A Look at Breach notification Laws Around the World Summary
A lot has changed since 2003 when California began enforcing the world's first data breach notification law, known as S.B. 1386. The law requires organizations in both the public and private sector to notify any California resident if their unencrypted personal information gets exposed, inadvertently or otherwise. Since then, breach notification laws have continued to spread, although notification is still not mandatory in most countries. Today, nearly 90 countries have data protection laws - or relevant court rulings - on the books, ranging from Angola and Argentina to Venezuela and Zimbabwe, according to the law firm DLA Piper. But many of those countries still don't require breached organizations to notify either authorities or the individuals whose personal information was exposed in the event of a breach.