PAIA requires that Information Officers from the South African Revenue Services (SARS) do not disclose personal tax and revenue information, unless the requester is requesting access to his/her own information. 4.3.2. Protection of commercial information of a third party The Information Officers of public and private bodies must refuse access to information if releasing that information would cause harm to the commercial or financial interests of the business. PAIA lists the following commercial information which cannot be disclosed by an Information Officer: Trade secrets; Financial, commercial, scientific, research or technical information about a third party which, if released, would cause harm to the third party; Information which had been supplied in confience to the third party. Although there is a general rule to protect the information of the company, a public body is required to operate in a transparent manner. In this regard it must be noted that there are certain instances where commercial information of a company can be released. PAIA Exclusion: Third party records which contain information relating to public safety or environmental risks must be released, even if the release of such information will likely cause harm to the third party. This constitutes public interest information (see section 4.4 below). South African Human Rights Commission 50