Public Records Exception

An exemption in privacy laws that excludes certain information lawfully made available from federal, state, or local government records from the definition of personal information or from specific privacy requirements. Under CCPA § 1798.140(v)(2), publicly available information obtained from government records is not considered personal information subject to the law. This recognizes that information already in the public domain through official government sources has different privacy expectations and accessibility. However, the exception is narrowly construed—private sector databases that compile or infer information beyond what's in actual government records don't qualify, and information must be truly publicly available (not just theoretically obtainable through public records requests). Organizations cannot circumvent privacy laws by claiming data is publicly available if they obtained it from non-public sources or combined it with other data to create new inferences. The exception varies by jurisdiction and doesn't excuse all processing—even public record information may be subject to restrictions on use or disclosure for purposes incompatible with its public availability.