers. Alternatively, an arbitrary student numbering system to identify students at issue may be utilized.

Privacy Issues

Electronic documents that contain personally identifying information (PII) should only be included if relevant to the proceeding and wherever possible, redacted. Personally identifiable information includes social security numbers, dates of birth, personal financial account numbers, and home addresses of students or individuals.