Privacy protections for judges, election officials and other public servants

If you work as a judge, election official, prosecutor, police officer or in some other public role, you may have legal rights that ordinary residents don’t: to have your home address hidden in public records, or to make data brokers take it down. The rules depend on your job and your state. They help, but they rarely cover everything, so it’s still worth checking what’s out there.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Check the rules that apply to you with your employer, your state or a lawyer.

Federal judges

The Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act, passed in 2022, protects federal judges and their immediate families. It lets them ask government agencies and data brokers to take down covered personal information, such as home addresses, and limits how that information can be published. It’s named after the son of a federal judge who was killed at the family’s home by a man who had found the address online.

State protections

Many states have their own laws. Depending on where you are, they may let certain people:

• Hide their address in property records held by the county.
• Keep their voter registration address confidential.
• Require data brokers or websites to take down their home address and phone number once asked in writing.
• Join an address confidentiality program, which gives a substitute address for public records and forwards mail.

The groups covered vary a lot from state to state. Common ones are judges and court staff, prosecutors, police and corrections officers, election officials and workers, and survivors of domestic violence and stalking. Some states have added health care workers, child protection workers and others.

To find out what applies to you, start with your employer’s legal or security team, your state’s court administration or election office, or your secretary of state.

The limits

These protections are a big help, but they have gaps:

• You usually have to ask. Most laws don’t take effect until you send a request, often in writing, to each agency or company.
• Data comes back. Brokers buy new records, and a new listing can appear after the old one comes down. See Why people-search listings come back.
• Not everything is covered. Laws focus on home addresses and phone numbers. Old accounts, usernames, photos and family members’ profiles are usually outside them, and those are often how someone finds you.
• Family may not be covered, or only some family members are.
• Not every site complies. Smaller or overseas sites may ignore requests.

What to do

1. Find out which protections apply to you, and use them. Ask for your address to be hidden in property and voter records where you can.
2. Opt out of people-search sites as well, using each site’s own page or a formal request under your state’s law.
3. Clean up the links that the law doesn’t cover: old accounts, reused usernames and photos. See How someone gets from your username to your home address.
4. Talk to your family about what they post about you and your home.
5. Check again a few months later, and after any high-profile case or event.

How Oko helps

Oko’s report shows what a stranger could still find about you, including the old accounts and links that legal protections don’t reach. It’s private to you. If your court, election office or agency gives you access, it sees how far you’ve got, never the details. See how Oko works for organizations.