Records custodians frequently confront the troublesome question of whether individuals’ home addresses must be disclosed under OPRA. For municipalities, this question seems to come up most often in requests for the names and addresses of those who have dog or cat licenses. Although OPRA’s protection of the reasonable expectation of privacy should usually preclude disclosure of this information, some trial court judges have ordered the release of pet owners’ names and addresses.

This article indicates that a judge recently rejected Jersey City’s argument that OPRA’s privacy provision bars disclosure of home addresses listed on dog licenses, and issued similar rulings in cases involving Secaucus and Kearny. According to the article, the requestor wants the information so that he can try to sell invisible fences to dog owners.

In this situation, where a requestor wants home addresses simply to solicit business, I think that OPRA’s privacy exemption prohibits release of this information.

There’s no question that home addresses in the possession of a public body are subject to individuals’ reasonable expectation of privacy. The Supreme Court has held that where this privacy expectation exists, OPRA requires that the privacy interest be balanced against the extent of the public need for disclosure of the information in question. In this situation, where the requestor’s only interest in disclosure is for his own commercial benefit, there is no public interest served in releasing the home addresses. As a result, the balancing test clearly favors confidentiality.

Hopefully, the Appellate Division will eventually correct the mistaken idea that under OPRA, a requestor’s commercial need for home addresses overrides the privacy interests of pet owners.