Data Breach Notice to Residents and State Authorities in Alaska
At a glance
| Covered entity and service provider | Covered person owning/licensing resident PI gives resident notice; nonowner recipient immediately tells owner/licensee and cooperates (§§ 45.48.010(a), .070, .090(2),(4)–(6)) |
|---|---|
| Breach and covered information | Actual/reasonably believed unauthorized acquisition compromising PI, including paper; unencrypted/unredacted name plus listed ID or financial data, or encrypted data with exposed key (§ 45.48.090(1),(7)) |
| Risk screen or notice exception | After appropriate investigation, written AG notice and written five-year record, no resident notice if harm not reasonably likely; good-faith employee/agent exception (§§ 45.48.010(c), .050) |
| Individuals who receive notice | Each Alaska resident whose PI was subject to breach; distributor handles resident notice after nonowner recipient reports incident (§§ 45.48.010(a), .070) |
| Individual notice deadline and clock | As expeditiously as possible without unreasonable delay after discovery/notification, allowing scope and integrity work; no fixed day ceiling (§ 45.48.010(a)–(b)) |
| Regulator threshold and deadline | Written AG notice precedes any no-harm decision excusing resident notice; §§ 45.48.010–.090 give no general numerical AG breach-report threshold or fixed deadline (§ 45.48.010(c)) |
| Consumer-reporting-agency notice | If resident notice required for >1,000 Alaska residents, notify all nationwide consumer credit reporting agencies without unreasonable delay; give timing, distribution and content, not names; GLBA exception (§ 45.48.040) |
| Individual delivery and content | Mail to most recent address; qualifying electronic notice; eligible substitute; §§ 45.48.010–.030 prescribe no separate resident-letter content list (§ 45.48.030) |
| Substitute notice conditions and channels | Cost >$150,000, affected Alaska class >300,000, or insufficient contact; use available email AND website posting if maintained AND major statewide media (§ 45.48.030(3)) |
| Delays and alternate compliance | Law-enforcement determination of interference permits delay; resume expeditiously without unreasonable delay after written clearance. No waiver of §§ 45.48.010–.090 is enforceable (§§ 45.48.020, .060) |
Requirements one by one
Covered information and who tells whom
Alaska § 45.48.090(1) reaches unauthorized acquisition or a reasonable belief of acquisition that compromises personal information, including acquisition by paper-based means. Section 45.48.090(7) covers unencrypted or unredacted name-plus-identifier combinations and encrypted information if the key was accessed or acquired. The financial-account category distinguishes an account accessible only with a code from other account numbers.
The owner or licensee tells each affected Alaska resident (§ 45.48.010(a)). A nonowner information recipient must tell the distributor immediately after discovering the breach and share relevant information, apart from confidential business information or trade secrets; the distributor then carries the resident notice duty (§ 45.48.070).
Harm assessment and timing
Section 45.48.010(c) permits a covered person to forgo resident notice only after an appropriate investigation, written notice to the attorney general, and a written determination that harm has not resulted and is not reasonably likely to result. The written determination must be kept for five years. This AG notice is tied to that no-harm route; the breach-notification sections state no general numerical AG-report threshold.
Otherwise, § 45.48.010(b) requires resident disclosure as expeditiously as possible without unreasonable delay, allowing time needed to define the breach scope and restore reasonable system integrity. The section gives no fixed outside day limit.
Delivery and additional recipients
§ 45.48.030 allows mailing to the latest address or qualifying electronic notice. Its substitute route requires available email, website posting when there is a website, and major statewide media. The chapter does not give a separate checklist of required resident-letter contents.
If notice is required for more than 1,000 Alaska residents, § 45.48.040 adds notice without unreasonable delay to all nationwide consumer credit reporting agencies. They receive the timing, distribution and content of resident notices; the statute does not require residents' names. Section 45.48.040(c) excludes an information collector subject to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act from this agency-notice section.
What trips people up
A no-harm decision is a documented exception. The attorney general receives written notice before the § 45.48.010(c) determination can excuse resident notice, and the written assessment remains on file for five years.
The law-enforcement pause has a written restart signal. Under § 45.48.020, an appropriate agency must determine that notice would interfere with a criminal investigation; after it informs the collector in writing that interference has ended, disclosure must proceed expeditiously without unreasonable delay.
Common questions
Does a contractor send the resident notice itself?
An information recipient that does not own the data reports the breach immediately to the distributor and cooperates; the distributor must follow the resident-notice provisions as though its own system was breached (§ 45.48.070).
Does every employee access count as a breach?
§ 45.48.050 excludes good-faith employee or agent acquisition for a legitimate purpose if the person neither uses the data for an unrelated purpose nor makes further unauthorized disclosure.
Can the parties contract away these notice duties?
No. § 45.48.060 makes a waiver of §§ 45.48.010–.090 void and unenforceable.
Statutes and sources
- Alaska Stat. §§ 45.48.010–.090 — current official breach-notification chapter; each cited section has its own official source URL above.
Current official Alaska statutes checked October 14, 2026.
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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