2023 Montana Code Annotated › Title 30. Trade and Commerce › Chapter 14. Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection › Part 28. Consumer Data Privacy Act › 30-14-2814. Data protection assessment

30-14-2814. (Effective October 1, 2024) Data protection assessment.
(1) A controller shall conduct and document a data protection assessment for each of the controller's processing activities that presents a heightened risk of harm to a consumer. For the purposes of this section, processing that presents a heightened risk of harm to a consumer includes:
(a) the processing of personal data for the purposes of targeted advertising;
(b) the sale of personal data;
(c) the processing of personal data for the purposes of profiling in which the profiling presents a reasonably foreseeable risk of:
(i) unfair or deceptive treatment of or unlawful disparate impact on consumers;
(ii) financial, physical, or reputational injury to consumers;
(iii) a physical or other form of intrusion on the solitude or seclusion or the private affairs or concerns of consumers in which the intrusion would be offensive to a reasonable person; or
(iv) other substantial injury to consumers; and
(d) the processing of sensitive data.
(2) (a) Data protection assessments conducted pursuant to subsection (1) must identify and weigh the benefits that may flow, directly and indirectly, from the processing to the controller, the consumer, other stakeholders, and the public against the potential risks to the rights of the consumer associated with the processing as mitigated by safeguards that may be employed by the controller to reduce these risks.
(b) The controller shall factor into any data protection assessment the use of de-identified data and the reasonable expectations of consumers, as well as the context of the processing and the relationship between the controller and the consumer whose personal data will be processed.
(3) (a) The attorney general may require that a controller disclose any data protection assessment that is relevant to an investigation conducted by the attorney general, and the controller shall make the data protection assessment available to the attorney general.
(b) The attorney general may evaluate the data protection assessment for compliance with the responsibilities set forth in this part.
(c) Data protection assessments are confidential and are exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552.
(d) To the extent any information contained in a data protection assessment disclosed to the attorney general includes information subject to attorney-client privilege or work product protection, the disclosure may not constitute a waiver of the privilege or protection.
(4) A single data protection assessment may address a comparable set of processing operations that include similar activities.
(5) If a controller conducts a data protection assessment for the purpose of complying with another applicable law or regulation, the data protection assessment must be considered to satisfy the requirements established in this section if the data protection assessment is reasonably similar in scope and effect to the data protection assessment that would otherwise be conducted pursuant to this section.
(6) Data protection assessment requirements must apply to processing activities created or generated after January 1, 2025, and are not retroactive.
History: En. Sec. 9, Ch. 681, L. 2023.