ALTA Joins Industry Groups Urging Congress to Enact National Data Breach Legislation
January 9, 2018
ALTA joined 21 other industry trade groups urging Congress to enact national data breach legislation to better protect consumers.
Following a series of recent data breaches, the groups sent a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee asking Congress to pass strong federal data protection and consumer breach notification legislation to help ensure consumers’ important personal and payment information is not vulnerable to cyber hackers.
“Data security impacts every sector of the economy,” the organizations wrote in the letter. “We therefore look forward to working with you and your colleagues to ensure that all sectors employ sound data security and alert consumers when a breach may result in identity theft or other financial harm.”
The multi-industry organizations called upon Congress to enact legislation encompassing the following elements:
- A flexible, scalable standard for data protection
- A notification regime requiring timely notice to impacted consumers, law enforcement and applicable regulators
- Consistent, exclusive enforcement of the new statute national standard by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general, other than for entities subject to state insurance regulation or who comply with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996/HITECH Act
- Clear preemption of the existing patchwork of often conflicting and contradictory and often contradictory state laws
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or communications@alta.org.