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In NH, Internet Data Sellers Can Be Sued for Unreasonable Disclosures
Posted by Steven Wu on Saturday, March 08 @ 03:51:56 EST Governance
New Hampshire's highest state court has stated that there is a duty of Internet data sellers to "exercise reasonable care in disclosing a third person's personal information to a client," especially when the data seller is unsure about the purpose behind the client's information request.

The case, Helen Remsburg, Administratrix of the Estate of Amy Lynn Boyer v. Docusearch Inc., involves an online data seller, Docusearch.com, that provided personal information about a young woman to an obsessed stalker who subsequently used that information to track down the woman and kill her. The young woman's family sued Docusearch.com in federal district court. The New Hampshire Supreme Court became involved when Docusearch.com filed a motion to dismiss the case. To determine whether this motion had any merit, the district court certified to the New Hampshire court several questions. One question asked whether New Hampshire's common law recognizes that private investigators and information brokers have a legal duty toward third parties when they sell information about those third parties to their clients. The New Hampshire Supreme Court said that such a duty does indeed exist under New Hampshire common law.

The case will now go to jury trial in federal district court.

Read more about the case here. (Link via How Appealing.)

 
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