Information breaches in social networks and other published data have caused many concerns of privacy issues in recent years.
It will encompass a variety of potential claims: defamation, intrusion into privacy, misuse of private information, breach of confidence, harassment and data protection.
Almost all American states now have data-breach laws that require firms to reveal any loss of sensitive customer information.
The health sector accounts for most data security breaches, according to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Javelin cites information from the Open Security Foundation, a nonprofit that collects information about data breaches, which found that there were 1,611 breaches in 2012, a 48 percent increase over the prior year.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, introduced a new bill Thursday that aims to protect citizens' personal information from online data breaches.
The Department of Work and Pensions, which oversees Jobcentre Plus, was unable to say how many of its 512 data breaches involved information being passed to third parties, but stated: "With over 100,000 staff the relatively small number of those who misuse our computer systems are always disciplined, and those who commit serious breaches will be dismissed".
Javelin's 2013 Data Breach Fraud Impact Report finds that data breaches are increasingly correlated with fraud; if your personal information is compromised in a data breach, you are much more likely to end up being a victim, said Al Pascual, a senior security, risk and fraud analyst at Javelin.
Symantec's study found a correlation between having a senior executive in charge of information security and lower costs of data breaches.
A report released last week by the Symantec Corporation, a security software provider, and the Ponemon Institute, a privacy and information management research firm, found that data breaches showed no sign of leveling off and were increasingly costly.
The ABS has also reported 14 data breaches voluntarily to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
