Guide to Nevada’s Privacy of Information Collected on the Internet from Consumers Act (NPICICA)

In this guide:

1. Overview of the NPICICA
2. How to guarantee business compliance
3. Data privacy is the key

 

Overview of Nevada’s Privacy of Information Collected on the Internet from Consumers Act (NPICICA)

Nevada first created the Privacy of Information Collected on the Internet from Consumers Act (NPICICA) in 2017 to hold operators accountable while protecting the data privacy rights of its citizens. The Act has since been amended multiple times to add additional rights and regulate Data Brokers and other organizations profiting off of individuals’ personal data. Also known as “The Nevada Privacy Law,” the NPICICA assigns the Nevada Attorney General with the power to regulate the online services of Data Brokers and launch legal action against any operator in violation of the law.

Operators in this context are defined as any individual or group of individuals matching one of the following parameters:

1. Manage or run a website or online service for business-related activities.
2. Gather and uphold the personal information of individuals residing in Nevada who utilize or visit the website or online service.
3. Participate in activities targeted at Nevada and carry out transactions with the State of Nevada, its consumers, or residents.
4. Attract more than 20,000 visitors annually.

It’s important to note that this does not include third parties operating online services on behalf of the site owner, entities already covered under HIPAA, and a few other minor exceptions.

The goal of NPICICA is to give the general public greater control over their personal data and the power to file complaints to solicit action against individuals and organizations abusing their data privacy rights. Information covered under the NPICICA includes the individuals first and last name, physical address, phone number, social security number and any other identifiers that can clearly call out a specific person. Thanks to this Act, citizens of Nevada can now opt-out of data collection in any instance where it is being licensed or sold to additional people for any monetary consideration. Although this does not provide as many rights or offer as much coverage as other leading global data privacy laws like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it is absolutely a step in the right direction.

The NPICICA does provide residents with the following rights:

• Right to opt-out of the sale of personal information: Mentioned previously, consumers can request that businesses do not sell their personal information to third parties.
• Right to access personal information: Consumers have the right to access and request information about the personal data that a business has collected about them.
• Right to correct inaccuracies: Consumers can request the correction of inaccurate personal information held by businesses.
• Right to be informed: Businesses are required to inform consumers about the types of personal information they collect, the purpose of collecting it, and the categories of third parties with whom the information may be shared.

These are the core rights provided by most data privacy laws of this kind, and it shows Nevada’s commitment to protecting its residents as one of the first US states to enact a data protection law for consumers. It’s important to note that the impact of the NPICICA may evolve over time, and individuals and businesses should stay informed about any updates or amendments to privacy laws. Additionally, legal interpretations and enforcement practices can influence how the law is implemented and its overall impact on the public and businesses.

Of course, businesses operating in Nevada are required to comply with the NPICICA. This encourages accountability in data handling and processing practices, as failure to comply may result in legal consequences. Thus, the law places obligations on businesses to implement mechanisms for consumers to exercise their privacy rights. It may require businesses to adjust their data collection and sharing practices, impacting their operations and data management strategies.

How to guarantee business compliance

It’s clear the NPICICA places numerous obligations on businesses. However, making data privacy a priority can be a key differentiator for your business, building trust with consumers to increase brand equity over time. Compliance is mandatory anyways, so it’s beneficial to get ahead of the data privacy curve. Becoming compliant with this Act is a great start to avoid fines and legal action to protect your bottom line, but you’ll want to go above and beyond in order to ensure compliance with international laws.

To comply with Nevada’s data privacy act, organizations must:

1. Promptly assess the volume of website traffic originating from Nevada, categorizing and organizing the personal information acquired from these visitors.
2. Secure explicit consent from data subjects for all data processing activities.
3. Develop clear, easily comprehensible data processing policies and privacy notices.
4. Review and revise contracts with vendors to guarantee adherence to legal requirements.
5. Implement a user-friendly opt-out function on websites to facilitate requests from visitors.
6. Conduct an examination of data handling procedures and enforce robust security measures for maximum protection.

When considering changes to your existing policies and practices to care for data privacy, it’s best to be proactive and document every action taken. In the case of a data breach, having evidence of the effort and resources put towards being a careful steward of personal data held makes a strong case for reduced penalties passed down from the Attorney General.

The following best practices are a straightforward way to keep your company’s data privacy processes and procedures in order:

• Understand and align with NPICICA requirements: Thoroughly understand the provisions and regularly review updates to ensure full compliance. Align business practices and data processing activities with the specific requirements outlined in the legislation, and get legal help as needed.
• Establish a robust privacy policy: Develop and maintain a comprehensive privacy policy that clearly communicates how personal data is collected, processed, and protected. Ensure that the privacy policy is easily accessible to data subjects.
• Implement explicit consent mechanisms: Obtain explicit and informed consent from individuals before collecting, processing, or using their personal data. Clearly communicate the purposes for data processing and allow individuals to make informed decisions about their information.
• Data minimization and purpose limitation: Practice data minimization by collecting only the minimum amount of personal data necessary for the intended purposes. Ensure that data processing activities align with the specific purposes for which consent was obtained.
• Secure data management: Implement robust security measures to protect personal data from unauthorized access, disclosure, or alteration. Regularly assess and update security protocols to address evolving threats.
• Ensure data accuracy and currency: Establish procedures to maintain the accuracy, completeness, and currency of personal data. Regularly review and update records to reflect any changes in individuals’ information.
• Enable Data Subject Rights: Facilitate the exercising of data subject rights, including the right to access, correct, and delete personal data. Establish mechanisms for individuals to easily submit requests related to their data.
• Anonymization and pseudonymization: Where applicable, utilize anonymization or pseudonymization techniques to process personal data, especially if it is still possible to fulfill the intended purposes through these methods.
• Train employees on data protection: Provide comprehensive training to employees on data protection principles and the organization’s privacy policies. Foster a culture of privacy awareness and responsibility.
• Regularly audit and monitor compliance: Conduct regular internal audits to assess compliance. Monitor data processing activities to identify and address any deviations from established privacy practices.

Gross negligence is typically punished most severely, so its vital to keep documentation of every step taken to respect data subject rights and protect all held personal data. Most governing bodies around the world review the full body of work and consider the steps taken proactively when reviewing cases.

Requirements to care for personal data being collected and processed aren’t going away. The options are clear. Either make it a priority and get ahead of the competition, or fall behind and lose customer while damaging your bottom line every step of the way.

Data privacy is the key

Personal data protection is imperative for businesses engaged in online service delivery today, especially for sensitive data. New regulations are popping up every day around the world. The current trend is that these continue to require more stringent opt-in policies while granting consumers more rights. The public now has the ability to review and remove their personal data, increasing the accountability and obligations of every organization processing personal identifiable information (PII).

Yet the responsibility still falls primarily on the individual to oversee, assess, update and delete (via DSAR request) their personal data wherever it may be collected and dispersed across the internet.

This becomes a massive lift for any business looking to protect their organization from data breaches. When working to cover an entire company, it is practically impossible for a single person or small team to manage External Data Privacy without help from a specialized team of experts. The identification and subsequent elimination of this data plays a pivotal role in deterring cybercriminals from launching dangerous social engineering attacks against an organization by closing the data protection gap.

That’s why Privacy Bee emerges as the optimal solution. The time-consuming process of monitoring and eradicating employee data as a complement to cybersecurity is a must, and Privacy Bee covers every site across the internet exposing your organization’s data. This data monitoring and deletion service is especially effective for executives who are highly visible to the general public. Using sophisticated automation processes backed by an active human service team, Privacy Bee substantially reduces a company’s attack surface and mitigates the looming threat of an expensive data breach. Industry estimates put the cost of a single data breach somewhere between $7-10 million USD. That can be crippling for a small or mid-size business–not to mention the fines from noncompliance–which is why a proactive approach for maximum security is a must.

Social engineering attacks are the fastest-growing data breach threat, no matter how mature an organization’s cybersecurity program is today. If your response to these attacks isn’t already completely covered, then threat actors still have a lucrative way to target and obtain your organization’s most sensitive information.

Ideally, you are already conducting risk assessments and vendor surveys as well. If so, well done! However, it is absolutely essential to recognize vendors are most susceptible to a breach via social engineering attacks relying on exposed data. Privacy Bee not only minimizes the proliferation of your organization’s data across the vast digital landscape but also extends its protection to vendors, helping you ensure third party partners do not serve as the weak link in your security defenses or put you at risk of noncompliance. Don’t miss this step, as there are far too many massive organizations falling victim to cyberattacks due to a vendor’s lack of proactive security.

Who stands to benefit from this aside from cybercriminals?

In the ever-growing billion-dollar surveillance industry, Data Brokers and People Search Sites are the key players. They reap record-breaking profits by trading and transferring your organization’s information with obscure and uncontrollable entities. These entities then either publish this information directly for clicks or compile it all to sell on again top yet another organization. Suddenly, you and your employees’ personal data can be easily found via quick Google Search.

If it’s that simple to find you and your coworker’s information, then threat actors can launch cyberattacks at scale by targeting the most vulnerable team members with emotionally engaging messaging that turns even the most highly-trained professionals into victims on a regular basis. The only way to prevent this is by stopping the data flow at the source. The consequences are simply too costly to risk:

• A solitary data breach leads to massive productivity losses, expensive remediation efforts, and recurring breach incidents.
• This isn’t new, and is a predicament that plagues the vast majority of businesses following an initial breach. Industry estimates state as many as 83% of organizations who experienced a data breach go on to experience multiple. That is staggering, and is exactly what Privacy Bee is fighting back against.
• The initial data breach sets off a chain reaction that inflicts short-term damage on your bottom line while eroding brand value and customer trust over time.
• Furthermore, there are ripple effects to consider, such as heightened employee turnover due to poaching.

Privacy Bee combats threat actors lurking beyond your organization’s perimeters. By meticulously analyzing every location across the internet where your personal and sensitive data resides, then swiftly purging it, Privacy Bee closes the data security gap. The service even encompasses dark web monitoring and provides timely data breach notifications if another company falls victim to an exploitation incident and exposes your information in the process.

Our unwavering commitment is deeply rooted in the belief that privacy is an inalienable human right that transcends political discourse and negotiations. This is why Privacy Bee vigilantly monitors user data for security vulnerabilities while holding the surveillance industry accountable. We compel Data Brokers, People Search Sites, and more than 150,000 additional websites to expunge your stored data and opt out of further data collection to protect you, your family, and your entire organization. This unchanging goal is the reason we offer no-charge monitoring services and deletion guides. You need only reach out when help is needed.

Privacy Bee protection covers a wide range of potential threats, including:

1. Data breaches
2. Social engineering attacks
3. Doxxing
4. Spam emails
5. Telemarketing calls
6. Cyberstalking
7. Identity theft
8. Swatting
9. Blackmail
10. And more!

Privacy Bee is quickly emerging as the next necessary tool in your security tool belt. There’s no better addition for business leaders with a mature cybersecurity program wanting to protect employee and customer data in the midst of innovative threat actors using AI and other new apps to scale their efforts.

Privacy is more important and harder to come by than ever. Today, you need a trusted partner fighting to preserve your personal and organizational integrity.