The Postal Service is reminding employees of the importance of protecting commercial information.

Any employee might be asked to disclose commercial information to someone outside of the organization.

Although requests for this kind of information are usually sent under the Freedom of Information Act, they can also come directly from other people, such as a lawmaker or a contractor.

The Postal Service is not required to disclose confidential commercial information, except in very limited circumstances.

Here are a few examples of commercial information that should be protected:

• Information about competitive products;

• Information that would help competitors or hurt the Postal Service or its business partners;

• Key terms of contracts;

• Names of USPS business customers;

• Sales performance goals, standards or requirements;

• Information about carrier or delivery lines of travel;

• Information related to postage meters, registered mail or money orders; and

• Postal email addresses.

Contact the USPS Law Department before disclosing information of a commercial nature.

Source: USPS