Management support is crucial for success with Information Governance initiatives. This is not merely a question of initial project and budget approvals. Most Information Governance initiatives involve behavioral changes in how data is handled, and in many instances, aspects of organizational culture may be impacted. No matter the ultimate benefits, any initiative involving behavioral change

Charging Elephant

Apparently, today is Global information Governance Day. I frankly wasn’t paying attention, because every day is information governance day here. But no snark is meant by this – it’s good to turn such “occasions” into a nudge to revisit our perspectives and refocus on our priorities.

Our firm’s elephant icon is a nod to The 

We’ve already seen how new FTC regulations for GLBA-regulated financial institutions require retention schedules and disposal of unnecessary data as essential data security controls. The FTC is now also taking that position for all businesses under Section 5 of the FTC Act, as seen in a slew of recent FTC data security enforcement actions.

Two

The FTC has updated its data security regulations for the financial institutions it regulates under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). The FTC’s revised requirements for information security programs, effective June 1, 2023, will now mandate data retention policies and disposal of unnecessary customer information.

To appreciate what this means, we must take a quick look at

Two years ago I made a prediction: “For the 2020s, the dots already connect clearly – the new impetus for managing information retention and disposal will be data privacy and security compliance.  Buckle up.”

This was the last line of a 2021 blog series exploring then-recent developments in United States’ data privacy and security

Messy white jigsaw puzzle piecesIt’s once again time for a summary round-up for the puzzling array of state PII breach notification laws.

Back in 2002, California enacted the first state law mandating notification of individuals whose personally identifiable information (PII) is breached.  By 2018 every state had followed suit, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Each state has its own unique approach, and the states continue to expand their requirements, especially their definitions of what constitutes PII and the timing and content of mandated notifications (bold text below reflects changes since 2018).

These laws are triggered by the affected individuals’ residency, not where the breach occurred. So, when a business with employees and customers in many states suffers a data breach, it must comply with a wide variety of conflicting and evolving state breach notification laws. 

Scope of PII

State PII breach notification laws generally apply to a state resident’s name combined with another identifier useful for traditional identity theft, such as the individual’s Social Security number, driver’s or state identification number, or financial account number with access information. But an ever-growing number of states include other combination elements in their PII definition:
Continue Reading The Puzzle of State PII Breach Notification Statutes

In this series we’ve looked at recent developments in United States’ data privacy and security laws, primarily at the state level, that are transforming retention schedules and data disposal from merely prudent practices into compliance requirements: