A new Nevada law, S.B. 227, will require entities doing business in that state to beef up their protections of personal information. Previously, we wrote about Nevada’s personal information encryption law. See our blog post here. The current law requires encryption of any personal information transmitted electronically (other than by facsimile). But S.B. 227, which becomes effective on January 1, 2010, will require encryption of all personal information leaving the “logical or physical controls of the data collector,” including electronic data on a “data storage device.”

Here are some key points regarding the new version of Nevada’s encryption law:

What is a “Data Storage Device?”  Included in the definition are: “computers, cellular phones, magnetic tape, electronic computer drives, optical computer drives and the medium itself.”  This is not an exclusive list.

 

What type of Encryption?  Under the old law, any sort of encryption satisfied the encryption requirement, the law did not specify a threshold for compliance.  S.B. 227, however, requires (1)  the use of “encryption technology that has been adopted by an established standards setting body . . . which renders such data indecipherable in the absence of associated cryptographic keys” and (2) “[a]ppropriate management and safeguards of cryptographic keys . . . using standards promulgated by an established standards setting body.”

 

Immunity from damages – If a data collector loses personal information, it is not liable, as long as it complied with the law and the loss did not result from gross negligence or intentional misconduct.  So the new law provides a safe harbor to businesses that follow the more stringent rules.  However, as we noted with respect to the old law, it is not entirely clear who may sue to enforce the law’s provisions.

 

Payment Card Exemption – If personal information is transmitted for use in a payment card transaction then “with respect to those transactions” the data collector need only comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (“PCI DSS”).  PCI DSS Requirement 4 requires encryption when the data is being transmitted on an open, public network.  The exact scope of “those transactions” is still unclear, but it is clear that the exemption will not encompass transmissions of personal information that are unrelated to payment card transactions. Payment cards are defined broadly to include almost any card that is issued to an authorized card user and that allows that user to obtain, purchase or receive anything of value.  See NRS 205.602.

 

Telecommunications Provider Exemption – Another interesting addition to the final draft of the law was an exemption for telecom companies that act “solely in the role of conveying the communications of other persons” because these providers are not responsible for the content transmitted using their systems.  This exemption is broad, and applies without regard to the mode of conveyance used, including wireless, voice over Internet protocol (“VOIP”) and other digital transmission technologies.

 

Remaining Questions – Unfortunately, S.B. 227 fails to answer some of our questions about the original law. Specifically, it remains to be seen, among other things, (a) who can enforce this law, (b) whether there is a private right to sue, and (c) what it means for a company to be “doing

business in this State.”

 

Stay tuned!

 

Proskauer summer associate Gary Silber contributed to this post.