One example comes from Ironwall by Incogni, a privacy protection firm that offers to scrub as much online personal data from the wider web as possible for clients who include judges and, increasingly, state and local officials along with health-care executives.
Ironwall is among a relatively small collection of companies that offer to take down as much of that data — addresses, phone numbers and other information helpful to stalkers and those bent on harm — as possible.
That niche industry promises to grow in the coming months and years as debates over politics, economics, culture and foreign affairs become angrier and more personal.
Inquries about Ironwall’s services — which previously focused on judges, a common target of ire — have recently increased 20 percent, according to Ron Zayas, CEO of Ironwall by Incogni.
“The situation today is different,” he told Government Technology, with threats “much more widespread. It seems more coordinated than it was. People are [trying to] scare you into something they want you to do.”
Outside research backs up Zayas.
More than 90 incidents of threat and harassment against local officials took place in November, up 30 percent from October, according to the Threats and Harassment Dataset from Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative, which focuses on political violence.
That was the highest number of recorded threats since data collection started in 2022.
Since the election, those threats have decreased but still hit 25 incidents in December, the last month for which data was available. Even so, the Initiative says that “threats and harassment are becoming more frequent over time even as total levels of political violence trended down last year.”
It’s hardly a stretch to expect that increasing resistance to the Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting effort, along with inflation, high prices and the ongoing “culture war,” will keep those threat levels relatively high for the time being — which in turn presents a business opportunity for services such as Ironwall, which also is protecting social workers, local law enforcement and even hospital chains in Chicago.
Erasing one’s entire treasure chest of online data is pretty much an impossible task, especially as the latest technology continues to find more use in the public sector.
In the wake of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December — a crime many have celebrated — other corporate leaders in that sector have lowered their web profile. But it doesn’t take much to find personal data in the digital cracks, or via data brokers, and that’s where these online privacy companies come in.
Ironwall, for instance, uses its workforce and tech to remove as much personal data as possible from the public web while also monitoring relevant threats from the so-called dark web. Artificial intelligence and other automated tools can do much of the heavy lift, though the work also requires a human touch.
For instance, the company might have to place a call to, say, a city clerk or the head of a local soccer club to persuade them to take down data that can help a criminal locate the personal residence of an official or their relatives.
A public agency might remove the full name of an official applying for a building permit, substituting initials instead. Freedom of Information Act issues can arise, but Zayas says his company operates according to relevant laws.
The apparent growth of interest in data privacy tools during this period of massive political change is only one way that technology is helping government respond to the harsh realities of the moment.
Last year, before the presidential election, social media screening company Ferretly introduced a tool designed to help weed out extremists from voting-related jobs such as canvassers and poll watchers.
