Actually, not a bad policy idea. But it is not enough to solve the set of problems that arise when you take a basic human need (housing) and subject it to market forces--inexorably the ability to profit from the need drives costs higher than is affordable for some "market participants," leading to death.
Small investor ownership in single-family homes (for both short- and long-term rentals) have been devastating to communities. What is the right number of single-family homes to permit individuals/trusts to own and how do you disincentivize small empires?
Wall Street investor monopoly ownership of dense housing in urban areas remains a major cause of rents outstripping income (see Blackrock's 2020-2025 market takeover and subsequent market manipulation of apartment rental rates in San Diego). Simple policy solution: trust-bust apartment ownership. Harder, more effective policy solution: municipality ownership of apartment blocks a la European cities.
If regulators allow the same behaviors with water, you can expect a similar set of harms.
Ah, I think I recall the story you're referring to: reporter Josh Renaud of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch discovered that a public web site was exposing Social Security numbers of teachers in Missouri. He notified the site's administrators, and later published a story about the leak after it was fixed.
The governor of Missouri at the time, Mike Parson, called him a hacker and advocated prosecuting him. Fortunately the prosecutor's office declined to file charges though.
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