Legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate late last week that, if passed, would create proactive and reactive requirements for companies that maintain personal information about U.S. citizens and residents.  The legislation, titled the “Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2013” (s. 1193) creates two overarching obligations:  to secure personal information and to notify affected individuals if the information is breached.  The bill requires companies to take reasonable measures to protect and secure data in electronic form containing personal information.  If that information is breached, companies are required to notify affected individuals “as expeditiously as practicable and without unreasonable delay” if the company reasonably believes the breach caused or will cause identity theft or other actual financial harm.

A violation of the obligations to secure or notify are considered unfair or deceptive trade practices that may be investigated and pursued by the FTC.  Companies that violate the law could be fined up to $1,000,000 for violations arising out of the same related act or omission ($500,000 maximum for failing to secure the personal information and $500,000 maximum for failing to notify about the breach of the personal information).

The legislation defines personal information as social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, passports numbers, government identification, and financial account numbers or credit/debit card numbers with their required PIN number.  The bill includes a safe harbor for personal information that is encrypted, redacted, or otherwise secured in a way that renders it unusable.

Here are some other important provisions of the legislation:

  • There is no guidance as to what “reasonable measures” means under the obligation to secure personal information, which is problematic (although not very different from state data breach notification laws) because it provides no certainty as to when a company may face liability for failing to adopt certain security safeguards.
  • With respect to the duty to notify, the bill explicitly allows for a reasonable period of time after a breach for the breached entity to determine the scope of the breach and to identify individuals affected by the breach.
  • The legislation would preempt state data breach notification laws, but compliance with other federal laws that require breach notification (e.g., HIPAA/HITECH) is deemed to be compliance with this law.
  • The bill requires that breached entities notify the Secret Service or the FBI if a breach affects more than 10,000 individuals.
  • The bill also allows for a delay of notification if such notification would threaten national or homeland security, or if law enforcement determines that notification would interfere with a civil or criminal investigation.
  • There is no private cause of action for violating the legislation.  The bill is silent as to whether private causes of action based on common law or other statutory claims (e.g., negligence, state unfair trade practices claims, etc.) may be pursued, to the extent such causes of action are recognized.

The remains, however, a big question as to whether this legislation will ultimately become law.  Given the political climate in D.C. and the lack of success of similar federal legislation in the past, the outlook is bleak.  The ambiguity of the required proactive security measures and the lack of clarity as to whether private causes of action may be pursued for non-statutory violations also raise political problems for the legislation on both sides of the aisle.   Nevertheless, there is growing climate of concern regarding privacy and security issues that may result in this legislation being included within a larger package of legislation on cybersecurity and data privacy.  It will be important to keep an eye on the status of this bill moving forward.

 

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