Serious Bristol City Council data breach

A serious Bristol City Council data breach has occurred, revealing the names of hundreds of disabled children as well as the email addresses for primary care providers.

A spokesperson for Bristol City Council has said that there will be staff training and improved systems and policies put into place to prevent any similar breaches from occurring in the future. We question why such measures were not already in place, and it has been suggested that the breach was the result of employee error.

We know how scary it is to have such sensitive data breached, and we can help you make a compensation claim to get you the justice you deserve.

About the Bristol City Council data breach

The Bristol City Council data breach reportedly involved the exposure of the identities for hundreds of disabled children. It happened when an email was sent out by the council to hundreds of other parents to request information about their views regarding a new support service. It is understood that the email contained the names of the disabled children affected, and also included the email addresses for the primary care providers.

This event is a significant breach of private information, and the fact that the Bristol City Council data breach involves particularly vulnerable people is a further cause for concern. According to the BBC, one parent reportedly confirmed that there were 487 names of children and their carers visible on the email she received, and her email only included the names between H and L. This could give us an insight into exactly how big this breach could be and how many disabled children will be affected by the Bristol City Council data breach.

Breaches of this nature are concerning as the victims whose private and sensitive information has been exposed can be at high risk of potential malicious attacks or email phishing scams. This is notwithstanding the fact that losing control of this kind of information can be distressing in any event.

Reaction to the data breach

One parent told BBC news that the Bristol City Council data breach is a “fundamental breach of trust”, and said that, ”it really signifies the disdain that they have for families with disabled children. It’s such a lack of concern for us. I feel this really exemplifies their indifference to the plight of disabled children in Bristol.”

In response to the data leak, a spokesperson for Bristol City Council said:

“We are aware a breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has occurred and we have been in contact with those affected and have apologised. Where staff have made a mistake the matter is addressed as a training issue, and where there have been failures in policy or process any necessary changes are made to reduce the risk of a similar incident occurring in the future.”

Make a compensation claim now

If you have been a victim of the Bristol City Council data breach, you could be eligible to make a compensation claim with us today.

You can speak to a member of our legal team now for free no-obligation advice about your potential claim.

As a leading firm of data breach compensation specialists, we are pioneers in data breach actions and have been representing people for privacy matters as far back as 2014. We have launched over 50 group and multi-party actions and have a seat on the Steering Committee for the first GDPR Group Litigation Order (GLO) action in England and Wales, the BA data event compensation action.

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