California law treats board meeting minutes as records that members may inspect, but it excludes any items from executive‑session meetings and lets the association withhold or redact information when releasing it could reasonably lead to identity theft or fraud.

The same law also gives California homeowners a clear privacy option: they can opt out of having their name, property address, mailing address and email address shared in the HOA membership list by sending a written notice to the association.

Scammers exploit the personal details found in HOA documents to craft more convincing phone calls, texts or emails. The Justice Department has already prosecuted companies that sold consumer data to fraud operations, showing how valuable such information can be to criminals.

Older adults are especially vulnerable. The FBI reports that in 2025 Americans over 60 reported more than $7.7 billion in internet‑enabled fraud losses and filed over 201,000 complaints, the highest total losses of any age group.

To protect yourself, start by searching the internet for your HOA’s name together with terms like “minutes,” “directory,” or your own name. Note any documents that appear without a resident login and that link your name to your address or email.

If you find personal data exposed, contact your board or management company. Ask which records are publicly accessible, request that unnecessary details be removed, redacted, or placed behind a secure login, and use the written opt‑out option if you live in California.

Finally, check major people‑search and data‑broker sites for profiles that contain your HOA information. Use the sites’ opt‑out procedures or a data‑removal service to delete the records, and repeat the check periodically.