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U.S. appeals court split over whether victims can claim for ‘fear of damage’ from data breaches

Although this story is from the U.S., we keep a close eye on American data protection affairs as our laws can be similar, and cases and challenges can reflect on how we may see the law here.

In this big news story from the States, a recent federal appeals court in the U.S. have said that claimants can sue defendants who breach their data protection obligations for ‘fear of damage’, even if no actual damage has occurred. This can make sense, as the damage could be done at any point in the future; but this decision moves away from one Supreme Court case that said claimants needed to prove a risk of “imminent” and “concrete” injury to bring a claim.
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Recruitment manager pleaded guilty for sharing personal information belonging to job applicants

A recruitment manager at HomeServe Limited was prosecuted when it was discovered he’d been sharing personal information belonging to job applicants to a third party employment agency.

According to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), the 39-year-old recruitment manager “sent copies of 26 CVs containing the personal data of applications seeking employment with HomeServe to an external recruitment firm, without a business need to do so”.

This is a clear breach of data protection laws.
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Another NHS worker fined by the ICO for accessing and disclosing information from medical records

On the 11^th August 2017 yet another NHS (now former) worker was fined by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for accessing sensitive health records belonging to family, friends and colleagues without authorisation.

She even disclosed information she found.

Brioney Woolfe worked at Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust as a Midwifery Assistant. The self-confessed ‘nosy’ midwifery assistant reportedly accessed 29 patient medical records, including the parents of her children’s school friends.
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NHS data breach reportedly compromised personal data for hundreds of staff

The Health Service Journal has revealed that the NHS has suffered yet another data breach; this time compromising the personal data of hundreds of staff.

Information about hundreds of junior doctors was reportedly published online in error. The NHS has been plagued by so many data breaches that it doesn’t seem like such a surprise to hear about this story. The healthcare sector is a goldmine for data breaches for a range of reasons, like the value of medical records, as well as the general sensitivity of medical information as well.
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Colossal confidential data breach reportedly throws Swedish government into panic

Sweden’s government is under fire for a huge data breach that may have compromised highly sensitive information of almost all of their citizens, including the identities of military personnel.

The shocking data breach was reported by Swedish national newspaper, Dagens Nyheter. The disclosure was made when the newspaper reported that former director general of the Swedish Transport Agency, Maria Agren, was reportedly fired at the beginning of the year for mishandling sensitive information, and fined $8,500 failing to follow data protection laws.

The head of IT at the agency shamefully admitted that “the keys to the kingdom” had been given away.
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TalkTalk fined £100,000 for putting 21,000 customers at risk of scams and fraud

As if the £400,000 fine last year was not enough, TalkTalk has been slapped with a £100,000 fine for reportedly breaching data protection laws over customer information.

Unlike the last fine which came off the back of countless customers’ information being exposed after a malicious hacking, TalkTalk is being fined for an alleged lack of information security, leaving customer data “open to exploitation by rogue employees.”

TalkTalk employees reportedly have access to a great deal of information, heightening the need for internal security measures.
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ICO cautions NHS staff against illegally accessing patient medical records

The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has specifically reminded NHS staff not to access patient medical records without proper reason and / or proper authority. Illegally accessing, obtaining and/or disclosing patient medical records without permission is not only a violation of patient data protection rights, but also exposes the wrongdoer and the NHS to legal action and costly fines.

This latest ICO warning was prompted by a recent case where a former health care assistant accessed medical records belonging to several patients without a valid reason. Over a period of a year and a half, Brioney Woolfe reportedly accessed patient files belonging to 29 individuals, including her family members, colleagues and other patients.
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Data breaches in the U.K. retail sector doubled in one year

Data breaches are continually increasing at an alarming rate, and U.K. retailers are a prime cause for data breaches and leaks.

Statistics show that in 2014/15, U.K. retailers reported 17 data breaches. The next year, it increased to 19. However, 2016/17 has seen a sudden spike of 38 reported data breaches, with no signs of slowing down.

These data breaches aren’t just malicious hackers attacking databases, but also include employees accidentally leaking or losing information.
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Facebook pulls plug on artificial intelligence after robots create their own language!

Facebook pride themselves on being at the forefront of technology and communication. The massive corporation has around 2 billion users and owns a range of other global social media platforms, like Instagram.

Billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly been working on the next step in technology: artificial intelligence (AI). However, it seems like humans may have dabbled a bit too much and a bit too quickly as developers had to shut down testing after the robot AIs they created started to “invent” their own language.
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Provident Personal Credit Limited fined £80,000 for sending a million nuisance texts over six month period

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has concluded investigations into a Bradford-based credit loan company after 285 complaints were made over unwarranted ‘nuisance’ text messages.

Provident Personal Credit Ltd reportedly employed third party vendors to send 999,057 text messages to promote their services. The text messages were unwarranted as the recipients had not agreed to receive such correspondence for marketing purposes.
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