States Seek Strengthened Data Breach Laws

Data privacy and breach notification has become a hot topic for state legislatures—thanks, in part, to the prompting of State AGs and a recent spate of high profile data breaches affecting millions of consumers. During the first half of 2015, 32 state legislatures considered bills to significantly amend or enhance state laws on consumer data protection. At least 13 of those have made it beyond the governor's desk, and of those still pending, many stand a good chance of being passed, in some form, in the fall term as the issue is one with broad bipartisan support.

General Trends

The 2015 bills demonstrate the variability of state policies' approaches to address a common problem. Yet, for the most part, the bills demonstrate a few general trends in data protection: