A private investigator hired on behalf of a stalker obtained a woman's home address from a state motor vehicle registry, a public government database. The stalker traveled to her apartment and murdered her at her front door. The address was not leaked, breached, or stolen. It was purchased through a standard information request from a public record.
The case established the foundational legal precedent that information brokers bear liability for third-party physical harms caused by the sale of location data. It also triggered the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act, which restricted DMV record sales decades after the murder exposed how easily a home address could be traced from a public filing.
A business owner operating from a private address does not need a data breach to become a physical target. Every public filing, registry entry, and government database record they have ever submitted is a standing supply source for any investigator or information broker willing to pay a standard fee. The legislative response confirmed the threat model. The architecture that made it possible has never been fully closed.
Source: NPR.
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