Connecticut has picked the right time to pass “An Act Concerning Data Privacy Breaches.” It passed the state senate late last week and is awaiting the governor’s signature.
The bill says that businesses must notify individuals whose personal information has been breached within 60 days and report potential exposure of more categories of personal information. Previously, businesses had 90 days to make these breaches public. The bill also broadens the definition of “personal information.”
The timing speaks to the concern consumers have about data security. In a report by Fleishman Hillard, 57% of informed consumers said data security was a top issue to them. Data privacy was a priority for 55%.
These results say that consumers are more concerned about for these issues than health care, education, climate change, employment rights and even DE&I. As crisis communication managers, we process these two items this way: Transparency for any company hit by a breach today is even more critical today than it was yesterday and will become an even bigger concern for consumers tomorrow.
Want to know more about the impact of the new law? Check out this great post by Attorney Dena Castricone.
If your company has a crisis plan, make sure you’ve updated it to cover these new laws about data breaches. If your company does not have a crisis plan, contact us today!
