Sharing members may only use shared data to promote clearly definable, publicly supported objectives and functions. These objectives and functions include public planning purposes, public safety purposes and other functions typically performed by governmental agencies, implementation and interpretation of scientific research and tabular information, the generation of new data sets, and the creation of hard copy maps, charts and reports
One municipality recently signed on with a 6-1 council vote. The one vote against was worried about the data might "potentially infringe on peoples individual rights." Penn State professor Donna Peuquet said that was only a possibility if the data got into the public's hands.
Businesses can access the data, too, just via a licensing agreement, that I suspect requires a fee. The arrangement has been in place since 2004.