Privacy for people in higher-risk roles

Faraday works with people who are at risk because of who they are, what they do for a living, or the information they handle. This guide covers what you can do yourself. If you’d like hands-on advice for your situation, get in touch.

For many people in these roles, the biggest risk is a determined stranger finding out where they live.

This guide sets out the steps that matter most for that risk.

Assume your name will be searched

Do the search yourself first, the way a hostile stranger would. Search your name, your name plus your town, your workplace, your phone number, your email addresses and your home address. Then work through the personal exposure audit. People in higher-risk roles should do every item, including the lower-impact ones.

Separate the public you from the private you

• Use a work or public email and phone number for anything public-facing. Keep your personal number for people you know.
• Use a postal address that isn’t your home for correspondence, subscriptions and deliveries where you can, such as a PO Box, a work address or a parcel locker.
• Lock down personal social media, including friends lists. Hostile people often find you through a partner’s, child’s or parent’s public profile, so ask your household to do the same.
• Have a public profile you control. A professional page with accurate information you choose leaves less space for others to fill.

Clean up the registers

Start with the three that publish home addresses:

1. Rates database: write to your council asking it to withhold your name and postal address. No reason needed.
2. Electoral roll: if publishing your address would prejudice your safety, apply for the unpublished roll. Expect to provide supporting information.
3. Companies Register: if you’re a director, prepare an alternative address application now, so it’s ready when the new process opens on 18 November 2026. Old filings may still show past addresses, which the new process doesn’t cover.

See getting your address off public registers.

If you’re standing for election

Candidates have to give some details publicly. The general election is on 7 November 2026, and many people will stand in local elections and by-elections in the years after. Before you put your name forward:

• Set up a campaign email, phone number and postal address separate from your home.
• Check the electoral roll and rates database steps above.
• Decide in advance how you’ll handle abuse, including who screens messages, what you’ll report, and when you’ll involve Police. Keep a log from day one.
• Talk to your household about what they post.

Prepare for a pile-on

If you become the focus of online anger, the first 48 hours are the worst. Prepare while things are calm:

• Know who will help. Your employer, your union or professional body, Netsafe (0508 638 723), and Police.
• Agree a plan with your household: what to do if someone turns up, and who answers the door.
• Lock down accounts with strong unique passwords and two-step verification, so a pile-on can’t become an account takeover. See account security.
• Ask someone else to read the messages for you. Delegate monitoring so you don’t absorb it all. They should keep evidence and flag threats.

Threats

Treat specific threats seriously, even when they seem unlikely to be carried out. Report threats to Police, and give them your log. Under the Harmful Digital Communications Act, posting something intended to cause serious emotional distress can be an offence, and threats can be offences under the Crimes Act too. Netsafe can help get content removed.

Your employer has duties too

Under health and safety law, employers must manage risks to workers, including risks from the public. If your job exposes you to harassment, ask your employer what it will do. That could include removing your name from staff pages, a work phone and address for public contact, security assessments, and support if things escalate.

Review regularly

Repeat the exposure audit every six months, and after any public moment, such as a news story, a court case, a campaign or a viral post.