§ 323.2 Rules governing availability of information.

(a) General. The records of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service required by 5 U.S.C. 552 to be made available to the public shall be made available in accordance with the regulations on the Disclosure of Records of the Office of the Secretary issued under 5 U.S.C. 552 and published as part I of title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations, 32 FR 9562, July 1, 1967, except as specifically provided in this part.

(b) Limitations on the availability of records relating to securities. Records relating to the purchase, ownership of, and transactions in Treasury securities or other securities handled by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service for government agencies or wholly or partially Government-owned corporations will ordinarily be disclosed only to the owners of such securities, their executors, administrators or other legal representatives or to their survivors or to investigative and certain other agencies of the Federal and State governments, to trustees in bankruptcy, receivers of insolvents' estates or where a proper order has been entered requesting disclosure of information to Federal and State courts. These records are confidential because they relate to private financial affairs of the owners under this part. In addition, the information falls within the category of “personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(6). FOIA Exemption (b)(6) protects the privacy of living persons who own securities as well as the close survivors of deceased owners. Privacy interests, in the sense of the right to control, use, or disclose information about oneself, cease at death. However, the exemption protects the deceased person's family-related privacy interests that survive death where disclosure would cause embarrassment, pain, grief, or disrupt the peace of mind, of the surviving family. The Bureau of the Fiscal Service will determine, under FOIA exemption (b)(6), whether disclosure of the records is in the public interest by balancing the surviving family members' privacy interest against the public's right to know the information.