West Virginia law enforcement sues data broker for publishing personal information online

Whitepages is the latest data broker to be sued for allegedly flouting laws barring the publication of home addresses and other personal information belonging to judges, police officers, prosecutors and others in law enforcement.

A retired West Virginia police officer filed a class action lawsuit against the company late last month for publishing his home address, a violation of a 2021 West Virginia statute known as Daniel’s Law.

The West Virginia law is similar to legislation enacted in New Jersey in 2020 following the murder of a federal judge’s son by a disgruntled lawyer who had appeared before her and found her personal information online. That law, also called Daniel’s Law, was enacted following an emotional appeal for reform from U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas, whose son was killed.

In 2022, Congress passed a more limited federal version of the laws, barring the selling or purchasing of judges’ private information online. 

Under the West Virginia statute, data brokers and others cannot disclose the home address or personal phone number of any active or retired law enforcement personnel “under circumstances in which a reasonable person would believe that providing such information would expose another to harassment or risk of harm to life or property.”

Whitepages has nonetheless published phone numbers and addresses and personal phone numbers of thousands of West Virginia’s retired and active duty law enforcement personnel, the lawsuit alleges. The named plaintiff, Michael Jackson, and other retired and current law enforcement personnel  were not asked for consent or otherwise advised that Whitepages was collecting and publishing their information, they say — a violation of West Virginia law.

Jackson’s law enforcement career included stints with the Braxton County Sheriff’s Department and police departments in Sutton and Clendenin, West Virginia. 

A press contact is not listed on the Whitepages website, and messages seeking comment from its CEO and head of marketing were not immediately responded to.

Legislation to protect the privacy of certain public-facing professions is spreading, and in May Maryland passed its own version, allowing retired and active members of the state judiciary to ask that their personal data not be made public. 

Under the Maryland legislation, which is weaker than the West Virginia and New Jersey laws, if a judge determines that a person or company “willfully” refuses to remove the information of the protected individuals, the court may award punitive damages.

In February, Atlas Data Privacy Corp. — a company New Jersey law enforcement uses to force data brokers to delete their personal information from the web — filed 118 class action lawsuits against data brokers who allegedly did not acknowledge takedown requests it filed on behalf of about 20,000 New Jersey law enforcement officers.

Such laws could soon be expanded to include protections for public health officials and school board members, said Tom Kemp, a privacy advocate who helped push the California Delete Act, which gives state residents the right to force data brokers to erase their personal information in one keystroke.

“Eventually, average consumers will ask why can’t I get those same protections, especially in light of recent hacks like National Public Data [a background check company] where tens of millions’ of consumers’ social security numbers were exposed,” Kemp said via text message.

“There will be a huge ripple effect.”

Whitepages is a so-called “people finder” which gathers and stores reams of personal data on individuals which it collects from a variety of sources, including public records, court filings and social media posts.

The lawsuit alleges that Whitepages allows anyone to access not only law enforcement’s personal information, but also private data belonging to their relatives.

A spokesperson for Atlas, the data removal service behind lawsuits against data brokers in New Jersey, said that “protecting at-risk public servants and their families from threats of violence and death is a compelling state interest of the highest order and we expect that more states will soon follow the example set by New Jersey and West Virginia.”

The West Virginia lawsuit quotes Salas, the district court judge who called for reforms in New Jersey.

“This monster knew where I lived and what church we attended and had a complete dossier on me and my family,” she said. “Now, more than ever, we need to identify a solution that keeps the lives of federal judges private.”