FRONTLINEPRIVACY

Privacy in Tennessee for first responders

What state law protects, what still leaks, and what we sweep beyond it.

Run a free scan. No signup.

Safe at Home

Tennessee maintains a state-level program that lets eligible officers, judges, and other protected workers use a substitute address for public records.

Apply or learn more →

Public-records carve-outs

  • Tenn. Code Ann. §10-7-504(a)(16) — home address, home phone, and personal contact information of sworn officers, firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, corrections officers, and judges are confidential under the Public Records Act.
  • Tenn. Code Ann. §10-7-504(f) — additional record confidentiality categories tied to public safety personnel.
  • Tenn. Code Ann. §67-5-517 — property assessor must unlist your name from the ownership field of online property record databases on written request.
  • Tenn. Code Ann. §40-38-607 — voter registration confidentiality for Safe at Home participants.

Applicable laws

What protects you in Tennessee

Tennessee's primary lever is Tenn. Code Ann. §10-7-504(a)(16). It makes the home address, home phone, and personal contact information of sworn officers, firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, corrections officers, and judges confidential under the state Public Records Act. The agency holding the record has to redact those fields before releasing anything.

The second lever most officers miss is Tenn. Code Ann. §67-5-517. Tennessee property records are public by default and county assessors publish them online. File a written request with the assessor and they'll unlist your name from the ownership field of the searchable database. Address still appears on the deed, but the name-based search path closes.

The state's Safe at Home program under Tenn. Code Ann. §40-38-602 provides a substitute-address designation. Eligibility is tied to being a victim of stalking, domestic violence, sexual assault, or human trafficking — it's not officer-categorical, but the door is there if your situation qualifies. Safe at Home participants also get voter-roll confidentiality under §40-38-607.

What still leaks

  1. Civil court filings. Divorce decrees, small-claims, and tax suits regularly include home addresses in the body of filings. The §10-7-504 exemption is on agency public-records releases, not court records, which work through a separate redaction process.
  2. County property record full deeds. §67-5-517 unlists your name from online searches but doesn't redact the deed itself. Out-of-state aggregators that pull bulk recorder data can still find you.
  3. Out-of-state brokers. Spokeo, Whitepages, and the rest don't honor Tennessee law. They source from national aggregators and commercial feeds that don't care about §10-7-504.

Laws that work for you here

  • Tenn. Code Ann. §10-7-504(a)(16) — the core public-records exemption for sworn officers, firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, corrections officers, and judges.
  • Tenn. Code Ann. §10-7-504(f) — additional confidentiality categories tied to public safety personnel.
  • Tenn. Code Ann. §67-5-517 — file with your county property assessor to unlist your name from the online property search database.
  • Tenn. Code Ann. §40-38-602 (Safe at Home) — substitute-address program for crime victims. Not officer-categorical.
  • Tenn. Code Ann. §40-38-607 — voter registration confidentiality for Safe at Home participants.

What we sweep that the state doesn't

Tennessee has no broker-removal statute — no equivalent of New Jersey's Daniel's Law, the NJ law that lets covered officers sue data brokers for failing to remove their home address. The §10-7-504 exemption shields what state agencies disclose. It does not reach Spokeo, Whitepages, or the 200+ other broker sites that publish your address from out-of-state aggregator feeds. We file opt-outs across the broker layer and re-check every two weeks because re-listings happen. The state shuts the agency path. We close the broker path.

Run a free scan. No signup.