# Title 51 — Sales and Exchanges

## Chapter 51-22 — Data Processing Information Confidentiality

### § 51-22-01. Definitions.

As used in this chapter:
1. "Business entity" means a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, limited liability
company, association, or other group, however organized and whether or not
organized to operate at a profit, doing business in this state.
2. "Data processing services" means any systematic sequence of operations, including
but not limited to bookkeeping functions, inventory control, storage, or manipulation
and retrieval of management or personnel information, performed upon data by
electronic devices which perform logical, arithmetic, and memory functions by the
manipulation of electronic or magnetic impulses. The term does not include operations
performed by telecommunication devices.
3. "Individual" means a natural person.
4. "Person" means any natural person, corporation, limited liability company, partnership,
firm, association, or governmental entity.
5. "Record" means any item, collection, or grouping of information about an individual or
business entity.
### § 51-22-02. Prohibition against disclosure except upon written consent - Application of

section.
1. No business entity which charges a fee for data processing services performed may
disclose in whole or in part the contents of any record, including the disclosure of
information contained in the record through inclusion in any composite of information,
which is prepared or maintained by such business entity to any person, other than the
individual or business entity which is the subject of the record, without the express
written consent of such individual or business entity.
2. This section does not apply to the following:
a. A disclosure to any person pursuant to a subpoena or court order.
b. A disclosure which is discoverable pursuant to the North Dakota Rules of Civil
Procedure.
c. A disclosure to any person pursuant to a lawful search warrant.
### § 51-22-03. Initiation of civil action - Liability for damages - Limitation.

1. A person may initiate a civil action against a business entity in accordance with state
law whenever a business entity violates the provisions of section 51-22-02.
2. In any suit brought pursuant to the provisions of subsection 1, a business entity which
has violated section 51-22-02 is liable to the person in an amount equal to the actual
damages sustained by the person as a result of such violation, but in no case less
than five hundred dollars.
3. An action to enforce any liability created under this chapter may be brought in any
court of competent jurisdiction within two years from the date on which the claim for
relief arose.
