diff --git a/utils/aa-notify b/utils/aa-notify
index 9c7b28be6..32c0285e9 100755
--- a/utils/aa-notify
+++ b/utils/aa-notify
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ use Getopt::Long;
 
 my %prefs;
 my $conf = "/etc/apparmor/notify.conf";
-my $user_conf = "$ENV{HOME}/.apparmor/notify.conf";
+my $user_conf = "";
 my $notify_exe = "/usr/bin/notify-send";
 my $notify_home = "";
 my $notify_display = "";
@@ -156,6 +156,18 @@ if (-s $conf) {
     }
 }
 
+# find user's notify.conf
+if (-e "$ENV{HOME}/.apparmor/notify.conf" ) {
+    # use legacy path if the conf file is there
+    $user_conf = "$ENV{HOME}/.apparmor/notify.conf";
+} elsif (defined $ENV{XDG_CONFIG_HOME}) {
+    # use XDG_CONFIG_HOME if it is defined
+    $user_conf = "$ENV{XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/apparmor/notify.conf";
+} else {
+    # fallback to the default value of XDG_CONFIG_HOME
+    $user_conf = "$ENV{HOME}/.config/apparmor/notify.conf";
+}
+
 if ($opt_p) {
     # notify-send is packaged in libnotify-bin on Debian/Ubuntu, libnotify-tools on openSUSE
     -x "$notify_exe" or _error("Could not find '$notify_exe'. Please install it (package libnotify-bin or libnotify-tools). Aborting");