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119-s-2851119th CongressWALLET

Protecting Americans from Doxing and Political Violence Act

Sponsored By: Senator Wyden, Ron [D-OR]

Introduced

Summary

This bill would create a federal framework for _protecting high‑scrutiny individuals from the public disclosure of sensitive personal information_. It sets who qualifies, what counts as protected data, who must act, and how people can enforce their privacy rights.

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

4 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.

Ban on data brokers selling info

If enacted, the bill would make it unlawful for a data broker to knowingly sell, license, trade for money, or purchase covered information about a covered person. The bill defines covered persons to include people located in the United States and certain U.S. persons, and it lists many exceptions such as news reporting, consumer reporting agencies, banks, and health entities. The U.S. Attorney General or any State attorney general could sue to enforce the ban and seek injunctive or declaratory relief.

Businesses must remove posted personal data

If enacted, any person or business that gets a written request from an at-risk person would have to stop publicly posting that person's covered information online. The recipient would have to remove the information within 72 hours and make sure it is not available on any website or subsidiary site they control. After the request, the recipient generally could not transfer the information, with exceptions for news reporting, voluntary posts by the person, government-provided data, or transfers the person requests to carry out the removal. At-risk people could sue for an injunction or declaratory relief if the rules are violated. The bill also preserves lawful news reporting and other required disclosures and allows publication with written consent.

Government marking and 72-hour removal

If enacted, at-risk people could send written notice to any government agency asking the agency to mark their covered information private. Agencies would be required not to publicly post that information and must remove it from publicly available content within 72 hours. Legislative officers could file requests or provide lists on behalf of Members or designated employees, and those lists would count as individual requests. Exceptions would allow access with a signed release, for certain financial-privacy rules, or under a confidentiality agreement.

Who is protected and what

If enacted, the bill would say who counts as an "at-risk" person and list the types of personal data covered. At-risk people would include Members of Congress, their spouses, parents, siblings, children, household members, certain House or Senate employees, and former Members. Covered information would include home addresses, home and personal mobile numbers, personal email addresses, Social Security and driver's license numbers, bank and card numbers, vehicle identifiers, child information for kids under 18, school or day care locations and routes, work travel routes, and precise device location data. It would not cover information that a candidate must file with the Federal Election Commission or other lawfully required candidate filings.

Sponsors & CoSponsors

Sponsor

Wyden, Ron [D-OR]

OR • D

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

No roll call votes available for this bill.

View on Congress.gov
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