Data brokers make public servants vulnerable to violence by selling private information that anyone can easily access and misuse.
Washington, D.C. : Data brokers sell personal information about government workers that makes them easy targets for violence. A new study shows that current privacy laws do not protect these workers enough.
A researcher studied 19 state privacy laws and found big problems. While people can stop companies from selling private information they get from stores or websites, public workers cannot stop similar information from being sold. This is because their information often comes from government records that anyone can access.
Between 2015 and 2025, over 1,600 violent threats were made against public workers. Local workers like school board members and election workers faced about one-third of these threats. In Minnesota, a man charged with killing a state lawmaker had lists of other officials and paid websites to find their home addresses.
The report says new laws are needed to better protect all public workers, including teachers and local politicians. One idea is to make government records harder to find online while still keeping them available for reporters and people who want government accountability.
In the past, finding someone’s government records required knowing where to look and going to that place in person. Now, websites can collect this information and sell it cheaply to anyone. This makes it simple for angry people to track down and threaten those who work in public service, even if they move to another state.