A council has shared your information: do you have case?

If a council has shared your information without consent, or inappropriately, you may be eligible to make a claim for compensation on a No Win, No Fee basis.

Council data breach compensation claims are one of the most common types of individual legal cases that we take forward for people. Unfortunately, they can happen a lot, and the impact can be severe given the nature of the information that they store and process.

If your data has been shared and you did not agree to it being shared in the way that it was, or at all, we may be able to help you. We can offer free, no-obligation advice as a leading firm of consumer action and data breach compensation specialists.

When can you claim if the council has shared your information?

You could be eligible to make a claim for compensation if a local authority or a council has shared your information inappropriately or without proper consent.

You have the right to control who processes and stores your data, and who it can be shared with. Your information should not just be shared without good reason or without proper consent from you. Whilst there can be exceptions, in most cases, it should be up to you in terms of how you want your data to be used.

Cases of consent breaches and data leaks can often happen for councils and local government authorities. In a recent example, York City Council reportedly sent out account details and addresses for small businesses that had applied for grants to other recipients in error. This appears to have been a simple but avoidable breach, which many of them like this are.

What can you claim for?

If the council has shared your information, you may be eligible to receive compensation for the loss of control of your personal information. Data breach compensation values can then be based on the extent of the impact to you, and this can be determined by factors such as:

• The nature of the information shared;
• How much data has been shared;
• Who data has been shared with;
• The personal impact for you.

The personal impact can differ from person to person, but factors like those above can be useful for valuing a claim for compensation. We have represented people for incredibly serious cases where sensitive data has been shared with abusive ex-partners or relatives, and this has led to huge problems for the victim. The impact of a case like this can never be underestimated, and victims deserve their right to justice.

How do you make a claim?

To make a claim for data breach compensation if a council has shared your information inappropriately, or without proper consent, you can instruct a law firm to help you.

Data breach claims have only become more prevalent over the last couple of years. We, however, have been representing clients for a lot longer than most other firms, with our privacy cases dating back to 2014. We launched our first data breach group action way back in 2015. As such, we represent thousands of clients and our experience is far greater than many others out there. This makes us a proven leading firm in the industry, which is why we’re involved in over 40 data actions and are approved for insight from the media a lot.

You can speak to our team today for free, no-obligation advice about your options here.

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