Data protection and privacy claims: how they work

As more and more people are aware of their rights when it comes to data protection and privacy claims, we thought we’d give you a little expert overview as a pioneering firm in this area of law.

There are many ways that you may be able to make a data breach compensation claim, and there can be varying degrees of how people might suffer. It isn’t just about recovering financial losses from fraud and cyberattacks; it’s also about claiming for the distress caused through the loss of control, or misuse, of private information.

With thousands of data breach victims asking us for help over the years we’ve been fighting for justice, here’s a little insight for you.

How data protection and privacy claims work

Data protection and privacy claims for compensation generally arise from the loss of control of, or the misuse of, your personal information.

Your personal information is essentially data that defines you and is about you. It can range from basic things like your name and address, to more private information like your medical history.

Typically speaking, data can be:

• Disclosed without reason or authority, whether intentionally, or by an accidental leak;
• Misused by being unfairly processed, viewed, or used;
• Stolen in a cyberattack or a general security breach.

In each of these circumstances you may be able to claim data breach compensation because your private information has been misused or exposed. What you actually claim for is for the distress caused by the loss of control and / or misuse, as well as for any costs and expenses.

How do we assess data breach claims?

When it comes to pay-outs for data protection and privacy claims, there can be a few things that we will consider.

These can include:

• The volume of data;
• The nature of the data;
• Who has misused the data, and / or who (and how many people) it has been exposed to.

Although each case is different, and we must assess the individual impact on the individual person, you can loosely classify the impact of data breaches based on the information at the centre of a case.

An example of what may be seen as a minor breach could be a person’s email address being hacked from an online retailer. What could make the breach worse is that if banking and payment card information was also included in the breach.

What could be worse than that is if a person’s medical data has been leaked. Medical data breach compensation claims are one of the most common types of cases that we take forward.

But, it can all be circumstantial, and a good example of this is the 56 Dean Street Clinic leak that we’re representing people for. That leak resulted in names and email addresses being leaked, but it was from a sexual health clinic, and the email was for patients with HIV. As such, just a name and an email address has actually disclosed some of the most private and sensitive data there can be; a person’s HIV status.

Group actions and individual claims

Data protection and privacy claims can be made up of both individual claims, whereby one person has had their information leaked as an example, or it could be that thousands of people’s data has been hacked.

We represent people for both types of claims. Our lawyers are helping thousands of people for individual claims, and we’re representing victims in dozens of different data group and multi-party actions.

One of the big ones at the moment is the huge BA Group Action that we have been appointed to the Steering Committee for.

Free advice for data protection and privacy claims

Our team are more than happy to offer you free, no-obligation advice when it comes to data protection and privacy claims.

With the world getting more and more digitalised, we’re more than likely going to see the number of legal cases continue to rise.

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