Arnold Schwarzenegger Vetoes Data Breach Bill

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a data breach bill in mid-October. The bill was designed to give consumers greater protection against identity theft through more stringent merchant data practices.

Assembly Bill 779 (info here) was designed to give consumers greater credit card protection through limits on the type of payment information retailers can store. The bill would also have required more stringent security practices and data breach notification requirements.

Schwarzenegger dismissed the bill stating that the costs for merchants would have been prohibitive. 

“This industry has the contractual ability to mandate the use of these standards, and is in a superior position to ensure that these standards keep up with changes in technology and the marketplace,” he said in a message to members of the California State Assembly. “This measure creates the potential for California law to be in conflict with private sector data security standards.”

I would think the track record of the private – and public – sectors with regards to data breaches would indicate a need for something more than existing security standards.

Via infoworld, the register ; Tags: arnold schwarzenegger, california, data breach bill, data breach legislation, data breach law, california law