Florida Privacy Laws

Organizations and Vendors must take reasonable measures to protect and secure personal information in their possession.  Disposal of personal information must involve shredding, erasing, or otherwise modifying the personal information making the information unreadable or undecipherable. Organizations must contract with Vendors to whom the Organization discloses personal information. Organizations and Vendors must have measures in place for the secure disposal of records containing personal information when the records no longer need to be retained.

Individuals must be notified based on the breach notification laws of the jurisdiction where they reside.  

Vendors must provide organizations with all necessary information regarding a breach.  In addition, they must notify organizations within 10 days after discovery of a breach or suspected breach.

The Vendor may provide consumer notification and/or regulatory reporting on behalf of the Organization. However, any failure of the Vendor to provide proper consumer notification and/or regulatory reporting is a violation against the Organization. Reporting to the Department of Legal Affairs within the Attorney General’s office must b done if the breach involves over 500 Florida residents. If an Organization discovers circumstances required notice of more than 1,000 individuals at a single time, all consumer reporting agencies that compile and maintain files on those affected consumers must be notified of the incident.

The DNA Privacy Act requires that a person from whom the DNA is extracted gives “express consent” for a specified use of their genetic information, and the person from whom it is extracted is the “exclusive property” of that person to control. Violation of the Act may constitute a felony violation for unlawful use if a business does not obtain express consent for a specified use of the genetic information.

Organizations may be fined or penalized for Vendor violations. The Department of Legal Affairs within the Office of the Attorney General can fine or penalize an Organization or Vendor for a violation of Florida Statute § 501.171. Violations will be treated as an unfair and deceptive trade practice.