Privacy Digest

Court: Agencies must prove privacy exemptions in info requests - Via Newsday.com :

A government agency trying to withhold information from the public on privacy grounds has the burden of proving release of the records would create an "unwarranted invasion of personal privacy," the state's highest court ruled Tuesday.

The Court of Appeals decision came in the case of Data Tree LLC, a commercial online provider of public land records that sought a huge volume of data from the Suffolk County Clerk through a Freedom of Information Law request in 2004.

The court reversed a prior Appellate Division decision supporting the clerk's refusal to turn over the records because of privacy concerns and the sheer difficulty of producing the records in the form requested by Data Tree. The case will be sent back to the trial-level Supreme Court for reconsideration.

In one part of its ruling, the high court struck down the Appellate Division's decision that it was up to Data Tree to prove disclosing the information would not run afoul of the FOIL's privacy exemption and said that's the responsibility of the clerk's office.

Data Tree had asked for electronic images of various public land records dating back to 1983.

After the county clerk did not respond to the request within the law's required five-day period, the company appealed to the county attorney, who rejected the request. The county argued that complying would require rewriting and reformatting the data and constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy. It also noted the commercial nature of Data Tree's business and said the information requested was available for copying or downloading from computer terminals at the clerk's office.

The Court of Appeals decided that the FOIL has a fundamental "presumption of access to the records, and an agency (in this case the clerk) carries the burden of demonstrating that the exemption applies to the FOIL request."

The court also ruled that Data Tree's commercial motive for seeking the records was an irrelevant and improper basis for the courts to deny the request.

Officials in the Suffolk County Clerk's office said they are reviewing the decision.

(Read Original Article - Via Newsday.com .)