Trade Secret Exemption

Privacy law provisions allowing organizations to refuse data subject access requests or other obligations when compliance would reveal confidential business information, algorithms, or proprietary methods that constitute trade secrets. For example, disclosing detailed information about algorithmic decision-making might expose valuable intellectual property. However, trade secret exemptions are narrowly construed—organizations cannot cite trade secrets to avoid transparency about basic processing facts. Under GDPR Article 15(4), access rights cannot adversely affect others' rights and freedoms, potentially including trade secrets, though the balance typically favors data subject rights. Some U.S. state privacy laws explicitly allow trade secret exceptions for processing disclosures. Organizations invoking trade secret exemptions should: carefully evaluate what truly constitutes protectable secrets versus standard operational information, provide maximum transparency without revealing secrets, consider whether alternative explanations can satisfy requests without exposing proprietary information, document trade secret claims and necessity of withholding, and expect scrutiny—courts and regulators skeptically view broad trade secret assertions that effectively eliminate data subject rights.