Montana Consumer Data Privacy Act

The Montana Consumer Data Privacy Act (MTCDPA) is a data privacy law aimed at protecting the personal information of Montana residents. Effective October 1, 2024, the MTCDPA sets forth specific rights for consumers and obligations for businesses regarding the collection, use, and handling of personal data.

The MTCDPA applies to:

• Businesses operating in Montana or targeting goods or services to Montana residents.
• Entities that control or process the personal data of at least 50,000 Montana residents annually or
• Businesses that derive significant revenue from the sale of personal data and process data of at least 25,000 Montana residents.

MTCDPA Guidelines

Under the MTCDPA, Montana residents have the following rights:

• Access: The right to access their personal data held by businesses.
• Correction: The right to request corrections to inaccuracies in their personal data.
• Deletion: The right to request deletion of their personal data.
• Data Portability: The right to obtain a copy of their personal data in a structured format that is commonly used for easy transfer to another entity.
• Opt Out: The right to opt out of the sale of their personal data, as well as its use for targeted advertising and profiling.

Businesses that meet MTCDPA eligibility criteria must:

• provide clear and comprehensive privacy notices that detail their data collection, processing, and sharing practices.
• conduct assessments to identify and mitigate risks associated with data processing activities.
• implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.
• establish contracts with third-party data processors to ensure they comply with MTCDPA requirements.
• 
  seek explicit consent before processing sensitive data categories, such as health information or biometric data.
  
• notify affected individuals of data breaches within 45 days of discovering the breach. The notice should include details about the breach, the types of data involved, and steps taken to address the breach.

seek explicit consent before processing sensitive data categories, such as health information or biometric data.

How Finite State Helps You Comply with MTCDPA

Finite State can complement your data protection efforts by strengthening your data security capabilities, particularly by: 

• Enforcing Secure Coding Practices: Seamless integrations into existing CI/CD pipelines automatically analyze source code and compiled binaries for common security vulnerabilities and coding errors. This allows engineers to identify vulnerabilities hidden deep within legacy code and third-party libraries and detect and address issues early in the development process.
• Real-Time Threat Detection: Integrations with vulnerability databases provide up-to-date information on the latest threats and exploits, allowing for the proactive identification of potential risks before they can be exploited.
• Automate Vulnerability Identification: Using our advanced binary and source code SCA, vulnerabilities can be identified as they’re introduced across the SDLC to help teams keep applications secure.
• Comprehensive SBOM Solutions: Automatically generate Software Bill of Materials throughout the SDLC and easily compile detailed information on all components in your products, including open-source libraries, third-party dependencies, and custom code to improve transparency and identify potential security risks in your software supply chain.

Strong cybersecurity requires a collective effort. Talk to the team today to discover how Finite State can help you comply with MTCDPA.