I don’t have any sympathy for Brix, but if her family really is being harassed it does make me wonder about how quickly that’s become a feature of our politics. Is there room here for legislating sites that collect and present personal information about people online?

There’s a whole cottage industry of these gross sites out there, and each company that does them usually has dozens of the same site cloned repeatedly with slightly different designs, all serving no purpose but enabling stalkers and harassers to collect information on targets.

Why do we tolerate this? Some even ask for money to take down listings, or just serve to drive internet in “privacy management” programs. It’s a protection racket. “Boy it would be a shame if that unstable ex found out where you lived, wouldn’t it?”

I personally keep a PO Box for exactly this reason. My home address is on NOTHING. Isn’t it kind of nutty that I have to live that way? And I’m fortunate that no one really cares about me s my exposure is minimal. I can’t imagine what it’s like for victims of abuse.

I think we should be a lot more privacy conscious. Our personal information is online everywhere and is connected in ways that should unsettle us all. This is just one example of how it’s visible.