Does General Liability Cover Data Breaches?

A data breach can involve unauthorized access, disclosure, data restoration, customer notices, regulatory inquiries, and lawsuits. The ISO specimen defines electronic data and excludes damages arising from its loss, corruption, damage, or inaccessibility. Triple-I describes invasion of privacy as one possible personal and advertising injury offense, but that limited Coverage B category does not itself promise forensic, notification, restoration, or regulatory-response costs.

Ask the insurer to identify which breach costs are covered by the cyber form and which, if any, could be considered under CGL. Review cyber definitions, covered incidents, notice deadlines, waiting periods, consent requirements, sublimits, and exclusions, as well as CGL’s electronic-data wording. A privacy-related allegation should be analyzed under the actual policy language rather than treated as a general privacy guarantee.