Kentucky Safe at Home program offers additional protection to victims

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) - Secretary of State Michael Adams announced on Monday his office has added a new program to further protect victims of domestic violence and other crimes who are taking part in the Kentucky Safe at Home program.

Adams says his office has arranged with DeleteMe, a national privacy information removal service, to allow for participants in the Kentucky Safe at Home program to access online data removal tools for free.

"Last year, I extended protections to domestic violence survivors to prevent their information from being displayed on government records," he said. "This year, I am proud to extend those protections to information that can be found easily online."

DeleteMe finds and removes personally identifiable information (PII) from being collected and sold or shared online by data brokers without permission. Removing PII from these sites can reduce the likelihood of abusers finding their victims.

Safe at Home participants need to opt in to be enrolled in the program.

The Kentucky Safe at Home Program is an address confidentiality program that helps survivors of certain crimes, including sexual assault, domestic violence, trafficking, stalking and other crimes safely hide their address on public records including voter rolls.

Safe at Home has three main functions:

-Address substitution: Participants use the Secretary of State's address on all public records in lieu of their own. Their address is masked on all local and state public records.​

-Mail forwarding: The Secretary of State's Office forwards mail to the participant's confidential address.

-Voter Registration: Participants can safely exercise their right to vote​ by having their address hidden on publicly available voter records. Participants are eligible to vote via mail-in absentee ballot.​

In 2023, Adams, in partnership with the General Assembly, made changes to the address confidentially program already in place to remove the barrier of needing an emergency protective order to participate. Instead of an EPO, participants provide a statement, under the penalty of perjury, explaining their need to conceal their address. The expansion of the Safe at Home program also incorporates state and local agencies, allowing participants to safely conceal their addresses on state and local public records, instead of just voter registration.

Since the changes, enrollment has grown from around 25 participants to 125.

For more information or to register, go to: https://www.sos.ky.gov/safe-at-home/Pages/About-Safe-At-Home.aspx.