Sanitize Before Sending

When reviewing a document that’s responsive to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, you must redact all exempt information, add the appropriate FOIA exemption code to each redaction, and check that all hidden data, hyperlinks, and metadata have been removed before releasing it.

Reviewing and redacting documents with care furthers compliance with FOIA and makes sure that exempt information is not released inappropriately.

And that’s smart business.

Contact your FOIA coordinator or the FOIA team – at foia12@usps.gov – with any technical questions on using or obtaining Adobe Acrobat Pro, including how to check whether hidden data, hyperlinks, and metadata have been removed from a document prior to release.

To Solicit or Not to Solicit

As a USPS employee, you can’t request or accept free lunches, massages or any other type of donation from local businesses for any purpose! Not even for employee appreciation days, Post Office dedication ceremonies or Postmaster installations.

Why? It violates the gifts from outside sources regulations. Accepting donations from a local business also can create the appearance to the public that the Postal Service endorses the outside business. The same goes for allowing a business on postal property to peddle its wares.

Declining donations from local businesses is not only the law, it’s also smart business!