Data Brokers, Deadly Consequences, and the Wild West of Information Trade

Esther Salas was downstairs when she heard the doorbell. It was a Sunday afternoon in New Jersey, in July 2020. Her son Daniel, twenty years old and home from college, went to answer it.

A man stood outside dressed like a FedEx driver. When Daniel opened the door, the man pulled a gun. He shot Daniel in the chest, then turned the weapon on Salas’s husband, Mark. By the time police arrived, Daniel was dead. Mark was bleeding out. The judge, the intended target, was unharmed.