For Official Use Only (FOUO) is an
information security
Information security is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorized or inappropriate access to data ...
designation used by some governments.
United States
Among U.S. government information, FOUO was primarily used by the
U.S. Department of Defense as a handling instruction for
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) which may be exempt from release under exemptions two to nine of the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). It is one of the various sub-categorizations for strictly unclassified information which, on 24 February 2012, was officially consolidated as CUI.
Other departments continuing the use of this designation include the
Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions invol ...
.
U.S. Department of Defense
On 24 February 2012, the
Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence published the publicly availabl
DoDM 5200.01 DoD Information Security Program a four-volume manual consolidating all marking of information on used by the U.S. Department of Defense. Most of the information regarding FOUO was in the now-superseded fourth volume, but the second volume also contains guidelines on FOUO information.
On 6 March 2020, the DoD replaced DoDM 5200.01 Volume 4 with DoDM 5200.48 -
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). The term "FOUO" had been defined in DoDM 5200.01 Vol 4. It is no longer in the replacement document except as a reference to not requiring a "U" marking in the banner or footer signifying unclassified information as was required with the "old FOUO marking" (para 3.4.b.(1)).
Australia
For Official Use Only (FOUO) was one of five categories of the Dissemination Limiting Marker (DLM) defined by the Australian Government Information Security Management Guidelines. The guidelines state that FOUO should only be used on unclassified information, when its compromise may cause limited damage to national security, Australian Government agencies, commercial entities or members of the public. However unlike the United States usage, the presence or absence of an FOUO marker expressly does not provide any information about the document's status under the
Freedom of Information Act. Since 2018 this has been replaced by OFFICIAL:Sensitive.
Germany
(FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY) is one of four secrecy designations in use by the Federal Republic of Germany.
It is denoted at the top of each document in either black or blue text reading "VS-NUR FÜR DEN DIENSTGEBRAUCH," which is always written in Upper case.
See also
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Classified information
Classified information is confidential material that a government deems to be sensitive information which must be protected from unauthorized disclosure that requires special handling and dissemination controls. Access is restricted by law or ...
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Classified information in the United States
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Freedom of information laws by country
Freedom of information laws allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and, where applicable, by state and local governments. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatis ...
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Sensitive but unclassified
References
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Classified information
Freedom of information legislation
United States government secrecy