Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 44-903

Current with changes through the 2024 First Special Legislative Session

Section 44-903 - Terms, defined

For purposes of the Privacy of Insurance Consumer Information Act:

(1) Affiliate means any company that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with another company;

(2) Clear and conspicuous means that a notice is reasonably understandable and designed to call attention to the nature and significance of the information in the notice;

(3) Collect means to obtain information that the licensee organizes or can retrieve by the name of an individual or by identifying number, symbol, or other identifying particular assigned to the individual, irrespective of the source of the underlying information;

(4) Company means any corporation, limited liability company, business trust, general or limited partnership, association, sole proprietorship, or similar organization;

(5)

(a) Consumer means an individual who seeks to obtain, obtains, or has obtained an insurance product or service from a licensee that is to be used primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, and about whom the licensee has nonpublic personal information, or that individual's legal representative;

(b) Consumer includes:

(i) An individual who provides nonpublic personal information to a licensee in connection with obtaining or seeking to obtain financial, investment, or economic advisory services relating to an insurance product or service whether or not the licensee establishes an ongoing advisory relationship;

(ii) An applicant for insurance prior to the inception of insurance coverage; and

(iii) An individual who is a beneficiary of a life insurance policy underwritten by the licensee, who is a claimant under an insurance policy issued by the licensee, who is an insured or an annuitant under an insurance policy or an annuity issued by the licensee, or who is a mortgagor of a mortgage covered under a mortgage insurance policy, if the licensee discloses nonpublic personal financial information about such individual to a nonaffiliated third party other than as permitted under sections 44-913 to 44-915;

(c) Consumer does not include an individual:

(i) Who is a consumer of another financial institution solely because the licensee is acting as agent for, or provides processing or other services to, that financial institution;

(ii) Solely because such individual is a participant or a beneficiary of an employee benefit plan that the licensee administers or sponsors or for which the licensee acts as a trustee, insurer, or fiduciary, covered under a group or blanket insurance policy or group annuity contract issued by the licensee, or a beneficiary in a workers' compensation plan if:

(A) The licensee provides the initial, annual, and revised notices under sections 44-904, 44-905, and 44-908 to the plan sponsor, group or blanket insurance policyholder, group annuity contract holder, or workers' compensation plan participant; and

(B) The licensee does not disclose to a nonaffiliated third party nonpublic personal financial information about such an individual other than as permitted under sections 44-913 to 44-915;

(iii) Solely because he or she is a beneficiary of a trust for which the licensee is a trustee; or

(iv) Solely because he or she has designated the licensee as a trustee for a trust;

(6) Consumer reporting agency has the same meaning as in 15 U.S.C. 1681a(f), as such section existed on April 5, 2001;

(7) Control means:

(a) Ownership, control, or power to vote twenty-five percent or more of the outstanding shares of any class of voting security of the company, directly or indirectly, or acting through one or more other persons;

(b) Control in any manner over the election of a majority of the directors, trustees, or general partners, or individuals exercising similar functions, of the company; or

(c) The power to exercise, directly or indirectly, a controlling influence over the management or policies of the company, as the director determines;

(8) Customer means a consumer who has a customer relationship with a licensee;

(9)

(a) Customer relationship means a continuing relationship between a consumer and a licensee under which the licensee provides one or more insurance products or services to the consumer that are to be used primarily for personal, family, or household purposes.

(b) Customer relationship includes a continuing relationship between a consumer and a licensee if:

(i) The consumer is a current policyholder of an insurance product issued by or through the licensee; or

(ii) The consumer obtains financial, investment, or economic advisory services relating to an insurance product or service from the licensee for a fee;

(10) Director means the Director of Insurance;

(11)

(a) Financial institution means any institution the business of which is engaging in activities that are financial in nature or incidental to such financial activities as described in 12 U.S.C. 1843(k), as such section existed on April 5, 2001.

(b) Financial institution does not include:

(i) Any person or entity with respect to any financial activity that is subject to the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under the Commodity Exchange Act, 7 U.S.C. 1 et seq., as the act existed on April 5, 2001;

(ii) The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation or any entity charged and operating under the Farm Credit Act of 1971, 12 U.S.C. 2001 et seq., as the act existed on April 5, 2001; or

(iii) Institutions chartered by Congress specifically to engage in securitizations, secondary market sales, including sales of servicing rights, or similar transactions related to a transaction of a consumer, as long as the institutions do not sell or transfer nonpublic personal information to a nonaffiliated third party;

(12)

(a) Financial product or service means any product or service that a financial holding company could offer by engaging in an activity that is financial in nature or incidental to such a financial activity under 12 U.S.C. 1843(k), as such section existed on April 5, 2001.

(b) Financial service includes a financial institution's evaluation or brokerage of information that the financial institution collects in connection with a request or an application from a consumer for a financial product or service;

(13) Health care means:

(a) Preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, rehabilitative, maintenance, or palliative care, services, procedures, tests, or counseling that:

(i) Relates to the physical, mental, or behavioral condition of an individual; or

(ii) Affects the structure or function of the human body or any part of the human body, including the banking of blood, sperm, organs, or any other tissue; or

(b) Prescribing, dispensing, or furnishing to an individual drugs, biologicals, medical devices, or health care equipment and supplies;

(14) Health care provider means a physician or other health care practitioner licensed, accredited, or certified to perform specified health services consistent with state law or a health care facility;

(15) Health information means any information or data except age or gender, whether oral or recorded in any form or medium, created by or derived from a health care provider or the consumer that relates to:

(a) The past, present, or future physical, mental, or behavioral health or condition of an individual;

(b) The provision of health care to an individual; or

(c) Payment for the provision of health care to an individual;

(16)

(a) Insurance product or service means any product or service that is offered by a licensee pursuant to the insurance laws of this state.

(b) Insurance service includes a licensee's evaluation, brokerage, or distribution of information that the licensee collects in connection with a request or an application from a consumer for an insurance product or service;

(17)

(a) Licensee means all licensed insurers, including fraternal benefit societies, producers, and other persons licensed or required to be licensed, authorized or required to be authorized, or registered or required to be registered pursuant to the insurance laws of this state.

(b) A licensee is not subject to the notice and opt out requirements for nonpublic personal financial information set forth in the Privacy of Insurance Consumer Information Act if the licensee is an employee, agent, or other representative of another licensee acting as principal and:

(i) The principal otherwise complies with, and provides the notices required by, the act; and

(ii) The licensee does not disclose any nonpublic personal information to any person other than the principal or its affiliates in a manner permitted by the act.

(c)

(i) Subject to subdivision (17)(c)(ii) of this section, licensee also includes an unauthorized insurer that accepts business placed through a licensed excess lines broker in this state, but only in regard to the excess lines placements placed pursuant to the Surplus Lines Insurance Act.

(ii) An excess lines broker or excess lines insurer shall be deemed to be in compliance with the notice and opt out requirements for nonpublic personal financial information set forth in the Privacy of Insurance Consumer Information Act if:

(A) The broker or insurer does not disclose nonpublic personal information of a consumer or a customer to nonaffiliated third parties for any purpose, including joint servicing or marketing under section 44-913, except as permitted by section 44-914 or 44-915; and

(B) The broker or insurer delivers a notice to the consumer at the time a customer relationship is established on which the following is printed in sixteen-point type:

PRIVACY NOTICE

NEITHER THE UNITED STATES BROKERS THAT HANDLED THIS INSURANCE NOR THE INSURERS THAT HAVE UNDERWRITTEN THIS INSURANCE WILL DISCLOSE NONPUBLIC PERSONAL INFORMATION CONCERNING THE BUYER TO NONAFFILIATES OF THE BROKERS OR INSURERS EXCEPT AS PERMITTED BY LAW;

(18)

(a) Nonaffiliated third party means any person except:

(i) A licensee's affiliate; or

(ii) A person employed jointly by a licensee and any company that is not the licensee's affiliate, but nonaffiliated third party includes the other company that jointly employs the person.

(b) Nonaffiliated third party includes any company that is an affiliate solely by virtue of the direct or indirect ownership or control of the company by the licensee or its affiliate in conducting merchant banking or investment banking activities of the type described in 12 U.S.C. 1843(k)(4)(H), as such section existed on April 5, 2001, or insurance company investment activities of the type described in 12 U.S.C. 1843(k)(4)(H) and (I), as such section existed on April 5, 2001;

(19) Nonpublic personal information means nonpublic personal financial information and nonpublic personal health information;

(20)

(a) Nonpublic personal financial information means:

(i) Personally identifiable financial information; and

(ii) Any list, description, or other grouping of consumers, and publicly available information pertaining to them, that is derived using any personally identifiable financial information that is not publicly available.

(b) Nonpublic personal financial information includes any list of individuals' names and street addresses that is derived in whole or in part using personally identifiable financial information that is not publicly available, such as account numbers.

(c) Nonpublic personal financial information does not include:

(i) Health information;

(ii) Publicly available information, except as included on a list described in subdivision (20)(a)(ii) of this section;

(iii) Any list, description, or other grouping of consumers, and publicly available information pertaining to them, that is derived without using any personally identifiable financial information that is not publicly available; or

(iv) Any list of individuals' names and addresses that contains only publicly available information, is not derived in whole or in part using personally identifiable financial information that is not publicly available, and is not disclosed in a manner that indicates that any of the individuals on the list is a consumer of a financial institution;

(21) Nonpublic personal health information means health information:

(a) That identifies an individual who is the subject of the information; or

(b) With respect to which there is a reasonable basis to believe that the information could be used to identify an individual;

(22) Personally identifiable financial information means any information:

(a) A consumer provides to a licensee to obtain an insurance product or service from the licensee;

(b) About a consumer resulting from a transaction involving an insurance product or service between a licensee and a consumer; or

(c) The licensee otherwise obtains about a consumer in connection with providing an insurance product or service to that consumer; and

(23)

(a) Publicly available information means any information that a licensee has a reasonable basis to believe is lawfully made available to the general public from:

(i) Federal, state, or local government records;

(ii) Widely distributed media; or

(iii) Disclosures to the general public that are required to be made by federal, state, or local law.

(b) For purposes of this definition, a licensee has a reasonable basis to believe that information is lawfully made available to the general public if the licensee has taken steps to determine:

(i) That the information is of the type that is available to the general public; and

(ii) Whether an individual can direct that the information not be made available to the general public and, if so, that the licensee's consumer has not done so.

Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 44-903

Laws 2001, LB 52, § 3.