Jason Haber testifies on data privacy risks of the 900,000-property list

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jason Haber.

I'm the co-founder of the American Real Estate Association and the president of NYRAC, the leading real estate voice here in the city.

I've also been a licensed real estate broker for 20 years.

First, a thank you to the council.

You know, when the state legislature first proposed this tax in the first place, there was no hearing on the tax.

And so today is actually citizens'first opportunity to speak to a legislative body about the tax, and in today's case, in its execution.

So thank you for that, Madam Chair.

Let's begin with the obvious.

Let's begin with the docs.

The city published 959,710 names and addresses on a downloadable spreadsheet.

With two clicks, a person could download an entire list larger than the population of San Francisco.

Imagine the gift that this is to fraudsters, to scammers, to anyone with ill will.

Now, what does the administration have to say about the release of this information?

Well, we heard from the letter that they're not able to comment today yet in 2016 during pending litigation, in 2017 during pending litigation.

They appeared before this council, yet not today.

They will tell you, though, that this information was already public, but there is a difference between public

and published.

Any one of these records could be pulled from ACRIS, but to pull 959,710 records would take a

single person working eight hours a day, five days a week, 15 years, or roughly 498 scaramuchis, depending on how you mark time.

Now the courts have a name for this.

They call it practical obscurity.

The Supreme Court principle that information no one can feasibly assemble is functionally private.

That obscurity was willfully erased by the city.

The Department of Finance did 15 years of labor for anyone who wished these New Yorkers harm.

They handed it out, sorted it, and searchable for free.

And what did this list have to do with the tax in the first place?

According to officials, the pool of taxed homes is around 13,000.

So how did that swell 74 times?

And why is the burden on the individual instead of on the enormity of government?

Why is it guilty until proven resident?

Councilmember Brewer herself was on the list, as she said.

Although, to be fair, Councilmember Brewer is at 10 events a night and sometimes in two places at once.

So perhaps for her, it is a pied-a-terre since she's never there and always out in the community.

Look, I'm not here to litigate the tax itself.

That debate is not with this body.

But I'm here to talk about the execution and when that execution fails its citizens.

Was this a dox by accident, by incompetence, or hubris?

Keep asking questions.

The citizens of New York deserve better.

They deserve to know why this happened.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next.

Quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet.

Go ahead, next.