FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS ADVISORY
March 27, 2018
Steve Marshall
For More Information, contact:
Mike Lewis (334) 353-2199
Alabama Attorney General
Joy Patterson (334) 242-7491
Page 1 of 2
ATTORNEY GENERAL STEVE MARSHALL ANNOUNCES FINAL PASSAGE OF
ALABAMA DATA BREACH NOTIFICATION ACT
(MONTGOMERY) ñ Attorney General Steve Marshall announced final passage of the Alabama
Data Breach Notification Act, (SB 318), which cleared the Alabama Senate 30 to 0 on Tuesday.
Passage of the consumer protection legislation was a major priority of Attorney General
Marshall and ensures that Alabama will no longer be the only state without a law requiring
entities experiencing a data breach to notify consumers if their personal information has been
compromised.
Attorney General Marshall issued the following statement about the significance of the passage
of the Alabama Data Breach Notification Act:
ìFor years, Alabama consumers have lacked basic information that they needed to not become victims of
identity theft. For many years, the Alabama Legislature has attempted to fill that void but with no
success. Today, thatís different. As a result of the leadership of this office, Senator Arthur Orr and
Representative Phil Williams, the Alabama Legislature passed today the Alabama Data Breach
Notification Act.
ìThose protections matter. Hereís why. Over 90 percent of us routinely buy things online. In doing so,
we share personally sensitive identifying information like our home addresses or maybe our social
security numbers or more importantly our financial information. For years, companies have seen data
breaches that have taken place where that personally sensitive information is obtained by those who would
use it for improper means. Uber, for example, 57 million people affected. Equifax, that number has risen
to almost 150 million. Or Yahoo, over three billion people who had their personally sensitive information
obtained by third party sources. But yet, in Alabama, those same businesses were not required by law to
let Alabama consumers know the fact that their information had been obtained ñ not allowing them to
take proactive steps to make sure that their credit information is safe from those who would use it for
improper reasons. It also didnít allow our office to be able to help those same consumers understand what
they could do to protect their basic information from being stolen.
ìBecause of the work of the Alabama Legislature today Alabama no longer suffers from that same
problem, but instead, consumers are now armed with information they need to protect themselves going
forward. This bill was a priority for our office, to make sure that Alabama consumers had the information
that they needed. And, as a result of the hard work of many people, including the members of this
Alabama Legislature, and the work of our office, we have now corrected that problem and going forward
Alabama consumers are going to be better off.î
501 Washington Avenue ï Montgomery, AL 36104 ï (334) 242-7300
www.ago.alabama.gov Page 2 of 2
ï Watch Attorney General Marshallís statement on the passage of the Alabama Data
Breach Notification Act via this link.
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