Privacy in New Jersey for first responders

Daniel's Law lives here

New Jersey is the original. Daniel's Law (NJSA §47:1B-1 et seq., enacted 2021, expanded 2023) covers active and retired judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, corrections officers, child protective investigators, and the spouses, parents, and minor children living with them. It lets covered persons sue any data broker, website, or person who republishes their home address. No lawyer needed to start.

The law was named for Daniel Anderl, the 20-year-old son of US District Judge Esther Salas, killed in 2020 when an attacker who'd looked up his mother's home address came to the door. The shooter had bought the address from a commercial broker. The bill cleared the legislature within eighteen months.

Daniel's Law filing, step by step

You don't need a lawyer. The mechanics for an NJ-covered person:

1. Run a scan. Pull the exact URLs where your address or phone shows. Free scan at /scan. The scan output is the evidence package for the next steps.
2. Draft the notice. Use the Daniel's Law demand letter template or write your own. The notice must cite NJSA §47:1B-1 et seq., assert your status as a covered person, identify the data, and demand removal in ten business days.
3. Identify the protected information. Home address, unpublished home telephone number, and prior addresses tied to your name on the listing. Be specific. Vague notices give the broker an out at trial.
4. Send it. Email to the broker's published privacy or Daniel's Law contact. Most national brokers now have a dedicated intake address because of the volume of NJ filings. Certified mail to the broker's registered agent if you want a delivery receipt.
5. Save proof. Sent timestamp, delivery receipt, broker reply if any, dated screenshot of the listing on day eleven if it's still live.
6. Follow up. If the listing is down on day eleven, save the confirmation and move on. If it's still live, the ten-day clock has run and you have a civil claim.
7. Re-scan in 90 days. Re-listings are the most common failure mode. Document each re-publication, it's a fresh violation.

For state, county, and municipal websites, filings route through the Office of Information Privacy (OIP) secure portal under §47:1B-3. The OIP processes government-website redactions on a 30-day window, separate from the 10-day broker window.

Sample notice language

The notice doesn't have to be long. The four pieces it must contain:

• "I am a covered person under N.J.S.A. 47:1B-1 et seq. as a [active/retired sworn law enforcement officer / prosecutor / judge / corrections officer / immediate family member]."
• "You are publishing my [home address / unpublished home telephone number] at the following URL: [exact URL]."
• "I demand removal of this information within ten (10) business days of your receipt of this notice, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1B-1 et seq."
• "Failure to comply will result in a civil action for liquidated damages of $1,000 per violation, plus reasonable attorneys' fees, costs, and punitive damages where applicable."

Sign, date, send. Keep copies. The full template is downloadable on the demand letter page.

The 2023 amendment, what changed

The 2023 amendment was a hardening pass. Three pieces matter:

• Mandatory $1,000 per violation. The 2021 statute let courts award damages. The 2023 amendment made the $1,000 mandatory, not a cap. Plus actual damages and punitive damages where willful or reckless. That converted Daniel's Law from a discretionary remedy to a guaranteed one.
• Assignment to third parties. Covered persons can assign their claims to a third party. That's the legal basis for Atlas Data Privacy Corp's batched suits, officers assign their claims, Atlas litigates. The assignment right is what makes mass enforcement viable.
• Criminal hook strengthened. N.J.S.A. 2C:20-31.1 was clarified. Disclosure of covered home addresses or unpublished phone numbers with intent to expose a covered person to harassment or harm is a third-degree crime if the disclosure causes bodily injury, fourth-degree otherwise.

The 2024 amendments added implementation language for government records agencies and clarified the willful/reckless standard for punitive damages.

Atlas Data Privacy Corp's role

Atlas Data Privacy Corp represents thousands of NJ officers and judges. The company processes assigned claims from covered persons and files batched civil actions against brokers that ignore the notices. Since the 2023 expansion, they've filed actions against more than 100 data brokers, with 37+ consolidated civil cases pending in the District of New Jersey by late 2024.

The model: a covered person signs an assignment, Atlas runs a scan, sends the §47:1B-1 notice on the officer's behalf, and litigates if the broker doesn't comply. Settlements are confidential. The volume tells you the law works. Most national brokers now have a dedicated NJ intake process because the cost of defending a batched suit exceeds the cost of complying with the notice.

The Third Circuit upheld the statute against broker First Amendment challenges in Atlas Data Privacy Corp. v. We Inform LLC (Sept. 2024). The court held that Daniel's Law survives intermediate scrutiny because the state's interest in protecting officers and judges from targeted violence is concrete and the statute is narrowly tailored. That ruling shut the door on the broker industry's strongest constitutional argument.

The New Jersey Supreme Court heard oral arguments in March 2026 on the contours of who counts as a "covered person" and what triggers the statutory-damages clock. The court is expected to clarify whether each republication is a separate violation, what counts as good-faith compliance, and whether cached data left live after a takedown still owes damages. Decision pending.

OPRA exemptions, P.L. 2024 c.16

The Open Public Records Act exemptions under P.L. 2024 c.16 shield home addresses of LEOs, firefighters, judges, prosecutors, and corrections officers from disclosure under public-records requests. The 2024 update consolidated and clarified prior exemptions, giving agencies a clean cite to refuse disclosure.

OPRA exemptions are agency-side. They stop a public-records requester from getting your address through the agency. They don't reach brokers. Daniel's Law handles the broker side. The two layers cover different attack surfaces.

For state, county, and municipal websites that already published your address before the OPRA filing, §47:1B-3 routes redaction requests through OIP. That portal handles the back-catalog cleanup that the OPRA exemption alone doesn't touch.

Where the law has teeth and where it doesn't

The teeth are real. Statutory damages compound fast, $1,000 per violation, and a single broker can have multiple violations across multiple records. State legislators floated S-3527 in late 2025 to cap the per-violation damages, framed as litigation reform. Judge Salas pushed back publicly through Reuters in April 2026 and the cap has not advanced.

Where it doesn't reach:

1. Federal court records (PACER). Daniel's Law doesn't bind federal courts. If your home address appeared in a federal filing, the removal goes through the federal records-management process separately. See /laws/lieu-act for federal judges.
2. Out-of-state brokers with no NJ nexus. Some smaller brokers headquartered abroad or in states with weaker enforcement may ignore notices. The law applies to anyone who sells into NJ, but smaller actors take that as a risk.
3. Property records. Daniel's Law does not require county recorders to remove address information from deed transfers. NJ provides separate property-record protections through the ACP, substitute-address program.
4. Information you publicly published yourself. If your address is in your own social media or business filing, the broker has a defense.

What still falls through

Even with Daniel's Law actively enforced, three things still get past it:

1. New filings in state court. Filings that include your address before redaction.
2. Property records. County recorders publish deed transfers that include the address.
3. Re-listings. Brokers comply with the demand, then re-list six months later from a new data feed. The ten-day clock starts over each time.

What about retirees, families, non-LE first responders, out-of-state officers

Retirees. Coverage is the same as active. The 2023 amendment confirmed "formerly active or retired" status. A 20-and-out officer ten years gone keeps the right to file.

Spouses, parents, minor children. Covered if they live at the same residence as the covered person. A divorced ex-spouse who moved out is not covered. An adult child living elsewhere is not covered, the statute is structured around the home, not the relationship.

Firefighters and EMS. NJ first responders outside law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, or corrections rely on the OPRA exemption (§47:1A-1.1) and the federal DPPA. Daniel's Law itself does not extend to firefighters or EMS. NJ legislators have floated expansion bills, none have advanced as of April 2026.

Officers stationed in NJ from out of state. A federal officer working in NJ but residing in PA can still use Daniel's Law against a broker publishing a New Jersey work address. The covered-person definition runs by job duty, not residence.

Federal judges sitting in NJ. Covered under Daniel's Law and the federal Lieu Act. Use both, the federal Lieu Act covers gaps that state law misses.

Address Confidentiality Program

The NJ ACP runs through the State Police at nj.gov/oag/njsp/acp.shtml. Eligibility is for victims of domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault, or human trafficking. ACP provides a substitute mailing address that all state and local agencies must use in place of your real one.

Officers are not categorically eligible. An officer who is also a documented victim of stalking or threat-based harassment can enroll. ACP doesn't replace Daniel's Law, it adds a layer for officers with a credible threat profile.

Laws that work for you here

• Daniel's Law (NJSA §47:1B-1 et seq.) — the broker remedy. $1,000 per violation, 10 business days, private right of action with assignment to third parties.
• NJSA §47:1B-3 — government-website redaction through OIP portal.
• NJSA §2C:20-31.1 — criminal hook for malicious disclosure of covered persons' info.
• NJSA §47:1A-1.1 (OPRA exemption) — home addresses of LEOs, firefighters, judges, prosecutors, corrections officers exempt from public-records disclosure. Updated P.L. 2024 c.16.
• NJSA §39:2-3.4 — DMV record confidentiality for judges, prosecutors, LEOs on application through NJ MVC.
• N.J. Admin. Code §3A:71-11.1 — confidential voter registration on application.
• Federal DPPA — federal floor on DMV record sharing.
• Federal Lieu Act — federal judges and immediate family broker remedy.

What we do beyond Daniel's Law

We file Daniel's Law demands on your behalf and track the ten-day window. When a broker re-lists you, we demand again the same day. We do this across 200+ broker sites in parallel, the Daniel's Law-honoring ones and the ones that aren't subject to the law at all but still publish your data. The law was written to make removal stick. The brokers were not.