Privacy in New Jersey for first responders

Daniel's Law starts in New Jersey

New Jersey passed the first broker-removal law of its kind. Daniel's Law (NJSA §47:1B-1 et seq.) was signed in 2020 and strengthened by a 2023 amendment. It covers active and retired judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, corrections officers, and child protective investigators, plus the spouses, parents, and minor children who live with them. It lets a covered person demand that any data broker, website, or person stop publishing their home address and unpublished home phone number, and sue if they refuse. You don't need a lawyer to start.

The law is named for Daniel Anderl, the 20-year-old son of US District Judge Esther Salas. In 2020, a man who had appeared before Judge Salas located the family's home, came to the door, and shot Daniel and his father. The attacker had found the home address through publicly available sources. New Jersey signed the law that November.

Filing a Daniel's Law demand, step by step

You don't need a lawyer. For a New Jersey covered person, the mechanics are:

1. Run a scan. Pull the exact URLs where your address or phone number shows. Free scan at /scan. The scan output is the evidence package for the steps that follow.
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., state that you are a covered person, identify the data, and demand removal within 10 business days.
3. Identify the protected information. Your home address, unpublished home telephone number, and prior addresses tied to your name on the listing. Be specific. Vague notices give the broker an argument at trial.
4. Send it. Email the broker's published privacy or Daniel's Law contact. Some brokers publish a dedicated intake address; others take notice at a general privacy contact. Use certified mail to the registered agent if you want a delivery receipt.
5. Save proof. The sent timestamp, the delivery receipt, any broker reply, and a dated screenshot of the listing on day 11 if it is still live.
6. Follow up. If the listing is down on day 11, save the confirmation and move on. If it is still live, the 10-day clock has run and you have a civil claim.
7. Re-scan regularly. Re-listings are the most common failure mode. Each new posting is a fresh violation, so document each one.

For state, county, and municipal websites, redaction requests route through the Office of Information Privacy portal under §47:1B-3. That process is separate from the broker demand and runs on its own timeline.

Sample notice language

The notice does not have to be long. It must contain four pieces:

• "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, and send it. Keep copies. The full template is on the demand letter page.

What the 2023 amendment changed

The 2023 amendment hardened the law. The pieces that matter:

• Mandatory $1,000 per violation. The original 2020 law let courts decide damages. The 2023 amendment made the $1,000 mandatory rather than discretionary, on top of actual damages and punitive damages where a violation is willful or reckless.
• Assignment to a third party. Covered persons can assign their claims to a third party. That is the legal basis for Atlas Data Privacy Corp's batched suits: officers assign their claims, and Atlas litigates them.
• Criminal exposure. N.J.S.A. 2C:20-31.1 makes disclosing a covered person's home address or unpublished phone number, with intent to expose them to harassment or harm, a fourth-degree crime, and a third-degree crime if the disclosure causes bodily injury.

Atlas Data Privacy's role

Atlas Data Privacy Corp files removal demands and lawsuits for covered persons who assign it their claims. A covered person signs an assignment, Atlas runs a scan, sends the §47:1B-1 notice, and litigates if the broker ignores it.

Atlas and its co-counsel have filed more than 150 lawsuits on behalf of more than 20,000 New Jersey law enforcement officers and other personnel. In one consolidated federal case, 37 data brokers moved to dismiss on constitutional grounds and lost.

Because statutory damages stack quickly, a broker has a strong incentive to comply with a valid notice rather than litigate.

How the courts have tested the law

Data brokers challenged Daniel's Law on First Amendment grounds, arguing it is an unconstitutional restriction on speech. A federal district court in New Jersey rejected that argument and denied their motion to dismiss in November 2024, upholding the law. The brokers appealed to the Third Circuit, which heard argument in July 2025.

Instead of ruling, the Third Circuit sent a narrower question to the New Jersey Supreme Court: whether Daniel's Law requires any mental state, such as intent or knowledge, before a broker can be held liable. The New Jersey Supreme Court heard oral argument in March 2026. A decision is pending. The liability standard is unsettled until it lands, but the law remains in force.

A 2025 effort to narrow the law

In late 2025, some legislators proposed limiting Daniel's Law lawsuits. The proposal would give judges discretion over the $1,000 damages instead of keeping it mandatory, and would remove the right to assign claims to a third party. Law enforcement groups and supporters of the law pushed back. As of mid-2026, the proposal has not advanced. If it changes the assignment right, it would change how mass enforcement works.

OPRA exemptions and the 2024 overhaul

Under the Open Public Records Act (§47:1A-1.1), the home addresses of law enforcement officers, firefighters, judges, prosecutors, and corrections officers are exempt from disclosure under public-records requests. New Jersey's 2024 OPRA overhaul (P.L. 2024, c.16) revised the state's public-records law and gave agencies a clear basis to refuse disclosure.

The OPRA exemption is agency-side. It stops a public-records requester from getting your address through the agency. It does not reach brokers. Daniel's Law handles the broker side. The two layers cover different attack surfaces.

For a state, county, or municipal website that already published your address, §47:1B-3 routes a redaction request through the Office of Information Privacy. That handles back-catalog cleanup the exemption alone does not touch.

Where the law reaches and where it doesn't

The teeth are real. Statutory damages of $1,000 per violation compound fast, and a single broker can have multiple violations across multiple records. That cost is why brokers built New Jersey intake processes.

Where the law does not reach:

1. Federal court records (PACER). Daniel's Law does not bind federal courts. If your home address appeared in a federal filing, removal goes through the federal records process. See /laws/lieu-act for federal judges.
2. Out-of-state brokers with no New Jersey nexus. The law applies to anyone who sells into New Jersey, but smaller actors based abroad or in weaker-enforcement states sometimes ignore notices and treat it as a risk.
3. Property records. Daniel's Law does not require county recorders to strip address information from deed transfers. New Jersey provides separate property-record protection through the Address Confidentiality Program.
4. Information you published yourself. If your address is in your own social media or business filing, the broker has a defense.

What still leaks

Even with Daniel's Law actively enforced, some exposure gets past it:

1. New state court filings. Filings that include your address before it is redacted.
2. Property records. County recorders publish deed transfers that include the address.
3. Re-listings. A broker complies with the demand, then re-lists you months later from a new data feed. The 10-day clock starts over each time.

Coverage questions: retirees, families, non-LE responders, out-of-state

Retirees. Coverage matches active status. The 2023 amendment confirmed that formerly active or retired covered persons keep the right to file. A 20-and-out officer 10 years gone still qualifies.

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 built around the shared home, not the relationship.

Firefighters and EMS. New Jersey first responders outside law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, and corrections rely on the OPRA exemption (§47:1A-1.1) and the federal DPPA, which limits how motor-vehicle agencies share your DMV record. Daniel's Law itself does not extend to firefighters or EMS. Legislators have floated expansion bills, and none have advanced as of mid-2026.

Officers stationed in New Jersey from out of state. A federal officer who works in New Jersey but lives in Pennsylvania 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 New Jersey. Covered under both Daniel's Law and the federal Lieu Act. Use both. The Lieu Act covers gaps state law misses.

Address Confidentiality Program

The New Jersey ACP runs through the Department of Children and Families, Division on Women at nj.gov/dcf/divisions-offices/dow/acp.shtml. Eligibility is for victims of domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault, or human trafficking. The ACP provides a substitute mailing address that state and local agencies 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. The ACP does not replace Daniel's Law. It adds a layer for a covered person with a credible threat profile.

Laws that apply 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 a third party.
• NJSA §47:1B-3: government-website redaction through the Office of Information Privacy portal.
• NJSA §2C:20-31.1: criminal track for malicious disclosure of a covered person's information.
• NJSA §47:1A-1.1 (OPRA exemption): home addresses of law enforcement officers, firefighters, judges, prosecutors, and corrections officers are exempt from public-records disclosure, as revised by P.L. 2024, c.16.
• NJSA §39:2-3.4: part of New Jersey's Driver's Privacy Protection Act; restricts the Motor Vehicle Commission from disclosing personal information from a motor vehicle record.
• N.J. Admin. Code §3A:71-11.1: keeps the voter records of Address Confidentiality Program participants confidential. It runs through ACP enrollment, not as a standalone voter-roll opt-out for officers generally.
• Federal DPPA: federal floor on how DMV records are shared.
• Federal Lieu Act: broker remedy for federal judges and their immediate family.

What Frontline Privacy does here

We file Daniel's Law demands on your behalf and track the compliance window. When a broker re-lists you, we file again. We check a broad list of broker sites, including the ones Daniel's Law covers and the ones outside its reach that still publish your information. We keep checking, because re-listings are the most common way an address comes back. When a site needs something from you to finish a removal, we tell you clearly.

See what's exposed with a free scan.