Sens Pryor, Rockefeller Introduce Legislation to Protect Consumers' Personal Information and Prevent Identity Theft

Sens Mark Pryor (D-AR) and John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-WV) reintroduced legislation to require businesses and nonprofit organizations that store consumers’ personal information to put in place strong security features to safeguard sensitive data, alert consumers when this data has been breached, and provide affected individuals with the tools they need to protect their credit and finances. Currently, there is no single federal standard for guarding many types of consumer information.

The Data Security and Breach Notification Act requires entities that own or possess data containing personal information to establish reasonable security policies and procedures to protect that data. If a security breach occurs, entities would have to notify each individual whose information was acquired or accessed as a result of the breach. Affected consumers would be entitled to receive consumer credit reports or credit monitoring services for two years, as well as instructions on how to request these services.