Let’s Protect Judges, Police and Other Public Servants
Support Legislation to Protect Daniel’s Law
Daniel’s Law was enacted in 2020 to protect judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and other public servants by preventing the disclosure of their home addresses and home phone numbers. It was passed after the tragic attack on U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas’ family that took the life of her son, Daniel.
But in 2023, a company called Atlas Data Privacy Corporation (“Atlas”) pushed amendments through the state Legislature that have made New Jersey’s public servants less safe and led to hundreds of predatory lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages, which would go to the predatory companies, not covered persons. The amendments made compliance confusing, created constitutional challenges that could lead to the law being struck down in the courts, and opened the door to predatory companies, like Atlas, that have turned this important protection into a profit scheme.
On Nov. 13, 2025, Sen. Gordon Johnson introduced the “Protect Daniel’s Law Act,” (S-4884) which provides a fix so the law once again protects covered persons, strengthens enforcement, and restores public confidence. A companion bill (A6125) has also been introduced in the lower house by Assemblyman Lou Greenwald.
The Protect Daniel’s Law Act
The Protect Daniel’s Law Act restores the law to its original purpose—protecting the safety of judges, officers, and their families—while closing the loopholes that made it unworkable.
This legislation will:
- Create an online portal that will serve as a one-stop-shop to allow covered persons to easily register and verify their information, while giving businesses a secure and efficient way to authenticate and comply with takedown requests.
- Reestablish the Office of Information Privacy (OIP) as an independent clearinghouse to authenticate requests and eliminate confusion.
- Eliminate the assignment loophole that allows predatory companies to manipulate Daniel’s Law for financial gain, while keeping the ability of covered persons and the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs to enforce the law and ensure compliance.
- Prevent businesses from being penalized for the mere possession of information, as opposed to public disclosure.
- Restore judicial discretion in the awarding of damages, so that the law complies with the holdings of the United States Supreme Court and so that individuals and businesses acting in good faith to comply with the law aren’t unfairly penalized.
- Harmonize Daniel’s Law with the New Jersey Data Privacy Law, which took effect earlier this year (Jan. 15, 2025) and comprehensively regulates data processing in the state.
Extend protections to additional public servants, including legislators and municipal court administrators.
The Changes will Better Protect Covered Public Servants
Some organizations may claim the Protect Daniel’s Law Act will harm judges, public safety and others covered by the law, but nothing can be further from the truth. The only entities that will be impacted by the proposed legislation are Atlas and other predatory companies that have taken advantage of loopholes in the existing law to profit.
While 2023 amendments to Daniel’s Law were promoted as facilitating removal of more public safety officials’ information, the exact opposite has occurred.
The amendments expanded the definition of “disclosure” so broadly that even possession of an address or phone number could be considered a violation—even if the public has no access to it. This makes compliance nearly impossible for legitimate businesses that use data for lawful and non-public purposes, such as fraud detection, credit verification, and identity protection. The result is confusion, a flood of lawsuits, and constitutional challenges that now threaten the entire law.
The amendments also sidelined the Office of Information Privacy (OIP), a state agency created by the original Daniel’s Law to facilitate and verify requests. Without it, there is no consistent way for businesses to confirm who is truly a covered person and no state oversight over the takedown request process.
Worse, the amendments have allowed the assignment of covered persons’ rights to third-party companies and attorneys that file mass lawsuits for profit. Those lawsuits have stifled the law’s effectiveness and do nothing to make covered persons safe; they only line the pockets of companies that exploit the law that resulted from a tragedy.
Predatory Lawsuits Impacting Small Businesses
Almost immediately after the amendments went into effect, Atlas began advertising “takedown” services to covered persons, promising it would have their information taken down from the Internet. Buried in Atlas’s terms and conditions was a provision transferring legal rights to Atlas, including the rights to sue and recover damages. Although covered persons began signing up for Atlas’s advertised takedown services, Atlas did not attempt to have their information taken down right away, but instead waited six months until late December 2023 and early January 2024, when it sent tens of thousands of Daniel’s Law requests to hundreds of businesses, many of them small and family owned, demanding they comply within 10 days.
Burying businesses under a mountain of requests made compliance virtually impossible – as Atlas intended. The requests were sent during the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s (even at midnight New Year’s Day) when businesses predictably were either shut down or operating with reduced holiday staffs. The requests were emailed instead of utilizing the businesses’ existing removal tools. Some requests were sent to defunct or unmonitored email addresses. Others crashed companies’ IT systems or triggered SPAM filters that interpreted the massive requests as cyberattacks, completely blocking their transmission. The requests that did get through often lacked proper identifying information, making it impossible to properly identify the correct covered officials behind the requests.
Other companies received the spammed requests but required and sought basic assistance from Atlas to correctly process the requests. Atlas ignored such calls for basic assistance. Instead, weeks later, it filed over 140 lawsuits—relying on its terms and conditions which purported to transfer covered persons’ rights to Atlas—demanding over $2.5 billion in damages regardless of whether the companies had received, attempted to or in fact complied with the nondisclosure requests.
Even after the lawsuits were filed, Atlas continued to hinder compliance with the requests, refusing—until ordered by a judge—to provide copies of the requests to businesses that had not received them or identifying information to businesses that could not verify the requests without that information.
Will you join the fight to stop predatory lawsuits against small businesses?
Daniel’s Law is Threatened by Legal Challenges
Right now, Daniel’s Law doesn’t work for anyone—it’s confusing for businesses, unenforceable for covered persons, and vulnerable in court. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has already questioned its constitutionality, and asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to explain why the law should not be struck down. New Jersey can’t wait to see if the courts will fix the law for us or throw it out as unconstitutional. The proposed legislation will make Daniel’s Law stronger, fairer, and constitutional.
At a time of heightened political division, growing threats against police and our judiciary, and rising concern about privacy and safety, New Jersey has a responsibility to get this right. The proposed legislation will protect the men and women who serve New Jersey with courage and integrity—while ensuring that Daniel’s Law stands up to legal scrutiny and continues to meet its true intent for years to come.
Unintended Consequences of The Misguided Changes to the Law
The 2023 amendments to Daniel’s Law have opened the floodgates to abusive lawsuits that jeopardize the ability of many businesses that rely on data to operate – even small businesses that do not disclose personal information on the internet. The result could cause immeasurable societal and economic harm. In addition to making it more challenging to protect New Jersey’s public servants, it inevitably will be…
More Difficult
For small businesses to stay open
To secure an auto, home or
student loan
To secure
veterans’ benefits
To complete required background checks to buy a gun, coach youth sports or become a teacher
To track down parents ducking child support
To protect individuals from identity theft
And more …
About Us
The Public Safety Information Protection Coalition represents the interests of individuals, small businesses and companies in real estate, lending, credit reporting, background checks, fraud detection, legal services, identity protection and verification, veterans’ services, social services agencies, nonprofits, consumer reporting, B2B marketing, data services, and other industries that rely on data in order to operate in an increasingly digital economy.
Commitment to Public Safety
The Public Safety Information Coalition and its members have great respect for America’s judges, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and other public servants. Indeed, law enforcement agencies are frequent customers of many Coalition members, who provide useful tools and information to combat crime. Even before Daniel’s Law was passed, Coalition members honored legitimate requests to remove the personal information of judicial officers, law enforcement agents, and others from their offerings. These commitments remain unchanged to this day. We support protecting individuals’ privacy with clear and stable procedures to ensure compliance while fostering consumer trust.
Public Safety Information Protection Coalition
222 West State Street
Trenton, NJ 08608
© 2025