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Notification Regulations and Noncompliance Fines
In Illinois, business owners who handle, disseminate, or collect personal identifying information must notify parties affected by a data breach as expediently as possible. If the business stores or maintains personal information, they must notify the owner or licenser of the data if it’s breached. Notification must provide basic contact information for consumer reporting agencies and the Federal Trade Commission. It must also inform individuals that they can learn about security freezes and fraud alerts from these entities. Those who don’t comply with these regulations can incur civil penalties of $100 per affected individual, up to a total of $500,000 in fines.
| Name of Law / Statute | Personal Information Protection 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. |
| Who Is Subject to Law? | Any “data collector,” i.e., any entity that “for any purpose, handles, collects, disseminates, or otherwise deals with nonpublic personal information” concerning an IL resident. |
| Notification of Consumers? | Yes |
| By what means? | Written or electronic; notice must include contact info of credit agencies and FTC |
| Substitute Notice Threshold? | If cost of notice >$250,000 or involves >500k residents |
| Notification of authorities / regulators required? | No |
| By what means? | N/A |
| Regulatory Fines | No (civil action by AG) |
| Credit monitoring requirement? | No |
| Private lawsuits allowed? | No |
| Private damages cap? | N/A |
| Regulatory actions allowed? | Yes |
| HIPAA Compliance exemption? | N/A |
| Other (e.g., timeframe) | Law does not apply if PI was encrypted or redacted |
| Link to complete law | http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2702&ChapterID=67 |
Read the full text of Illinois’s data breach law.
