The New York Times, March 18, 2009 by Louise Story
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/business/19cuomo.html?pagewanted=print
Courts generally consider three factors in privacy cases: the delicacy of the data, its importance to public information and the harm that could come from releasing it, said Chris Hoofnagle, director of information privacy programs at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. “Courts almost never prohibit the government from getting data. The question is, can they publicly disclose it?” Mr. Hoofnagle said. “The taxpayer funding weighs in favor of disclosure, because of the public interest.”