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Companies that store personal information could face stricter law

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It feels as if we hear about a new data breach every few days.

Now, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein told Action 9 that he and state Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln County, are working on a new law targeting companies that store your personal information.

There are three parts of the proposed law.

First, companies would be legally required to guard data better.

"If they're collecting that information, they should protect it," Stein said.

Some industries already demand protecting information such as health care and financial data, but others do not.
"Government, government. There's no legal duty that government protects our information," Stein said.

Second, when a company has a breach, the company would be required to report it right away.

Now, there's no set time period for when to report a breach.

"They need to have certainty that within 15 days of that security breach, they let the people know," Stein said.

Third, the law would give consumers more tools to protect themselves after a breach. For example, all credit freezes would be free. Right now, only some are free.

Action 9 asked Stein if companies are giving him any pushback about more regulation.

He said he met with companies Wednesday in Charlotte to address their concerns.

Stein and Saine plan to introduce the legislation in the North Carolina
House in about two months.

"There are too many data breaches and the size, the scale of them, they're outrageous," Stein said.
"We have to do a better job, whether it's business or government, in safeguarding people's information."

According to experts, there were more than 1,500 data breaches in the U.S. last year and more than 178 million records were exposed.

The Equifax breach affected 5 million North Carolinians. That's two out of every three adults in the state.

Robin Hartsell said she and her husband were affected by the Target, Home Depot and Equifax breaches in recent years.

"We have no idea who has our information," she told Action 9. "It's very scary."

She supports stricter laws.

"Absolutely, 100 percent. We need more," she said.