An Act Relating to the Use and Disposal of Personal Information by Certain Commercial, Governmental and Other Entities
Maine Legislature, Session 121, LD 1306
Committee: Judiciary
Sponsors: GOODWIN

Legislative Document 
No. 1306 
H.P.960 
House of Representatives, March 11, 2003 
An Act Relating to the Use and Disposal of Personal Information by 
Certain Commercial, Governmental and Other Entities 
Reference to the Committee on Judiciary suggested and ordered printed. 
Presented by Representative GOODWIN of Pembroke. 
Printed on recycled paper 
77l~ 
1?7.11!d£~ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 10 MRS A c. 228 is enacted to read: 
CHAPTER 228 
CONSUMER RECORDS 
§1500-G. 
Disposal 
1. 
Definitions. 
As 
used 
in this 
chapter, 
unless 
the 
context 
otherwise 
indicates, 
the 
following 
terms 
have 
the 
following meanings. 
A. 
"Destroy" means to shred, 
erase or otherwise modify 
information or records to make the information or records 
unreadable or undecipherable by reasonable means. 
B. 
"Entity" 
means 
a 
sole 
proprietor, 
partnership, 
corporation, limited liability company, trust, association, 
financial 
institution, 
government 
unit 
or 
any 
other 
individual or group. 
C. 
"Person" means a natural person, or if that person is 
under 
legal 
guardianship, 
the 
parent 
or 
duly 
appointed 
guardian of that person. 
D. 
"Personal information" means information that identifies 
a person and that is commonly used for financial or health 
care 
purposes, 
including 
account 
numbers, 
access 
codes, 
passwords, credit card numbers or information gathered for 
security purposes, account access, transaction initiation or 
medical history or status. 
E. 
"Personal identification number" means an identification 
number issued by a government unit that is protected and not 
available to the public and includes a tax identification 
number, social security number, driver's license or permit 
number and professional or business license number. 
F. 
"Record" means any material in any physical form on 
which information is recorded or preserved by any means, 
including written, spoken, graphically depicted, printed or 
electronically stored or transmitted material. "Record" does 
not 
include 
a 
publicly available 
document 
or 
directory 
containing 
information 
that 
a 
person 
has 
voluntarily 
consented to have publicly disseminated. 
• 
Disposal. 
An entity must destroy or arrange for the 
destruction 
of 
personal 
information 
and 
a 
personal 
• 
identification number of a person contained in records within the 
entity's custody or control that the entity intends to dispose of 
or no longer intends to retain. 
3. 
Remedies. 
A person who has reason to believe an entity 
has violated or may violate the provisions of subsection 2 may 
apply to a court of competent jurisdiction to enjoin the end ty 
to comply with the provisions of subsection 2. 
A person injured 
by a violation of subsection 2 may bring a civil action in a 
court of competent jurisdiction against the violating entity. 
The court may either: 
A. 
If the violation is due to negligence, award a penalty 
of 
$200 
or 
the 
amount of actual 
damages. 
whichever is 
greater, and costs and reasonable attorney's fees; or 
B. 
If the violation is willfuL award a penalty of $600 or 
an amount eg:ual to 3 times the actual damages but not to 
exceed 
$10,000 , 
whichever 
is 
greater, 
and 
costs 
and 
reasonable attorney's fees. 
4. 
Attorney General. 
The Attorney General may bring a 
civil action in the name of the State in a court of competent 
jurisdiction for injunctive relief or damages similar to the 
damages provided in subsection 3, paragraphs A and B. 
5. 
Exceptions. 
This section does not apply to personal 
records intended to be returned to the person to whom the records 
pertain or transferred legally to another entity, government unit 
or an archive. 
SUMMARY 
This bill requires all government and private entities to 
destroy records containing personal information in the entity's 
custody or control that the entity intends to dispose of or no 
longer retain, except for transferring legally to another entity, 
government unit or archive or to the individual to whom 
the 
records pertain. 
This bill provides legal and equitable remedies 
for the Attorney General or a person aggrieved by a violation of 
the provisions of this Act.