major data breaches continue to occur at an alarming rate and identity theft is on the rise, but eleven US states still have no official disclosure of data breach laws on the books. This lack of legislation could be put residents at greater risk of falling victim to identity thieves.
California was the first state to pass laws that spelled how companies should disclose data breaches to affected consumers. The ground breaking law, known as the practice of Information Act in California or the Senate the draft 1386 law requires any company that stores the personal information of California residents to inform consumers if their data has been or may have been exposed. Personal information includes things like your name, credit card number, social security number, account numbers or PIN.
Thirty-seven other states have followed California and past data breach policies that require similar disclosure to protect the inhabitants of their bound states. However, New Mexico, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Alaska still lack the disclosure requirements in place to protect consumers.
A twelfth state, Oklahoma, only requires disclosure by government agencies and private companies in a non-case exposure of personal information. Therefore, the Oklahoma safeguards are considerably limited.
It is difficult to understand why these statements are not moving more aggressively to protect their residents. However, it is clear that the most important things for consumers who are affected in a data breach to have prompt and full disclosure so they can take steps to protect against identity theft.
We firmly believe that the best way to protect yourself against identity theft is theft using a proactive protection service such as LifeLock identity or Identity Guard. You can learn more about identity theft prevention and protection in our comparison theft protection services for identity and comments NextAdvisor.com.