Indiana Consumer Data Protection Act
The Indiana Consumer Data Protection Act (INCDPA) was passed by the legislature on April 13, 2023, with an effective date of January 1, 2026. The law follows the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act closely, with some unique elements. For example, its privacy rights provisions have limitations including the right to correct personal information only for information provided by the consumer. And organizations may choose to provide a “representative summary” of personal information instead of a full copy of personal information when presented with an access request.
What You Need to Know About Indiana’s Privacy Law
The TDPSA applies to for-profit entities that:
- Conduct business or provide products or services to residents of Indiana (consumers), and
- Annually control or process the personal information of either:
- 100,000 unique residents excluding personal information solely used for completing payment transactions; or
- 25,000 unique residents and derives more than 50% of gross revenue from the sale of personal information.
Exempt Entities: Exempt entities include:
- Non-profits;
- State government entities;
- Higher education Institutions;
- HIPAA-covered entities and business associates;
- GLBA-covered entities; and
- Public utilities as defined by the state or their affiliated service companies.
Exempt Data: INCDPA exempts a long list of personal information, including but not limited to:
- HIPAA-covered data;
- GLBA-covered data;
- Various federally and internationally protected health and patient information, including that protected by the Common Rule, human subject data, and more;
- Various forms of credit data regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act; and
- Data covered by a wide variety of other federal laws including Family Educational Rights, Farm Credit Act, and Privacy Act, and Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.
Exempt Use Cases: INCDPA is not applicable in some circumstances, such as:
- Processing PI in an employment or commercial (B2B) context;
In addition, the INCDPA specifies that its law should not be construed to restrict a business’s collection, use, or retention of PI for:
- Conducting internal research for development, improvement, and repair of products, services, and technology (R&D);
- Product recalls;
- Identifying and repairing technical errors that impair existing or intended functionality; and
- Performing internal operations.
Key Components of INCDPA
INCDPA covers “personal data,” also called personal information or PI, which Indiana defines as: “any information that is linked or reasonably linkable to an identified or identifiable individual.” Like many other states, there is an exception for de-identified and publicly available data.
INCDPA’s definition of sensitive PI consists of:
- Racial or ethnic origin;
- Religious beliefs;
- Mental or physical condition or diagnosis;
- sexual orientation;
- Citizenship or immigration status;
- PI collected from a known child;
- Precise geolocation data; and
- Genetic or biometric data processed for identification purposes.
Where a controller processes de-identified or pseudonymous data, INCDPA requires it to take reasonable measures to ensure the data cannot be associated with an individual; publicly commit to maintaining such data without an attempt to re-identify it; and contractually obligate any recipients of the data to comply with INCDPA. Controllers must monitor processors for compliance with de-identification obligations in contracts.
Additionally, Indiana exempts pseudonymous data from access, correction, portability, and deletion rights requests where the controller can show it keeps information that would allow the data to be re-identified separate and subject to technical and organizational controls that prevent its use for re-identification.
In a word: YES!
Parental consent is required to process PI about a known child (under 13) in accordance with COPPA.
Consent is also required for secondary use of information that is not necessary or compatible with the purpose for collection and hasn’t been noticed to the consumer.
A privacy notice must include:
- The categories of PI processed;
- The purpose for processing PI;
- The categories of third parties with which PI is shared;
- The categories of PI that are shared with third parties;
- Description of targeted advertising and selling activities including a procedure for opting out of the processing for these purposes; and
- The methods for a consumer to exercise their rights (see below) and appeal a decision on their rights request.
INCDPA takes a narrow approach to defining “sale” as only the exchange of PI for monetary consideration.
There are limits on the definition of “sale” to ensure that certain business functions are not unintentionally impeded by this law. Examples of activities deemed not to be a sale include: the disclosure of PI to provide a product or service requested by the consumer, the disclosure of PI that had been intentionally made available to the public, and the disclosure of PI as part of a merger or bankruptcy. For more, see the statue.
Indiana Attorney General (AG) has sole enforcement authority. Under the INCDPA, the AG may bring an enforcement action after providing a 30-day notice and an opportunity for the business to cure the alleged violation(s); the cure period will end July 1, 2026. The AG may seek injunctive relief (the company must stop certain behaviors) and/or civil penalties, with fines up to $7,500 per violation plus attorney’s fees, investigative costs, and any other relief the court determines appropriate.
Privacy Rights
If INCDPA applies to your business, you must provide the following privacy rights to consumers:
- Right to know whether a business is processing your PI;
- Right to access PI;
- Right to Correct inaccuracies in PI that they provided to the controller;
- Right to delete PI about them;
- Right to obtain a copy of PI or a representative summary (data portability); and
- Right to opt out of the sale of PI, processing for targeted advertising, or profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning the consumer.
INCDPA requires that businesses respond to individual rights requests within 45 days of receipt of the request, with a permissible 45-day extension in limited circumstances. Responses must be provided free of charge once a year. Businesses may deny a rights request in certain circumstances, including inability to verify the identity of a requestor. When a business denies a request, the business must notify the consumer within the 45-day timeframe and provide the reason for the denial as well as instructions for how to appeal the decision.
The appeals process must be conspicuously available to consumers and similar to the process for submitting an initial privacy rights request. Businesses must respond to appeals within 60 days of receipt and, if denying an appeal, must provide the consumer with an online method (if available) to file a complaint with the attorney general.
Universal Opt Out
Indiana does not require that controller’s recognize universal opt-out signals. Universal opt-out, or global privacy control, is a technical standard that enables users to automatically communicate their privacy preferences, such as opting out of the sale of their personal information, to websites through their web browser or other technologies.
Privacy Impact Assessments
INCDPA requires that covered organizations conduct data protection impact assessments, or privacy impact assessments (PIAs), for certain high-risk processing.
TDPSA requires assessments for activities generated or created after December 31, 2025, that present a heightened risk of harm, specifically including:
- Processing for targeted advertising;
- Processing sensitive PI;
- Selling PI;
- Processing for the purposes of profiling if it presents a ‘reasonably foreseeable risk’ of:
- Unfair or deceptive treatment or unlawful disparate impact on consumers;
- Financial, physical or reputational injury to consumers;
- Physical or other intrusion on the solitude or seclusion, or private affairs or concerns, which would be offensive to a reasonable person; or
- Other substantial injury.
Vendor Contracts
INCDPA requires controllers to have a contract in place with vendors that dictates obligations with respect to processing PI. Contracts must include:
- Instructions for processing PI;
- The nature and purpose of processing;
- Type of data that is subject to processing;
- Rights and obligations of both parties;
- The duration of processing;
- A duty of confidentiality for individuals who process the PI;
- Obligation to delete or return all PI at the controller’s direction or when it has completed the services, unless retention of the PI is required by law;
- Obligation to make available all information necessary to demonstrate the vendor’s compliance with its obligations;
- Compliance with audits by the controller or independent auditor and to provide a report of the assessment to the controller; and
- Pass along obligations to any subcontractor in a written contract.
Data Minimization
Indiana limits the collection of PI to what is adequate, relevant, and reasonably necessary in relation to the purposes for which that personal data is processed, as disclosed to the consumer. Where processing is not necessary or compatible with the purpose for collection, organizations must obtain consumers’ consent for the processing.
Data Privacy is Just Good Business
Managing privacy compliance with all these new state privacy laws popping up in the U.S., might seem like a daunting task. But just because the task appears daunting, it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to handle.
You don’t have to go at it alone! With the right support, you can make data privacy measures a sustainable part of your daily operations. That’s where Red Clover Advisors comes in – to deliver practical, actionable, business-friendly privacy strategies to help you achieve data privacy compliance and establish yourself as a consumer-friendly privacy champion that customers will appreciate.
