How Data Brokers Can Fuel Violence Against Public Servants

A new report published Tuesday finds that while violent threats to public servants across the US have been increasing, "comprehensive" state-level consumer privacy laws do not provide adequate protections for those civil servants, creating a "data-to-violence pipeline."

The report was published by researcher Justin Sherman of the Security Project at the Public Service Alliance (SPPSA), a platform that provides free and discounted security services to current and former public servants. While Trump officials have referred to documenting federal immigration agents’ behavior on the job as "violence" and "doxing," Sherman says the report focuses on the more traditional, widely accepted definition—the publication of someone’s personal, private information, such as their home address, with the specific intent of harming them.

Sherman analyzed 19 different consumer privacy laws and found that while they all give consumers the right to stop data brokers from selling personal information obtained from private sources, none give "public servants the right to legally compel state agencies to redact their personal data from public records" and none prevent data brokers from selling data, including people’s home addresses, when they are obtained through public sources such as property records or court filings. Further, none include what is called a "private right of action," which would allow individuals to sue over violations of their respective state’s privacy law.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.