Illness Data Protection Breach – Could I Make A Compensation Claim?

Illness data breach compensation claims guide

Illness data breach compensation claims guide

You may be wondering if you could claim compensation following an illness data protection breach. Information about your illnesses can be deeply personal. So if a medical data breach compromises this information, this can lead to significant effects on your mental well-being, as well as your finances.

Many organisations have access to information regarding your health or illnesses, including:

Read on to find out if you could be eligible to claim compensation following a breach of your medical data. Or, get in touch with our team of advisors to start your claim:

Select A Section

  1. What Is An Illness Data Protection Breach?
  2. How Many People Are Affected By Patient Data Breaches?
  3. What Was The HIV Scotland Data Breach?
  4. How To Claim For An Illness Data Protection Breach
  5. How Are Illness Data Protection Breach Compensation Amounts Calculated?
  6. Why Claim With A No Win No Fee Solicitor?

What Is An Illness Data Protection Breach?

A personal data breach is a security incident. This incident affects personal data and its confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Personal data is any information that could identify you. For example, your name, date of birth, or postal address.

However, information about your illnesses falls under a kind of personal data known as special category data. This is information that needs extra protection under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) because of its sensitive nature. These are the two main articles of legislation that govern data protection for UK residents.

However, not all illnesses data protection breaches will form the basis of valid claims. This is because there are claiming criteria in place under the UK GDPR, which include being able to prove that:

  • The breach affects your personal data
  • It was a result of wrongful conduct on the part of the data controller or processor
  • You experienced harm as a result of the breach

To find out if you could be eligible to make a claim following an illness data protection breach, contact our team of advisors today.

How Many People Are Affected By Patient Data Breaches?

If an organisation commits a data breach that jeopardises the rights and freedoms of the data subject, it should report the breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office. The ICO oversees data protection rights in the UK, and also publishes the number of reported data security incidents in its quarterly data security incident trends.

Illness Data Protection Breach Statistics

According to the ICO, healthcare has the most data breaches of any sector so far in 2022. The health sector made up around 20% of reported data security incidents in 2022, with 851 incidents.

To learn more about making a claim for compensation after suffering harm due to an illness data protection breach, contact our team of advisors.

What Was The HIV Scotland Data Breach?

HIV Scotland is a charity that aims to support and advocate for those who have the illness or are at risk of developing it. In 2021, HIV Scotland was fined £10,000 by the ICO following a data protection breach.

A batch email was sent out to 105 clinic service users without the use of the blind carbon copy (BCC) feature. This allowed the email addresses of all recipients to be visible, 65 of which identified the recipient by name. According to the ICO, these emails allowed assumptions to be made about the recipients’ HIV status.

( Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59008366 )

Contact our advisors to learn more about how a data protection breach could occur or to start your claim today.

How To Claim For An Illness Data Protection Breach

If a breach could affect your freedoms or rights, the organisation responsible must take certain steps. These include notifying the ICO within 72 hours and informing you as soon as possible.

If you do not receive notification of a breach but suspect that your illness data has been compromised, you can contact the organisation yourself. They may then provide more information, such as what information was compromised and how the breach occurred.

If they don’t reply, or if the reply they provide is unsatisfactory, you can make a complaint to the ICO. However, you must do this within three months of your last meaningful contact with the organisation. The ICO can’t provide compensation or handle your claim, but they may investigate the breach and have the power to fine the organisation responsible.

Are You Eligible To Make A Data Breach Claim?

Having your personal data breached does not mean you are automatically entitled to receive compensation. As we mentioned earlier, in order to make a data breach claim, you will need to provide evidence to prove the following:

  • A healthcare organisation’s wrongful conduct lead to a personal data breach that affects your personal data.
  • Secondly, the healthcare data breach caused emotional distress or psychological injuries. Or you experienced financial losses because of the data breach.

For more information on making a claim after a personal data breach, contact our team of advisors.

How Are Illness Data Protection Breach Compensation Amounts Calculated?

Successful claimants can receive up to two heads of claim when they make an illness data protection breach claim:

  • Material damage, which compensates you for the financial impacts of the breach
  • Non-material damage, which is compensation for the emotional distress or mental health injuries you experience

An illness data protection breach can cause a variety of mental health injuries. For example, you may suffer anxiety due to a data breach, distress, or depression. Below, you can find a compensation table illustrating potential compensation amounts for non-material damage awards.

Edit
Injury Notes Compensation Bracket
Mental Harm There is a poor prognosis. The injury has impacted their ability to cope with all parts of life and they may be vulnerable in the future. Severe – £54,830 to £115,730
Mental Harm The person faces significant problems in being able to cope with aspects of life. However, the prognosis is slightly more optimistic. Moderately Severe – £19,070 to £54,830
Mental Harm There is a good prognosis due to the improvement of symptoms by the time of trial. Moderate – £5,860 to £19,070
Mental Harm The impact on daily activities and the length of time affected by symptoms are considered. Less Severe – £1,540 to £5,860
Anxiety Disorder (Reactive) This disorder’s severe and permanent symptoms impact their ability to work or function as they would have before experiencing trauma. Severe – £59,860 to £100,670
Anxiety Disorder (Reactive) The prognosis is good due to the chance of some recovery through professional treatment. Moderately Severe – £23,150 to £59,860
Anxiety Disorder (Reactive) Cases where the person will or has largely made a recovery and remaining symptoms are not disabling. Moderate – £8,180 to £23,150
Anxiety Disorder (Reactive) A virtually full recovery is achieved within 1-2 years, and any symptoms that remain are minor. Less Severe – £3,950 to £8,180

These figures are taken from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), which is a document often used by legal professionals to help them reach settlement amounts. The JCG provides guideline compensation amounts for a number of injuries and illnesses.

Material damage can help you recoup the financial losses the breach may cause. For example, a breach of your credit card details could lead to fraudulent purchases and debt that accumulates in your name.

For a free evaluation of what your claim could be worth, contact our advisors today. Or, for more information on making an illness data protection breach claim, read on.

Why Claim With A No Win No Fee Solicitor?

If you are interested in making a claim for an illness data protection breach, our No Win No Fee solicitors may be able to help. You could receive expert legal representation under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), which usually means that you will not pay any fees or costs to your solicitor unless your claim is successful.

In this case, you will pay a success fee. This is taken as a small percentage of your compensation, though this percentage has a legal cap. To find out if you could be eligible to claim with the help of one of our expert solicitors, get in touch with our team of advisors today:

Related Articles On Data Breaches

For more helpful data breach articles, we recommend:

Or, for more helpful resources:

Thank you for reading our guide to claiming compensation for an illness data protection breach.

Guide by HC

Edited by CH