New Hampshire Supreme Court rules information brokers liable for harms caused by selling information

In 2003, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that information brokers and private investigators may be liable for the harms caused by selling information. In the case in question, Amy Boyer, a young woman, was murdered by Liam Youens, a stalker. Youens obtained her information from Docusearch, which bought her social security number and used a subcontractor to place "pretext" calls in order to get Boyer to reveal her employment information. The ruling led the private investigation industry to self-regulate more carefully, and lying to a bank or financial services company to gain information was made a federal crime.

http://www.unhmagazine.unh.edu/w04/privacy.html
https://epic.org/privacy/boyer/

Writer: Ellen Grimm, EPIC
Publication: UNH Magazine Online, EPIC