In a civil action seeking a judgment declaring that electronic indices of birth and marriage data maintained on public computers by the Department of Public Records constitute public records subject to disclosure under G. This court remanded for further proceedings a grant of summary judgment in favor of the Department of Public Health department in a civil action seeking a judgment declaring that electronic indices of birth and marriage data that the department maintains on public computers constitute public records subject to disclosure under G.
Bruce D. LOWY, J. The Globe asked the judge to declare that electronic indices of publicly available birth and marriage data constitute public records and to order DPH to produce them.
DPH argued that it could withhold the requested indices pursuant to G. We remand for further proceedings on both exemptions. The Globe's request necessitates an approach to exemption a that takes into account future requests for the indices. The application of exemption c involves a privacy issue we have yet to address in the public records context, namely, whether there is a greater privacy interest in a compilation of personal information than in the discrete information that a compilation summarizes.
With respect to exemption a , the judge on remand should make factual findings about the extent to which the indices requested here could be compared against later-requested indices to reveal information protected from public disclosure by statute. The judge should then determine whether the risk of revealing such information brings the requested indices within the scope of exemption a. With respect to exemption c , which protects personal privacy, the judge on remand should first decide the extent to which the indices requested here could be compared against later-requested indices to reveal medical information absolutely exempt from the public records law.
If necessary, the judge should then decide whether there is a privacy interest in the requested indices. To do so, the judge should make further findings on 1 the extent to which multiple indices could be compared to reveal private information; 2 whether the requested compilation is already available in the aggregate form requested or, if not, the ease with which it can be assembled from public information; 3 whether DPH has shown that releasing the indices could pose a risk of identity theft or fraud; and 4 the extent to which the indices could facilitate unwanted intrusions.
