Why Personal Data Exposure Matters for Public Servants

Everyone deserves privacy. People who serve the public face specific risks that make it urgent.

Specific risks

• Physical safety. A home address combined with a photo and family names is enough to find someone. Officials in law enforcement, the courts, the military, and diplomacy can attract people with grievances.
• Targeting by foreign intelligence services. Detailed profiles of service members and officials, including family members, finances, and locations, are valuable to adversaries seeking leverage, recruitment opportunities, or phishing targets.
• Identity theft and fraud. Aggregated data makes impersonation and account takeover easier.
• Harassment of families. Spouses, children, and parents are often listed alongside the official.
• Professional harm. Inaccurate profiles can surface during background checks or in the hands of employers.

What Congress and regulators have done

Judges

After the 2020 attack on the family of a federal judge in New Jersey, in which the judge's son was killed, Congress passed the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act in 2022. It protects federal judges' personally identifiable information from resale by data brokers and allows judges to redact personal information from federal government websites.

Foreign adversaries

The Protecting Americans' Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024 (PADFAA) prohibits data brokers from selling, releasing, disclosing, or providing access to personally identifiable sensitive data about Americans to foreign adversaries, including North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran, or entities they control. The law's definition of sensitive data includes information that reveals an individual's status as a member of the Armed Forces.

In February 2026 the Federal Trade Commission sent warning letters to 13 data brokers reminding them of their PADFAA obligations. The FTC said it had identified instances in which recipients offered products involving the status of an individual as a member of the Armed Forces, and warned that violations could result in civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation.

What these laws do not do

PADFAA restricts transfers to foreign adversaries. It does not, by itself, give you a right to have your data deleted. The Anderl Act protects federal judges specifically. For most public servants, removal still depends on a combination of company opt-out processes, state privacy laws, and persistence. That is what the rest of this guide covers.