Data Breaches & Privacy Claims

The GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 provides a legal framework for the collection, use, storage and dissemination of “personal data” and “sensitive personal data”. This legislation is there to protect your information and give you greater transparency over its use.

Under the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, there are two types of data; personal data and sensitive personal data.

• Personal data is identifying information and can include names, addresses, bank details and photographs. There are fewer safeguards for personal data than there are for sensitive data.

• Sensitive personal data can include sensitive health history such as your psychiatric history or gender reassignment, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, sex life, genetic data and biometric data. In most cases a person must be asked specifically if sensitive personal data can be kept about them.

Information relating to criminal convictions and or offences has its own separate special category and has specific regulations on how it’s processed.

Offending organisations

In some cases, organisations may suffer a data leak where multiple people’s data are either hacked or disclosed. Our team represent both individuals and groups in actions against offending organisations. A group action can be beneficial as we work with a whole group of claimants to obtain resolution and compensation.

Request of official information

We’re also able to make group representations in relation to requests for official information, made under the Freedom of Information Act and or the Environmental Information Regulations, held by public authorities.

There’s no right to privacy in English law. However, the torts of misuse of private information and breach of confidence can be used by those whose privacy has been breached.

Private information is information in which an individual is said to have a realistic “expectation of privacy”. Usually what amounts to private information will be clear.

The “misuse” in these claims is typically the unauthorised disclosure (including the wrongful publication) of private information, but can also include the accessing of such information. However, you may not have a reasonable “expectation of privacy” if the disclosed information is already in the public domain (i.e. available on the internet) or if the publication of the information is in the public’s interest.

Information is usually both private and confidential and breach of privacy claims are often brought in both misuse of private information and breach of confidence.