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California Requirements
The Notice of Security Breach Act in California requires any person or business conducting business in the state that licenses or maintains protected information to notify customers of a data breach. This protection extends to medical data or health insurance information or email or usernames with passwords. Affected residents must be notified by written or electronic means, and the authorities must be notified if more than 500 residents are involved or if it’s a medical-related data breach.
| Name of Law / Statute | Notice of Security Breach Act |
| Definition of Protected Information | Combination of (1) name or other identifying info, PLUS (2) one or more of these “data” elements: SSN; driver’s license number; or account number, credit card number, debit card number if accompanied by PIN, password, or access codes PLUS medical data or health insurance info OR email or usernames in combination with passwords |
| Who Is Subject to Law? | Any person or business conducting business in the state who licenses or maintains PI in course of business |
| Notification of Consumers? | Yes |
| By what means? | Written or electronic; electronic method depends on what information breached |
| Substitute Notice Threshold? | No |
| Notification of authorities / regulators required? | Yes if >500 residents OR if medical/insurance data breached |
| By what means? | Electronic submission of sample consumer notification; if medical, 5-day deadline |
| Regulatory Fines | N/A |
| Credit monitoring requirement? | No |
| Private lawsuits allowed? | Yes |
| Private damages cap? | No |
| Regulatory actions allowed? | N/A |
| HIPAA Compliance exemption? | N/A |
| Other (e.g., timeframe) | Law does not apply if PI was encrypted |
| Link to complete law | http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=civ&group=01001-02000&file=1798.25-1798.29%20 |
Learn more about California’s data breach law.