The Freedom of Information Act Program (DODR 5400.7) allows the general public including foreign citizens, military and civilian personnel acting as private citizens, to request records electronically or in writing from the Federal Government. Some records are released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act, and may therefore reflect deletion of some information in accordance with the FOIA's nine statutory exemptions or two law enforcement record exclusions. A consolidated list of such records is on Defense Link and the U.S. Air Force FOIA Reading Room. Currently the law allows 20 working days to process a FOIA request upon receipt of the request in the FOIA office.

Air Force policy is to deny requests for lists of e-mail addresses (both personal and organizational) using FOIA exemption (b)(6). We rely on FOIA exemption (b)(6) when denying lists of personal e-mail addresses. High (b)(2) is no longer to be used to protect internal information, the disclosure of which would risk circumvention of a statute or agency regulation. Because DoD e-mail systems are to be used only for official and authorized purposes, the addresses are considered primarily internal. The regulations at issue that could be circumvented include DoD and AF regulations that require us to limit use of e-mail to authorized purposes, and to protect the security of your computer and information systems. Exemption (b)(6) protects information that if released would permit a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. This does not prohibit an organization from including a single e-mail address on a Web page in correspondence.