(2) Except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, the department shall treat as confidential and not disclose:
(a) The identity of a landlord, tenant or complainant involved in a dispute or of a person who provides information to the department in response to a department investigation of a dispute;
(b) Information provided to the department by a landlord, tenant, complainant or other person relating to a dispute; or
(c) Information discovered by the department in investigating a dispute.
(3) The department may disclose:
(a) Information described in subsection (2) of this section to a state agency; and
(b) Information described in subsection (2) of this section if the landlord, tenant, complainant or other person who provided the information being disclosed, or the legal representative thereof, consents orally or in writing to the disclosure and specifies to whom the disclosure may be made. Only the landlord, tenant, complainant or other person who provided the information to the department may authorize or deny the disclosure of the information.
(4) This section does not prohibit the department from compiling and disclosing examples and statistics that demonstrate information such as the type of dispute, frequency of occurrence and geographical area where the dispute occurred if the identity of the landlord, tenant, complainant and other persons are protected. [2001 c.596 §26 (enacted in lieu of 90.770); 2003 c.21 §2; 2005 c.22 §69; 2019 c.625 §63]