A New Platform Offers Privacy Tools to Millions of Public Servants

A first-of-its-kind marketplace rolled out on Tuesday offering free and discounted privacy and security services to America’s 23 million current and former public servants. The initiative is supported by the Public Service Alliance (PSA), a company that says it formed last summer following an unprecedented rise in threats against government workers across the United States.

Open to anyone who is serving or has served in government—federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial—the platform debuts amid heightened concern over the safety of public officials and their families, especially in the wake of the June killing of Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband and the attempted assassination of state senator John Hoffman and his wife.

“Threats to public servants and their families have surged over the past decade, with no scalable support for those at risk. This is a broken business model for effective government and undermines everything America stands for,” PSA founder and CEO Isabella Ulloa says in a statement.

The group says its marketplace is designed to connect public servants—from veterans and judges to first responders and lawmakers—with resources spanning four areas: privacy and security, legal and communications risk, career support, and personal well-being. The services, which anyone can browse for free, include online data removal, legal counsel, threat monitoring, job coaching, and stress management tools.

After creating a free account and attesting to their government service, users will receive codes that unlock reduced rates from vetted vendors: data-privacy firms like Optery and Atlas, which help remove personal information from the web and keep it from reappearing; Alethea, a security firm that monitors for online harassment and physical threats; and Lifemart, which offers discounted lifestyle and wellness products. Additionally, while it does not itself provide legal advice, PSA says it can connect users to a network of attorneys that provide low-cost legal consultations.

During a quiet launch last year, PSA tells WIRED, it amassed roughly 1,000 users by word of mouth alone, saying it so far touts a 100 percent retention rate. Users pay a 10 percent fee (based on the discounted rate of the services used) to help maintain the platform, but waivers are available for those for whom the added cost becomes prohibitive. Many of the discounts are steep, PSA says, noting that threat monitoring services, which can range from $5,000 to over $30,000 annually, can be obtained by its users for less than $1,000 per year.

PSA casts itself as strictly nonpartisan, pointing to an advisory board that spans both parties as well as members of law enforcement, including former Republican congresswoman Barbara Comstock, Massachusetts sheriff Peter Koutoujian, and David Sundberg, a retired FBI assistant director. Ulloa, the founder, recently worked for the Department of Homeland Security. PSA says the bipartisan structure underscores its view that protecting people’s lives should always transcend politics.

The group says it has plans to extend access to the discounts to other at-risk groups, including nonprofit workers, later this year.

A January report by the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy nonprofit, underscored the widespread nature of the threats and harassment public officials are facing. Its researchers found that nearly half of state legislators and nearly one in five local officials reported being threatened, many saying the abuse has intensified in both frequency and tone. Women and officials of color bear the abuse at rates several times that of their peers.

The threats are not only endangering people, the center says, but warping democratic participation; deterring candidates from running for office and silencing officials on controversial issues, pushing many to scale back public events and social media use.

The US Capitol Police says it investigated 9,474 threats against members of Congress and those close to them last year, marking a second straight annual increase, more than doubling 2017’s total.

Data brokers, which are often used for targeted abuse, sit at the heart of a multibillion-dollar industry that thrives on collecting, packaging, and selling detailing personal information, often without your knowledge or consent. They compile sprawling dossiers on nearly every American, from their location histories to political leanings and even religious affiliations. This data is sold and resold for a variety of purposes, ranging from targeting advertising to law-enforcement surveillance and immigration control.

The risks are not abstract. People-search websites, which draw heavily on data broker feeds, have long been used by abusers to track and harass victims. Data breaches have exposed the movements of politicians and military personnel. And even when opting out is possible, it’s a burdensome, piecemeal process that requires repeatedly chasing down companies as information is re-collected and relisted.

The Trump administration has orchestrated a major rollback of efforts to rein in data broker abuse pursued by ex-Biden administration officials. In May 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau quietly withdrew a Biden-era rule that would have required data brokers to get people’s consent before selling sensitive personal information like Social Security numbers or income details.

Meanwhile, privacy watchdogs like the Electronic Frontier Foundation report that hundreds of data brokers are evading state transparency laws—including failing to register in states where it’s required—further eroding oversight in the absence of federal regulation; a gap that’s left even basic privacy protections vulnerable to corporate gamesmanship.

An investigation by The Markup and CalMatters copublished by WIRED last month found at least 35 data brokers deliberately hiding their opt-out pages from Google search results, making it harder for people to find and use tools to delete their personal data—a practice that consumer advocates say resembles an illegal dark pattern; another barrier to thwart users hoping to one day wrest control of their data from companies built on exploiting it.