Fisheries data, statistics or other information collected from individual permit or license holders by the department or available to the department from other states or the Federal government shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed except to an authorized user or when required under court order; provided, however, that the department may release or make public any statistics in an aggregate or summary form (with no less than three submitters contributing to that statistic) which does not directly or indirectly disclose the identity of any person who submits such statistics. For the purposes of these regulations an authorized user is any person that is employed by or under contract to the department or who is employed by or is under contract to the NOAA Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, the New England Fishery Management Council, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, or the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia or Florida, and who has been designated by such agency or state, under the auspices of the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program to require confidential data as a means to fulfill their job and their job is related to fisheries management and conservation.