This is just one of the side-effects related to the state having the authority to have such information.
Gun registries are not just for confiscation. They can be used by the state for anything they feel like making lawful.
I'd be curious whether there's a blanket release that the gun buyer/transferee signed giving the state full permission to use their info for any purpose including sharing with 3rd parties. If not, there may be lawsuit there. Nowadays, you need to protect PII (Personally Identifiable Information) unless you get approval to release it.
The judges on the court of appeals found that the public health benefit
of the research outweighed the plaintiffs' privacy concerns, according to
Bloomberg.
So, it's not that the privacy of gun owners is being violated, but that the court decided the violation is "worth it."
Throughout the article, they spent lots of words describing how wonderful the research is and how it'll help prevent gun violence. However, nowhere do they give an inkling about what studies, issues or results of that research have been. No details or even general information on HOW the data is being used, just how important the research is.
Researchers get gun owners info, but gun owners don't get any specifics on how it's being used or even generally what research is being conducted.
A logical question would be, is there any formal peer review of the research being done to ensure the methodology and conclusions are sound? Or is this just another government-funded make-work program for some data processing company?