Privacy Policies For Local Government?

stinkydog asks: "I am in the interesting position of developing a privacy policy for a parks and recreation department for a urban local government. I have watched with interest all the complaints about government and privacy and don't necessarily want my personal data on a billboard. One the flip side, I need to collect enough data to justify a several million dollar budget. Our management wants usage and regristration data down to the Census Block Group level to make decisions. We currently gather name, address, phone and age. For some Federal programs we also gather income level and number of childern in the home. If I put all this info in the same database am I providing good customer service or being intrusive? Where should I draw the line? I have been charged with creating an understandable, user-friendly policy on what we collect and how we use it (while fighting with the lawyers all the way I'm sure). Is this possible? " I think a better question is why a Park Service needs this kind of level of information about its users to justify its funding.