Congress Moves to Scrub Home Addresses and Family Data from Public Records and Data Broker Sites

This bill sets up a major new privacy shield, allowing Members of Congress, their immediate family, and certain designated staff to demand that their sensitive personal details be removed from public records and commercial data broker websites. The protected information, or “covered information,” is extensive: it includes home addresses, personal phone numbers, Social Security numbers, bank details, and even the schools or daycare centers their kids attend. If you’re covered, government agencies and data brokers have to scrub that data within 72 hours of receiving a request.

The VIP Data Scrub: Who Gets the Protection?

Think of this as a targeted digital lockdown for elected officials and their inner circle. The list of “at-risk individuals” is broad, covering current and former Members of Congress, spouses, children, siblings, parents, and anyone living in their home. Crucially, it also extends to certain designated Senate and House staff. The goal is clear: increase physical security by making it much harder for bad actors to find where officials and their families live, work, and commute. For someone worried about stalking or harassment, this is a massive change, offering legal recourse and a defined timeline for data removal (Section SEC. 1).

The 72-Hour Clock for Agencies and Data Brokers

This bill doesn’t just ask nicely; it imposes a mandate. Once an “at-risk individual” notifies a government agency—or a commercial “data broker”—that they want their covered information hidden, the clock starts ticking. Both agencies and brokers must remove the data from any public-facing platform within 72 hours. A “data broker” is defined as a company that collects and sells personal data on people who aren't their customers. This means the vast, shadowy industry of personal data aggregation now has new compliance requirements and potential legal liabilities if they fail to comply with removal requests (Section SEC. 1).

For regular folks, this is where the rubber meets the road. While the intent is security, the mechanism involves reducing public transparency. Traditionally, some of this information (like a home address associated with a property deed or a voter registration record) was considered public. This bill essentially creates a special class of citizens whose personal data is now legally shielded from public view, potentially making it harder for the public, journalists, or watchdog groups to trace property holdings or local connections of elected officials. The bill does carve out exceptions for information required to be filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) or for legitimate journalistic reporting on alleged unlawful activity, but the line between public interest and protected privacy is about to get significantly blurrier.

The Centralized Command for Staff Data

To make this process efficient, the bill allows legislative leaders (like the Sergeant at Arms) to act on behalf of their staff and families. Instead of sending thousands of individual requests, these officers can provide a single list of covered individuals to government agencies and data brokers. This list counts as satisfying the individual notice requirement for everyone on it. This streamlines the protection process immensely, ensuring staff—who often face similar security threats as their bosses—get covered without bureaucratic delays (Section SEC. 1). However, it also centralizes the power to manage these privacy requests, which is a subtle but important shift in how official privacy is handled.

If these rules are violated and your protected information ends up public, the bill grants the covered individual the right to sue for an injunction to stop the disclosure. For the general public, the key takeaway is that the security of elected officials is being prioritized through a significant reduction in the availability of their personal data, setting a new standard for what counts as a “public record” when it involves Congress.