united-states privacy
Public record or PII
<p>In the past, I had interactions via email with various boards of my town government. I recently noticed that printouts of these emails were scanned and added to the "meeting package" - a PDF document that is available on the town's website. The printout contains my name, email address, and in some instances my address and home phone number. Google OCR'd the PDF documents and finds them when I search for my email address.
(e.g. <a href="https://www.town.medfield.net/DocumentCenter/View/2309/BOS-Meeting-Packet-January-29-2019-PDF" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.town.medfield.net/DocumentCenter/View/2309/BOS-Meeting-Packet-January-29-2019-PDF</a>)</p>

<p>I asked for these documents to be redacted or removed, but I did not get a response and I don't expect any action. Is there a legal basis for this request, or can the town take the position that the correspondence is public record in its entirety?
And what entity could help me enforce a request for removal (other than a paid lawyer)?</p>

<p>Comment/Explanation:
The initial couple of answers don't seem to address my concern, so here is another attempt to explain. My question is primarily about the level of protection that PII should get from local governments, not about public records. I do contract work for a federal government agency. I have to undergo training annually for Title-9,13,26 protection of citizen data. It appears to me that local town governments should adhere to the same standards, but I was wondering what the legal basis is.</p>

<p>The general rule is that "public records" must be disclosed unless they are by definition not public records. This study summarizes US public records law on a state by state basis, if the issue is about the US. Taking Massachusetts as an example, the law defines public record <a href="https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleI/Chapter4/Section7" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>, so if the item is not a public record, it is not required to disclose the item. Clause 26 has a long list of exceptions such as </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>(j) the names and addresses of any persons contained in, or referred
  to in, any applications for any licenses to carry or possess firearms
  issued pursuant to chapter one hundred and forty or any firearms
  identification cards issued pursuant to said chapter one hundred and
  forty and the names and addresses on sales or transfers of any
  firearms, rifles, shotguns, or machine guns or ammunition therefor, as
  defined in said chapter one hundred and forty and the names and
  addresses on said licenses or cards ... </p>
  
  <p>(o) the home address and home
  telephone number of an employee of the judicial branch, an unelected
  employee of the general court, an agency, executive office,
  department, board, commission, bureau, division or authority of the
  commonwealth, or of a political subdivision thereof or of an authority
  established by the general court to serve a public purpose, in the
  custody of a government agency which maintains records identifying
  persons as falling within those categories; provided that the
  information may be disclosed to an employee organization under chapter
  150E, a nonprofit organization for retired public employees under
  chapter 180, or a criminal justice agency as defined in section 167 of
  chapter 6.</p>
  
  <p>(p) the name, home address and home telephone number of a family
  member of a commonwealth employee, contained in a record in the
  custody of a government agency which maintains records identifying
  persons as falling within the categories listed in subclause (o).</p>
</blockquote>

<p>If the information is not legally a public record, there is no obligation to disclose. There is a general requirement via statute, regulation and court rulings requiring the government to protect personal information, such as <a href="https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXV/Chapter93h/Section2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a>. You can get a list of sources on that topic <a href="https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-law-about-privacy#massachusetts-laws-" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>. This does not mean that the government body in question can be forced to redact that information, but it is at least possible that there is a (slim) legal basis for requiring them to protect your privacy. </p>

<p>You certainly can't (successfully) sue the government for money damages for harm caused by the disclosure or for a fine due to sovereign immunity from tort claims except in the case of certain specific exceptions which would almost never included disclosing private information. </p>

<p>You might be able to get injunctive relief (i.e. a court order requiring the town to redact the information), but you would have to establish a duty to maintain privacy first. The duty to protect personal identifying information arises by statute, and mostly it applies only to specific kinds of information (e.g. health information or educational records) and only to certain kinds of entities (usually not town government).</p>

<p>There might be some state law that requires certain information to be kept confidential by town governments, but unless you can find an applicable statute, you will probably not prevail. Since "my name, email address, and in some instances my address and home phone number" are already present in many public records that the public can access (real property records, voter registration records, court filings, applications for various permits), this is almost surely not protected by any statute.</p>
