Glomar Response
A Glomar response is an agency's refusal under FOIA to confirm or deny whether requested records even exist, used when acknowledging their existence or nonexistence would itself reveal protected information.
Glomar response takes its name from a 1970s case involving a salvage vessel, in which a U.S. agency argued that simply confirming whether responsive records existed would disclose classified intelligence activity. Rather than producing, withholding, or itemizing records, the agency neither confirms nor denies that any responsive record exists, and it must tie that refusal to a recognized FOIA exemption such as national security or personal privacy.
For records management, a Glomar position matters because it shifts the analysis from the content of a record to the harm caused by acknowledging the record itself. That distinction shapes how sensitive files are described, indexed, and tracked, since even a precise description in a file plan or response log could betray the very fact being protected.
A Glomar response differs from ordinary redaction, where an agency admits a record exists and masks portions of it. It is narrower and must be justified case by case; courts can compel an agency to abandon the posture once existence has been officially acknowledged elsewhere.