WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy will no longer release information about any sailor's service history to the press. Navy officials stated the policy change is driven by increased security threats and harassment concerns.

Capt. Candice Thresh, a spokeswoman for the Chief of Naval Personnel, said the office expanded the policy to deny access to any sailor's service information in the interest of equality. The new policy mandates the withholding of all sailor service records from public access.

Rear Adm. John Robinson, the Navy's top spokesman, released a policy last Thursday mandating the removal of all public-facing information about commanding officers. Under the expanded rules, the Navy will confirm whether someone is a sailor only if it deems the request of high public interest. No other details about a sailor will be offered until the undefined threat has passed. The service will only release service details if the sailor is a public figure or extenuating circumstances exist.

These restrictions apply to data the Pentagon's privacy program categorizes as normally releasable. Information such as units assigned and awards earned may typically be disclosed without a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

The implementation of the directive produced immediate inconsistencies. Robinson's office refused to provide the biography of a Blue Angels pilot after a request following a maneuver over a crowded beach. The pilot's name, photo, and other service details were posted on the official Blue Angels website at the time of the request.

Thresh provided a copy of the pilot's biography personally after inquiries about the policy began. Robinson's office did not respond to questions about the Chief of Naval Personnel's broadening of the policy.

First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams said the Navy's new policy could make reporting on wounded or injured sailors much more challenging. "That effort at suppression of speech is flatly inconsistent with the First Amendment," he said. Abrams said the policy seemed an obvious effort to limit information. "There is no reason to think that this is anything less than an effort to prevent 'bad' press about the conduct of the administration with respect to our service people," he said.

Brett Max Kaufman, senior counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union's Center for Democracy, wrote in an email that for decades there has been a massive overclassification problem throughout the executive branch. "The last thing the government needs is a new power to withhold information under the FOIA," Kaufman said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has largely driven a host of other restrictions on press access. One restriction on press access requires reporters to be accompanied by an official escort on Pentagon grounds. This summer, the Pentagon declared its press office a classified space inaccessible to journalists.

Last year, the Pentagon attempted to impose major restrictions on journalists working inside the Pentagon, leading most news outlets to turn in their access badges and walk out. The policy restricting journalists inside the Pentagon is now being litigated in federal court.

Last month, the military asked Congress for the ability to withhold certain types of unclassified records from the public. The legislative proposal would create a new section of federal law allowing the defense secretary to exempt certain controlled unclassified information, or CUI, from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Transparency advocates and the Pentagon's internal watchdog have described the term CUI as inconsistently applied and overused. Critics have argued that CUI is arbitrarily used to keep embarrassing information from being made public.