A New Platform Offers Privacy Tools to Millions of Public Servants
1 min read
Summary
Companies such as Optery, Atlas and Alethea offer services including online data removal, threat monitoring and security improvements to public servants facing a surge in threats.
Threats to public officials and their families have surged over the past decade, with no scalable support for those at risk, says Public Service Alliance (PSA), a company offering the services.
The services are free or discounted and available to anyone who is or has served in the US government, and users pay a 10% fee to maintain the platform.
Data broking is a multibillion-dollar industry that collects and sells personal data, frequently without consent, for uses ranging from advertising to law enforcement.
The US Capitol Police investigated 9,474 threats against congresspeople and their associates last year, more than doubling the total for 2017, while privacy protections are being eroded.
