Data Brokers, Public Records, and Violence with Justin Sherman
Nov 6, 2023
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Justin Sherman, Technology Policy and Law Fellow at Lawfare, discusses the link between publicly available information, stalking, and gendered violence. They delve into the role of data brokers, legislative gaps in privacy laws, and the need for regulatory solutions to address these issues.
People search data brokers contribute to stalking and gendered violence by providing easily accessible personal information on individuals.
Current privacy laws often include exemptions for publicly available information, allowing people search data brokers to freely sell personal information without consent or compliance with privacy requests.
Deep dives
The Role of People Search Data Brokers
People search data brokers are a type of data broker that specialize in selling individual profiles, including personal information such as home address, phone number, workplace, and family information. These data brokers compile data from various public records and government sources, creating searchable databases that allow anyone to purchase detailed profiles on individuals.
The Link Between Publicly Available Information and Stalking/Violence
The digitization of publicly available information and its accessibility on people search data broker websites has contributed to stalking and gendered violence. Abusive individuals can easily search for and purchase detailed profiles on their targets, including updated address information. This poses a significant risk to marginalized individuals, such as women, Black women, LGBTQ individuals, who may relocate to escape violence only to have their updated information immediately available to their abusers.
The Value Proposition of People Search Data Brokers
People search data brokers provide a value proposition by aggregating and digitizing publicly available information, making it easily searchable and accessible online. While the information they collect may already be public in physical records, the convenience and ease of online access that these data brokers offer have made them attractive to individuals seeking personal information about others.
Legal and Privacy Concerns
Current privacy laws, including state-level privacy laws, often include carve-outs for publicly available information or government records. This means that people search data brokers are not legally required to comply with consumer privacy requests, such as opting out of the sale of personal information, when the information is derived from public records. Privacy laws need to be reassessed to address the risks associated with the digitization and sale of personal information by these data brokers.
In the debate about data privacy and harms, one issue has not received adequate attention by the press or in policy conversations relative to the severity and volume of harm: the link between publicly available information and stalking and gendered violence.
To discuss how “people search” data brokers use public information and contribute to stalking and abuse, Lawfare’s Fellow in Technology Policy and Law, Eugenia Lostri, sat down with Justin Sherman who recently wrote a Lawfare article on the topic. Justin is the Founder and CEO of Global Cyber Strategies and a Senior Fellow at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. They talked about the publicly available information carve-outs, the systemic nature of the problem, and how policymakers should step in.
Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of gendered violence and stalking. Listener discretion is advised.