California defines a new class of personal information

What information do you consider to be personal?  Obviously your social security number, birthdate, middle name, etc.  But what about your license plate - should that also be considered personal information protected under breach notification laws?  California thinks so.

On October 6th, the CA governor approved a new bill (S.B. 34) which was approved by the CA Senate on October 13th.  The new bill treats ALPR (Automatic License Plate Reader) data as private information, subject to breach notification laws.  While not directly applicable most organizations (few of us have access to ALPR data), this is an interesting development because it's an example of expansion of the scope of what's reportable when it comes to data breaches.  I expect that in the future we'll see more expansions of the definition of personal information.

In the next post, I'll touch on some other news in data privacy laws that may impact your business.