Should property tax information be available online for everyone to see?

I'm doing an ignment about property research information for my Texas government cl. We were directed to a county appraisal district website where we searched the recent 2008 tax information on our own homes or those homes of people we knew if we didn't have a house. Based on the information like who owns the house, how much it's worth, what kinds of exemptions the owners qualify for and the deed information, I thought it was wrong for anyone and their brother to be able to look up something like this. To me, it's personal information. Do you think that it's right for this information to be public and should there be a federal or state law protecting it?