Law / United States / American Samoa

American Samoa

1 of 3 named instruments researched to a stage, across one of the ten areas of law we track: 1 in force. As of .

  1. AI law
  2. Privacy law 1
  3. Scraping law
  4. Cybersecurity law
  5. Communications law not assessed
  6. Content moderation law not assessed
  7. Product and AI liability law not assessed
  8. Digital accessibility law
  9. Age gating law
  10. Reuse law

in forcenot yet in forceblocked by a courtproposedno longer in force

Privacy law1 instrument, 1 in force

Research summary (169 words)

American Samoa has no comprehensive personal-data privacy law, breach notification statute, or biometric-privacy provision.

Title 27, Chapter 4 of the American Samoa Code Annotated creates a Bureau of Consumer Protection within the Department of Legal Affairs empowered to investigate and enjoin unfair or deceptive business practices, but the chapter contains no provision addressing the collection, use, or disclosure of personal data, and no requirement to notify a person or a regulator of a data breach.

Title 46, Criminal Justice, has no identity-theft or computer-crime chapter reaching personal data; its stealing and related-offenses chapter covers forgery, credit-device fraud, and deceptive business practices generally rather than personal data specifically. Section 16.0706(c) of the Code requires private school officials to maintain permanent record cards on each pupil enrolled.

Section 13.0219(a) of the Code provides that identifiable health information is not public information and may not be disclosed without the written authorization of the individual or the individual's legal representative, except as the American Samoa Public Health Act and other controlling law provide.

Sensitive categories

American Samoa Public Health Act: identifiable health information held by the Department of Health

American Samoa Public Health Act, ASCA 13.0216 to 13.0223American Samoa Code Annotated text, American Samoa Bar Association (asbar.org)

In force. Binds public and private bodies.

What this law does

Public Law 30-11 created new chapters 02 and 03 under title 13 of the American Samoa Code Annotated and was approved on . In the Act, the Department means the Department of Health.

Identifiable health information includes information in any form that relates to an individual's past, present, or future physical or mental health status, condition, treatment, service, products purchased, or provision of care and reveals the identity of the individual whose health care is the subject of the information. Identifiable health information may only be acquired, used, disclosed, and stored consistent with the requirements of the Act.

The Department of Health may not secretly acquire identifiable health information. The Department of Health may acquire identifiable health information only where the acquisition relates directly to a public health purpose and two further conditions are met. The Department of Health may use identifiable health information solely for public health purposes that are directly related to the purpose for which the information was acquired.

The Department of Health may not use identifiable health information for commercial purposes. Identifiable health information is not public information and may not be disclosed without the written authorization of the individual or the individual's legal representative, except as the Act and other controlling law provide. No person to whom identifiable health information has been disclosed may disclose it to another person except as the Act or other controlling law authorizes.

The Department of Health must keep a written or electronic record of its authorized disclosures of identifiable health information. The Department of Health must maintain its record of authorized disclosures for a period of ten years. When the Department of Health receives identifiable health information from any source other than the individual who is its subject, the Department must take appropriate measures to protect the security of that information.

The security measures required of the Department of Health include thoroughly investigating any potential or actual breaches of security concerning the information. Department personnel and other persons with authority to acquire, use, disclose, or store identifiable health information must report to the director, or the director's designee, any known security breaches or actions that may lead to security breaches.

Within fourteen days of a request to review identifiable health information, the Department of Health must give the requestor an opportunity during regular business hours to inspect copies of the information that concerns the requestor. Within ten days of a request for copies of the requestor's identifiable health information, the Department of Health must provide the copies without charge.

The Department of Health must correct, amend, or delete erroneous, incomplete, or false information within fourteen days of a request, provided it determines the modification is reasonably supported. The Department of Health may maintain a civil action against any person to enforce compliance with the Act.

What it requires

Where nothing was found6 areas of law

These areas of law were researched here and no instrument was recorded. Each finding says what the research checked, as of the date under it. It describes our search, not a guarantee that no such law exists.

AI law

American Samoa has no statute imposing an AI-specific transparency, labeling, or output-disclosure duty, and no AI risk-management, training-data, or sector-specific AI regime.

Title 27, Chapter 4 of the American Samoa Code Annotated creates a Bureau of Consumer Protection with authority to investigate and enjoin unfair or deceptive business practices generally, but the chapter predates artificial intelligence and contains no provision addressing AI-generated content, chatbot disclosure, or synthetic media labeling.

As of .

Scraping law

American Samoa has no computer-misuse, unauthorized-access, or database-right statute; federal law, principally the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, governs unauthorized computer access reaching the territory.

Title 46, Criminal Justice, has no chapter addressing computer crime across its full table of chapters; its property-offense chapters, stealing and related offenses in Chapter 41 and miscellaneous offenses in Chapter 48, reach forgery, credit-device fraud, and deceptive business practices rather than unauthorized access to a computer system or website. Title 27, Commerce and Trade, has no data, database, or text-and-data-mining provision.

As of .

Cybersecurity law

American Samoa has no statute setting security requirements a software product or connected device must meet before or after it reaches the territory's market, no duty to report an exploited vulnerability or a security incident to a territorial authority or to users, no sector-specific cyber-resilience regime naming a digital service, and no general reasonable-security or information-security-programme statute binding a business that holds covered information.

The Code Annotated's only information-security duty, at ASCA 13.0220, binds solely the Department of Public Health's own handling of identifiable health information it receives from another source, not any private business, so it belongs with the territorial government's own information-security obligations rather than a developer-facing duty.

The American Samoa Power Authority's enabling statute (ASCA 15.0102), the Industrial Incentive Act's tax-exemption chapter (ASCA 11.1601), and the Department of Homeland Security's enabling statute (ASCA 8.0103) were all checked; none carries cybersecurity content, and the Homeland Security Department's own mandate is physical counter-terrorism and disaster preparedness rather than information security.

American Samoa has no breach-notification statute of any kind, the same finding this jurisdiction's privacy document already records, so there is no adjoining privacy row to name here.

As of .

Digital accessibility law

Chapter 14 of Title 4 of the American Samoa Code Annotated states a legislative purpose to establish and operate a system that protects the legal and human rights of persons with disabilities. Section 4.1307 of the Code gives persons with developmental disabilities the right to receive the least restrictive, individually appropriate services. Section 4.1307 also provides that the enumeration of these rights does not guarantee the provision of services.

As of .

Age gating law

American Samoa has no adult-content age-verification law, social-media minor-access restriction, app-store age-verification requirement, or age-appropriate design code.

Title 46, Chapter 44 of the American Samoa Code Annotated criminalizes furnishing pornographic material to minors and the public display of explicit sexual material, but neither provision requires a publisher or online service to verify a user's age; the duty runs to the person who furnishes or displays the material, not to a platform's access controls.

Title 45's Chapter 20 establishes a child abuse and neglect reporting system and a central registry, addressed to caregivers, medical examiners, and law enforcement rather than to online services.

As of .

Reuse law

American Samoa has no press-publisher neighbouring right, mandatory platform-to-publisher bargaining code, hot-news misappropriation doctrine, or text-and-data-mining opt-out provision. The American Samoa Code Annotated has no title addressing copyright, intellectual property, or news publishing; Title 27, Chapter 3, Trademarks and Trade, reaches only trademark registration and use, not copyright in headlines, snippets, or news content.

Federal copyright law, including its fair use doctrine, applies to the territory of its own force and governs an aggregator's reproduction of American Samoa news content.

As of .

Reporting clocks that run here17 instruments

The instruments whose obligation lines set a deadline for reporting an incident, a vulnerability or a personal-data breach, each deadline read from the sentence that carries it and listed shortest first. The law of American Samoa comes first, then the law of the bodies above it that applies here.

Each flag is one law, and a link to it. Read down the scale: the clocks document's time axis, with the empty stretches shortened so the deadlines sit close. Flags on one line set the same duty at the same deadline, and the laws behind them are named to the right, with what each clock counts from.

1 hour
Incident notificationsecurity law
4 hours
Incident notificationsecurity law
8 hours
Incident notificationsecurity law
36 hours
72 hours
Breach notificationprivacy law
Safety-incident reportfrontier-model AI law
4 business days
Incident notificationsecurity law
5 business days
Incident notificationsecurity law
7 days
Incident notificationsecurity law
Breach notificationprivacy law
30 days
Incident notificationsecurity law
Breach notificationprivacy law
Safety-incident reportfrontier-model AI law
60 days
Breach notificationprivacy law
The deadlines above on one time axis, shortest at the top. The axis keeps its order and, between neighbors, its proportion, but a stretch with no deadline on it is shortened, so the hour marks on the left are what say how far apart two stations really are. Beside each action, the laws that set it, what each counts from, and a status where the law is not yet in force. The List tab has the same data in full, with the sentences.

The law of the United States, which applies in American Samoa

1 hour7 days

NERC Reliability Standard CIP-008-6: Cyber Security Incident Reporting and Response Planning

NERC Reliability Standard CIP-008-6 (16 U.S.C. 824o)security law, in force since

The sentences the clocks are read from

Give the initial notification within one hour after the determination of a Reportable Cyber Security Incident, and by the end of the next calendar day after the determination that a Cyber Security Incident was an attempt to compromise a system in scope.

Include in each notification, to the extent known, the functional impact, the attack vector used and the level of intrusion that was achieved or attempted, and provide updates within 7 calendar days of determination of new or changed attribute information.

1 hour4 hours8 hours24 hours

NRC cyber security event notifications by nuclear power plant licensees

NRC cyber security event notifications, 10 CFR 73.77security law, in force since

The sentences the clocks are read from

Notify the NRC Headquarters Operations Center via the Emergency Notification System within one hour after discovery of a cyberattack that adversely impacted safety-related or important-to-safety functions, security functions, or emergency preparedness functions (including offsite communications), or that compromised support systems and equipment resulting in adverse impacts to those functions.

Also notify within one hour after discovery of a cyberattack that adversely impacted the safety, security, and emergency preparedness functions performed by digital assets described in 10 CFR 73.77(a)(1)(ii).

Notify the NRC Headquarters Operations Center within four hours after discovery of a cyberattack that could have caused such an adverse impact, after discovery of a suspected or actual cyberattack initiated by personnel with physical or electronic access to the systems in scope, or after notifying a local, State, or other Federal agency of an event related to your cyber security program that does not otherwise require notification.

Notify the NRC Headquarters Operations Center within eight hours after receipt or collection of information regarding observed behavior, activities, or statements that may indicate intelligence gathering or pre-operational planning related to a cyberattack against the systems in scope.

Use the site corrective action program to record vulnerabilities, weaknesses, failures and deficiencies in your cyber security program, and the notifications you make, within twenty-four hours of their discovery.

24 hours72 hours

Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 (CIRCIA)

6 U.S.C. 681-681g (CIRCIA)security law, enacted, not yet in force

The sentences the clocks are read from

Once the final rule takes effect, report a covered cyber incident to the Agency not later than 72 hours after your organization reasonably believes that the covered cyber incident has occurred.

Once the final rule takes effect, report a ransom payment to the Agency not later than 24 hours after your organization makes the payment, even where the underlying ransomware attack is not itself a covered cyber incident.

Once the final rule takes effect, promptly submit an update to a previously submitted covered cyber incident report whenever substantial new or different information becomes available or a ransom payment is later made, continuing until your organization notifies the Agency that the incident has concluded and been fully mitigated and resolved, and preserve data relevant to the incident or payment under the procedures the final rule establishes.

24 hours5 business days30 days

SEC Regulation SCI: notification of SCI events to the Commission and to members

SEC Regulation SCI SCI event notices, 17 CFR 242.1002(b) and (c)security law, in force since

The sentences the clocks are read from

Upon any responsible SCI personnel having a reasonable basis to conclude that an SCI event has occurred, begin appropriate corrective action and notify the Commission of the SCI event immediately.

Within 24 hours of that conclusion, submit a written notification to the Commission, made on a good faith, best efforts basis, that describes the SCI event and the systems affected and, to the extent available, your assessment of the market participants potentially affected, the potential impact on the market, and the steps you have taken, are taking or plan to take.

If the SCI event is resolved and the investigation closed within 30 calendar days, submit a final written notification within five business days after resolution. If not, submit an interim written notification within 30 calendar days after the event, and a final one within five business days after resolution and closure.

36 hours

Computer-Security Incident Notification Requirements for Banking Organizations and Their Bank Service Providers

12 CFR Part 53 (OCC); 12 CFR Part 225, Subpart N (Federal Reserve Board); 12 CFR Part 304, Subpart C (FDIC)security law, in force since

The sentences the clocks are read from

If your organization is a banking organization, notify your primary federal banking regulator, the OCC, the Federal Reserve Board, or the FDIC, whichever supervises it, about a notification incident, as soon as possible and no later than 36 hours after your organization determines that a notification incident has occurred.

A notification incident is the subset of computer-security incidents that has materially disrupted or degraded, or is reasonably likely to materially disrupt or degrade, your ability to serve customers, a business line, or an operation whose failure would threaten the financial stability of the United States, so a computer-security incident that falls short of that threshold does not by itself start this clock.

If your organization is a bank service provider, notify at least one bank-designated point of contact at each affected banking organization customer as soon as possible after your organization determines that it has experienced a computer-security incident that has materially disrupted or degraded, or is reasonably likely to materially disrupt or degrade, covered services provided to that banking organization for a period of four hours or more.

This duty carries a standard, as soon as possible, rather than a fixed number of hours to notify by, and that disruption threshold is what engages the duty rather than a period to notify within.

72 hours30 days

Artificial Intelligence Risk Management and Security Act of 2026

S. 5576, 119th Congressfrontier-model AI law, proposed

The sentence the clocks are read from

If you are a developer or provider of a frontier AI model, or an operator of critical infrastructure that uses an AI model to manage industrial control systems or other operational technologies, report any confirmed AI safety incident or AI security incident within 30 days of confirmation, and within 72 hours if the incident poses an imminent threat to national security, critical infrastructure or public safety.

72 hours

NCUA Cyber Incident Notification Requirements for Federally Insured Credit Unions

NCUA Cyber Incident Notification Requirements, 12 CFR 748.1(c)security law, in force since

The sentences the clocks are read from

If your organization is a federally insured credit union, notify the NCUA-designated point of contact of a reportable cyber incident by email, telephone, or another method the NCUA prescribes, so that the NCUA receives the notification as soon as possible and no later than 72 hours after your organization reasonably believes it has experienced a reportable cyber incident.

Where the reportable cyber incident is a disruption of business operations or unauthorized access to sensitive data facilitated through, or caused by, a compromise of a credit union service organization, cloud service provider, or other third-party data hosting provider, or by a supply chain compromise, the NCUA must receive the notification within 72 hours of your organization being notified by the third party if that is sooner.

72 hours30 days

Regulation S-P: incident response program and customer breach notice

17 CFR 248.30(a)(3) to (a)(5)privacy law, in force since

The sentences the clocks are read from

Send the notice as soon as practicable, but not later than 30 days, after becoming aware that unauthorized access to or use of customer information has occurred or is reasonably likely to have occurred, delaying it only for the period the United States Attorney General specifies where the Attorney General determines that notice poses a substantial risk to national security or public safety (17 CFR 248.30(a)(4)(iii)).

Maintain written policies and procedures reasonably designed to require oversight, including through due diligence and monitoring, of service providers, including that a service provider notify you as soon as possible, and no later than 72 hours, after becoming aware of a breach in security resulting in unauthorized access to a customer information system it maintains (17 CFR 248.30(a)(5)(i)).

72 hours

SEC Regulation S-P: service provider oversight and 72-hour breach notice to the covered institution

SEC Regulation S-P service provider oversight and notice, 17 CFR 248.30(a)(5)security law, in force

The sentence the clocks are read from

Make those policies and procedures reasonably designed to ensure that each service provider takes appropriate measures to protect against unauthorized access to or use of customer information, and to notify you as soon as possible, but no later than 72 hours after becoming aware that a breach in security has occurred resulting in unauthorized access to a customer information system the service provider maintains.

4 business days

SEC Cybersecurity Risk Management, Governance, and Incident Disclosure (Regulation S-K Item 106; Form 8-K Item 1.05)

17 CFR 229.106; 17 CFR 249.308 (Form 8-K Item 1.05)security law, in force since

The sentences the clocks are read from

If your organization is an Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting company, determine, without unreasonable delay after you discover a cybersecurity incident, whether the incident is material, and if it is, file a Form 8-K under Item 1.05 within four business days after you make that determination.

If the information called for in Item 1.05 is not determined or is unavailable when you file, state that in the filing and file an amendment to the Form 8-K within four business days after you determine it or it becomes available.

7 business days30 days

FCC CPNI breach notification rule

47 CFR 64.2011privacy law, in force

The sentences the clocks are read from

After you reasonably determine that a breach of your customers' CPNI has occurred, electronically notify the United States Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation through the central reporting facility as soon as practicable, and in no event later than seven business days (47 CFR 64.2011(b)).

Do not notify customers or disclose the breach where the relevant investigating agency directs you in writing not to, for an initial period of up to 30 days that the agency may extend (47 CFR 64.2011(b)(3)).

60 days

FTC Health Breach Notification Rule

16 CFR Part 318privacy law, in force since

The sentences the clocks are read from

If you are a vendor of personal health records (an entity that offers or maintains an electronic record of health information that can draw information from multiple sources and is managed, shared and controlled by or primarily for the individual) or a PHR related entity, notify each affected individual who is a citizen or resident of the United States, in plain language and without unreasonable delay, no later than 60 calendar days after you discover a breach of security of unsecured PHR identifiable health information.

Notify prominent media outlets serving a State or jurisdiction, without unreasonable delay and in no case later than 60 calendar days after you discover the breach, when the unsecured PHR identifiable health information of 500 or more of its residents is, or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired during the breach.

If you are a third party service provider, notify the official designated in a written contract by the vendor of personal health records or PHR related entity you serve (or else a senior official of that vendor or entity), without unreasonable delay and in no case later than 60 calendar days after you discover the breach; identify each customer of that vendor or entity whose unsecured PHR identifiable health information has been, or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired during the breach; and obtain acknowledgment that the notice was received.

60 days

HIPAA Breach Notification Rule

45 CFR Part 164, Subpart D (Sections 164.400-164.414)privacy law, in force since

The sentences the clocks are read from

Notify affected individuals without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovering a breach of unsecured protected health information.

For a breach of unsecured protected health information involving more than 500 residents of a State or jurisdiction, notify prominent media outlets serving that State or jurisdiction without unreasonable delay and in no case later than 60 calendar days after discovery of the breach.

If you are a business associate, notify the covered entity of a breach of unsecured protected health information without unreasonable delay and in no case later than 60 calendar days after discovery of the breach.

promptly

CFTC system safeguards: prompt notice to Commission staff of cyber security incidents and targeted threats

CFTC system safeguards notices, 17 CFR 39.18(g), 38.1051(e) and 37.1401(e)security law, in force since

The sentences the clocks are read from

If your organization is a derivatives clearing organization, notify staff of the Division of Clearing and Risk promptly of any hardware or software malfunction, security incident, or targeted threat that materially impairs, or creates a significant likelihood of material impairment of, automated system operation, reliability, security, or capacity, and of any activation of your business continuity and disaster recovery plan.

If your organization is a designated contract market, notify Commission staff promptly of all cyber security incidents or targeted threats that actually or potentially jeopardize automated system operation, reliability, security, or capacity, as well as electronic trading halts and significant systems malfunctions and activations of your business continuity-disaster recovery plan.

If your organization is a swap execution facility, notify Commission staff promptly of all cyber security incidents or targeted threats that actually or potentially jeopardize automated system operation, reliability, security, or capacity, as well as electronic trading halts and material system malfunctions and activations of your business continuity-disaster recovery plan.

immediately

Coast Guard Cybersecurity in the Marine Transportation System: reportable cyber incidents

Coast Guard reportable cyber incident reporting, 33 CFR 101.620(b)(7) and 101.615security law, in force since

The sentence the clocks are read from

Evidence of sabotage, subversive activity, or an actual or threatened cyber incident involving or endangering any vessel, harbor, port, or waterfront facility must be reported immediately to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (for any cyber incident), and the Captain of the Port, or to their respective representatives.

Which of these one incident starts turns on the facts: the incident method works that through. The clocks document draws every clock in the LexLint law library on one axis, with the sentence beside every rung.

Drafted with AI

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page. How this site is made

This page lists the instruments LexLint has researched to a stage, and the count in the head can be larger than the list. Every entry carries its own primary source on its note page. This is a research index, not legal advice.