About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

24 Harv. J. on Legis. 239 (1987)
Tenant Blacklisting: Tenant Screening Services and the Right to Privacy

handle is hein.journals/hjl24 and id is 245 raw text is: NOTE TENANT BLACKLISTING: TENANT SCREENING SERVICES AND THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY ROBERT R. STAUFFER* Tenant screening services use advanced computer technology to offer data on prospective tenants to landlords. Presently unregulated, these services may legally report tenants' prior successful lawsuits against land- lords and legally justified withholding of rent as vell as tenants' race, religion, and intimate personal behavior. in this Note, Robert Stauffer explores tenant screening services as they now operate, and focuses on the dangers to privacy presented by their growth. He analyzes policy concerns which militate against the practices of these services, and considers opposing arguments, such as those grounded in freedom of speech. After reviewing current law, Mr. Stauffer concludes that the existing legal framework inadequately protects the legitimate interests of tenants, and proposes a scheme of regulation ap- plicable to tenant screening services. Suppose that in order to find housing in our society, you had to present yourself before a large machine. This machine, in considering your application, would review your life to deter- mine whether you were worthy of housing. It would have access to any information about you that had ever appeared in a public record; it would know if you had ever been involved in a court proceeding; it would know if you had ever been lax in paying your bills; it would know whether any of your previous landlords or neighbors thought you were too loud, or used drugs, or had disreputable friends, or were simply too radical; it would know your sex, your age, your race, your religion, and any other information which you had not succeeded in keeping completely to yourself and your closest friends. And when you asked this machine whether it would grant you a roof over your head, it would examine all of this information and immediately spit back its reply-a reply which would be negative if there were any piece of information in your history which it found disagreeable. This Orwellian procedure for obtaining housing sounds like science fiction and hopefully will remain so. For an increasing * Associate, Jenner & Block, Chicago, IlL. B.A. University of Missouri, 1983; J.D., Harvard University, 1986. The author would like to thank Assistant Professor William Fisher for his assistance.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most