Law / United States / District of Columbia

District of Columbia

2 of 7 named instruments researched to a stage, across two of the ten areas of law we track: 2 in force. As of .

  1. AI law
  2. Privacy law 1
  3. Scraping law
  4. Cybersecurity law 1
  5. Communications law not researched
  6. Content moderation law not researched
  7. Product and AI liability law not researched
  8. Digital accessibility law not researched
  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 (132 words)

The District of Columbia has no comprehensive consumer data-protection act of the kind most states have enacted; the federal sectoral posture recorded in the national document applies unmodified.

The District's own contribution is a Consumer Security Breach Notification law that requires prompt notice to affected residents and, above a 50-resident threshold, to the Attorney General, and whose definition of covered personal information expressly reaches biometric identifiers including a voice print.

The Consumer Protection Procedures Act, the basis of the Attorney General's Meta and TikTok suits, carries no independent data-handling duty of its own; it supplies the enforcement mechanism and private right of action for a breach-notice violation, and expressly caps a consumer's private recovery for that one violation type to actual damages rather than the treble-damages-or-statutory-minimum floor it gives every other violation.

Breach notification

Consumer Security Breach Notification

D.C. Code §§ 28-3851 to 28-3853 (Title 28, Chapter 38, Subchapter II)official text, D.C. Law Library (code.dccouncil.gov)

In force since . Binds private bodies.

What this law does

Any person or entity conducting business in the District that owns or licenses computerized data containing personal information must notify affected District residents in the most expedient time possible after discovering a breach of the security of the system, and must also notify the Office of the Attorney General in writing if the breach affects 50 or more residents.

Personal information covered by the notification duty includes biometric data such as a fingerprint, voice print, genetic print, or retina or iris image used to authenticate identity. A violation of this notification duty is an unfair or deceptive trade practice under the Consumer Protection Procedures Act.

For this specific violation, though, a consumer's private recovery is limited to actual damages rather than the treble-damages-or-$1,500-per-violation floor available for other violations of that Act. The definition of personal information excludes information that is publicly available from government records. The statute was enacted in 2007 and amended in 2020 by the Security Breach Protection Amendment Act.

What it requires

Cybersecurity law1 instrument, 1 in force

Research summary (352 words)

The District of Columbia's product-security and cyber-resilience posture rests on one enacted, standalone safeguards duty, D.C. Code § [28-3852.01] (Title 28, Chapter 38, Subchapter II, added by the Security Breach Protection Amendment Act of 2020, D.C. Law 23-98, effective ).

It requires any person or entity that owns, licenses, maintains, handles, or otherwise possesses the personal information of an individual residing in the District to implement and maintain reasonable security safeguards, including procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of that information and to the entity's own nature and size; to require by written agreement that a nonaffiliated third-party service provider implement and maintain its own reasonable security procedures and practices over any personal information disclosed to it; and to take reasonable steps against unauthorized access when destroying records that contain personal information.

A person or entity already subject to and in compliance with the security-procedure requirements of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), or the HITECH Act is deemed to comply, and the definition of person or entity expressly excludes the District government and its own agencies and instrumentalities, so the duty binds only the private sector.

No enacted District statute sets security requirements a connected device or software product must meet before or after it reaches the market, imposes a private-sector duty to report an exploited vulnerability or a security incident to an authority, or establishes a sector-specific cyber-resilience regime naming a private digital service.

A violation of the safeguards duty is, like a violation of the notification duty in the same subchapter, an unfair or deceptive trade practice under the Consumer Protection Procedures Act: the Attorney General may recover a civil penalty of up to $5,000 for a first violation and up to $10,000 for each subsequent violation under D.C. Code § 28-3909(b), and a consumer may bring a private action under D.C. Code § 28-3905(k), though recovery for this violation is limited to actual damages rather than the treble-damages-or-$1,500-per-violation floor available for most other violations of that Act.

The District's breach-notification duty, D.C. Code §§ 28-3851 to 28-3853, is already this jurisdiction's privacy row rather than repeated here.

Security baseline statutes

Security requirements for personal information (Security Breach Protection Amendment Act of 2020)

D.C. Code § [28-3852.01] (Title 28, Chapter 38, Subchapter II, "Security requirements," added by the Security Breach Protection Amendment Act of 2020, D.C. Law 23-98, § 2(a)(5), 67 DCR 3923)official statute text, D.C. Law Library (code.dccouncil.gov)

In force since . Binds private bodies.

What this law does

Any person or entity that owns, licenses, maintains, handles, or otherwise possesses personal information of an individual residing in the District of Columbia must implement and maintain reasonable security safeguards, including procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the personal information and the nature and size of the entity or operation.

The same person or entity must require by written agreement that a nonaffiliated third-party service provider implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices over any personal information disclosed to it. When destroying records that contain personal information, the same person or entity must take reasonable steps to protect against unauthorized access to or use of that personal information.

A person or entity already subject to and in compliance with the security-procedure requirements of Title V of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act is deemed to be in compliance with this section. A violation of this section is, like a violation of the notification duty in the same subchapter, an unfair or deceptive trade practice under the Consumer Protection Procedures Act.

The Attorney General may enforce it for a civil penalty of up to $5,000 for a first violation and up to $10,000 for each subsequent violation. A consumer may also bring a private action for the same violation, but limited to actual damages.

What it requires

Where nothing was found4 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

The District of Columbia has not enacted an AI-transparency, algorithmic-accountability, or automated-decision statute. The District's general Human Rights Act and Consumer Protection Procedures Act remain available against a discriminatory or deceptive automated decision on their own, non-AI-specific terms.

As of .

Scraping law

The District of Columbia has no computer-misuse or computer-fraud statute of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) kind.

Title 22's criminal chapters were checked in full: Chapter 18 (General Offenses), Chapter 32 (Theft; Fraud; Stolen Property; Forgery; and Extortion, including its Fraud, Credit Card Fraud, and Identity Theft subchapters), and Chapter 33 (Trespass; Injuries to Property) contain no unauthorized-access, computer-trespass, or computer-fraud offense; Chapter 32's own definition of covered property reaches services and telecommunications generally but was not drafted with computer intrusion in mind.

The District's Consumer Security Breach Notification law, covered under the privacy topic, is triggered only by an unauthorized acquisition of data that compromises its security; it creates no duty reaching the ordinary, non-breaching collection of publicly accessible personal data by a scraper.

Terms-of-service enforceability, robots.txt's legal weight, database rights, and a text-and-data-mining exception are all governed by ordinary contract law and federal copyright law with no District-specific statute or reported District of Columbia Court of Appeals decision adding to or diverging from the federal baseline; the District's Consumer Protection Procedures Act and common-law trespass to chattels are available in principle for an unfair-competition theory but untested against scraping specifically.

As of .

Age gating law

The District of Columbia has not enacted an age verification, social media minor access, app store, or design code statute as of July 2026. The DC Attorney General has instead used the District's existing consumer protection law to sue Meta in 2023 and TikTok in 2024, alleging their platforms are designed to be addictive to children, but no dedicated age gating legislation is currently on the books or moving through the DC Council.

As of .

Reuse law

The Code of the District of Columbia carries no title on copyright, a press-publisher right, or news aggregation; its 51 titles run from Government Organization through Social Security with no chapter reaching reproduction of journalism, and Title 36, Trade Practices, reaches only restraint-of-trade and pricing conduct rather than snippet reproduction or linking.

No decision of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals addressing hot-news misappropriation, snippet reproduction, or the framing of news content has been located. Federal copyright law, including 17 U.S.C. § 107 fair use and the case law already covered in the national document, applies of its own force in the District and is not restated here.

As of .

Case law

  • No current case law for District of Columbia AI law
  • No current case law for District of Columbia privacy law
  • No current case law for District of Columbia scraping law
  • No current case law for District of Columbia cybersecurity law
  • No current case law for District of Columbia communications law
  • No current case law for District of Columbia content moderation law
  • No current case law for District of Columbia product and AI liability law
  • No current case law for District of Columbia digital accessibility law
  • No current case law for District of Columbia age gating law
  • No current case law for District of Columbia reuse law

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 District of Columbia 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 business days
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 District of Columbia

The law of the United States, which applies in District of Columbia

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 covers the instruments LexLint has researched to a stage. Instruments named in the law library but not yet researched are counted in the head and are not listed here. Every entry carries its own primary source on its note page. This is a research index, not legal advice.