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    Customers, on average claim £4,000 from incidents of data breach

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The biggest data breachesData breaches have been increasing both in terms of number and the amount of people affected. Many big companies have been affected resulting in some very large scale breaches and compensation pay outs.

Click a company to view more information about their breaches

Ticketmaster logo for data breach

Ticketmaster

  • £4,000+ Typical claim value

  • Number of records compromised

    40,000

  • Date

    Between February and June 2018

What happened?

A hack occurred in which the personal and financial details of Ticketmaster customers were stolen by cyber criminals. The information stolen by the hackers was all information that, in the wrong hands, could be misused for fraudulent purposes.

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Virgin media logo red for data breach

Virqin media

  • £5,000 Typical claim value

  • Number of records compromised

    900,000

  • Date

    Between April 2019 – 28 February 2020

What happened?

A Virgin Media database containing the personal details of 900,000 people was left unsecured and accessible online for 10 months.

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easyJet logo 3

EasyJet

  • £4,000+ Typical claim value

  • Number of records compromised

    100,000+

  • Date

    2020

What happened?

You could claim compensation worth thousands if your data was affected by the EasyJet hack that occurred in 2020.

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What Is a Data Breach?

A data breach is defined as the exposure of sensitive or confidential information to an unauthorised person, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

The person committing the breach can be a hacker, violating your private information for personal reasons or for the sake of a bigger entity. In some cases, the offender may not be a professional hacker at all, but rather just a grudging acquaintance of yours.

If a company that holds your data ends up giving it to an unauthorised party without your permission, this is also considered a data breach.

As you can see, any one of us can be subjected to a breach. Thus, we must try our hardest to protect our information, starting by understanding why and how a data breach occurs in the first place.

 

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Can I Make a Data Breach Compensation Claim?

Due to the high frequency of data breaches, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into place in 2018. The GDPR aims at protecting individuals and giving them control over their data in case a third party holds it. The third party here applies to social media platforms, online services, or offline retailer.

The GDPR’s laws state that you can make a data breach claim if you believe that your data has been breached. However, you must first attempt to reach an amicable agreement with the defendant, aka the third party, outside the court.

If the defendant declines your demand or you can’t settle things outside court, you have the right to take the matter to the court and make a legal claim. But bear in mind that you have to let the defendant know that you intend to take the claim to court.

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Data breach in figuresClaims on data breach incidents are happening every day

  • 51%

    Of consumers expect financial compensation if their information is lost or stolen

  • 99%

    Of UK citizens have had a data breach and can claim thousands of pounds in compensation

    The UK has a population of nearly 70 million people

    Start My Claim 100% Safe & secure, no win no fee check

  • 88%

    Of data breaches in the UK are said to be due to human error and warrant compensation

What Is a Data Breach Compensation Claim?

A data breach claim is a claim you can make against an individual, an entity, or a number of defendants. In the claim, you state the defendant to be a responsible party for the exposure of your sensitive information, demanding financial compensation for the damages.

The current law allows you to make a claim for the material damage of the breach, like losing money, and the non-material damage, like suffering from distress and anxiety.

How Much Data Breach Compensation Can I Receive?

The amount of data breach compensation varies according to the type of the breach and the court judgment. 

These are some of the typical compensation ranges:

£900 – £25,700

The lowest compensation goes for the mild breach of personal data, such as your name, date of birth, home address, and email address.

You get a bigger compensation for the breach of medical information, starting from £2,000 to £5,000. You can get from £3,000 to £8,600 if your financial information is breached, depending on the complications of the breach.

You can get from £8,600 to £25,700 for the more serious data breach cases that have led to serious consequences. 

£25,700 – £42,900

If the data breach has caused any sort of physical or mental diseases, your compensation can amount to £42,900. However, in such cases, you must provide evidence for your medical condition and your financial losses.

It’s important to note that these estimates aren’t fixed; it’s left for the court to decide your exact compensation award. In some cases, the court may deny your demand for compensation if it sees that you’ve not provided enough evidence for your case. It might even order that you pay for the defendant’s costs in such a case.

This is why we always recommend that you seek advice from an independent legal entity.

 

When are you eligible for data breach compensation?

Under the DPA and GDPR, you are entitled to file a data breach claim for up to £2,000 or more in compensation if:

  •       Your personal data has been leaked, disclosed, corrupted, hacked, mis-used, or lost
  •       The breach was deliberate or due to negligence
  •       The breach occurred within less than six years
  •       You have not suffered economic loss; you can still claim for the emotional impact the breach has had in your life
  •       The company has offered you a free credit monitoring or anything similar

 

What do you need to show before making a claim for data breach?

For your claim to be successful you will need to demonstrate that the company that held your data failed to take all appropriate steps to ensure the safety and security of your data and that, as a result of their negligence, your data was released or made available to other, third parties or organisations without your consent. Any company that is holding your data has certain obligations with that data and a claim can be made if:

  • The breach could have happened as a result of the data being lost or hacked.
  • Released to a non-related party without your consent.
  • The information held by the company hadn’t been updated and the inaccuracy of this caused you damage. This could relate to financial details of your life for example.
  • Personal information had been used in an inappropriate manner.

 

What is the average compensation amount for breach of the Data Protection Act?

The average compensation for breaching the Data Protection Act is between £1,000 and £42,900. In some cases, you might be able to claim more compensation for a personal data breach that causes you significant emotional distress. The following figures can be used as a rough guide to how much compensation you could receive as a result of different types of breaches. 

Type of breach Possible compensation amount
Breach of a person’s name, date of birth, home address, and email address £1,000-£1,500
Breach of medical records £2,000-£5,000
Breach of financial information £3,000-£7,000
Breach that leads to an illness or depression (medical evidence would be needed to support this alongside evidence to show any other losses e.g., earnings) £25,700-£42,900

 

How much have previous data breach claimants received in compensation?

The amount of money that data breach claimants have received in compensation has increased over the years. Initial breaches of the Data Protection Act typically only won about £2,500 in damages related to the disclosure of personal information. However, as companies have been collecting more private data, more cases have been going to court and leading to more precedents being set. 

The majority of data breach claims are settled outside of court, but the amount of money that is agreed on is normally informed by cases that are similar in nature. 

Company What happened? Average claim amount
Easyjet A cyber-attack on Easyjet’s IT systems allowed hackers to access personal data of 9 million customers £2,000
118 118 Money Customer call recordings in which personal details could have been discussed were targeted by hackers  £1,500
Blackbaud Cyber-attack stole sensitive information at software giant Blackbaud that affected other companies linked to them including National Trust £2,000-£3,000
Bounty Disclosed personal data of pregnant women and mums to third parties for marketing purposes, almost 35 million pieces of data revealed £1,000 – £2,000
Bristol City Council An email error by council employee saw identities of hundreds of families with disabled children shared without their consent £2,000-£3,000
British Airways  A hack occurred in which 420,000 customers personal and financial details were stolen Up to £6,000
Claire’s Accessories A hack via malicious code that obtained customer information during online checkout £3,000 – £5,000
Dixons A hack that saw over 10 million customer records accessed by malicious software on tills in stores £1,500
Equifax Cyber criminals accessed Equifax systems in USA and stole personal information of 146 million people worldwide £1,000 – £2,000
Equinti Hundreds of annual benefit statements for Sussex police officers were sent to wrong addresses £1,000 – £2,000
Hockley Medical Practice Medical data of thousands of patients accessed by hackers £3,000
Lloyds Pharmacy Private medical documents were accidentally delivered by a courier company to a home in Scotland £1,500
LOQBOX Hit by a cyber-attack that allowed hackers to access personal data and in some cases payment card data £4,000
Marriott Cyber-attack occurred in 2014 but wasn’t discovered until 2018 affected 7 million guest records in UK £2,500
National Trust Breach originated at Blackbaud, but National Trust fundraisers and volunteers were affected as personal data exposed £2,000-£3,000
OnePlus Information hacked through online store; personal data accessed by cyber criminals £1,500 – £2,000
T-Mobile Breach affected over 1.2 million of prepaid customers, hackers accessed personal information £1,500 – £2,000
TeamSport Accidental release of hundreds of personal and financial details of former employees to an individual £4,000
Ticketmaster 40,000 customers personal and financial information stolen by cyber criminals £5,000
Twitter A bug inside Twitter led to the private tweets of 88,726 users being made public £1,000
Virgin Media An unsecured database meant personal information of existing and potential customers was accessed without permission £5,000
Watford Community Housing  Error by staff member meant email was sent out with information about 3,545 tenants containing personal data £2,000
Zoom Targeted by a hack that led to around 500,000 user accounts appearing for sale on the dark web £2,500


All compensation amounts are estimates/averages and are dependent on the degree to which the individual has been affected by the data breach. 

 

Has any of the following ever happened to you? Read carefully as we don't want you to miss out

  • Your data was lost, stolen or hacked
  • Your data was inaccurately stored or out-of-date
  • Your data was held longer than required
  • Your data was used outside of its stated purpose
  • Your data was made public
  • Your data was disclosed without your express permission
  • Your data was maliciously disclosed
  • Your data was used to obtain credit cards fraudulently

If any of the above apply to you, you should check for compensation online right away

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Frequently Asked Questions

What Can You Do If Your Data Protection Is Breached?

First, you’ll need to find out what kind of data has been affected, and what steps the organisation plans on taking to help you. If the association fails to repair the damage or to give you compensation for the damage done, then, you can reach out to Data Breach Claims.

Data Breach Claims will connect you with the kind of expertise the situation calls for. It’ll put you in contact with claims experts who will act as an intermediary between you and the company being claimed against.

You can also report your case to the ICO who will investigate the matter and potentially fine the organisation. They won’t give you compensation, but their findings and assertions will help the matter greatly.

What Are Data Protection Breaches?

If your data is breached, that means that your personal information has been accessed, altered, lost, destroyed, or shared with an unauthorised person without your consent. It’s basically a failure of the system that is intended to protect. That could happen to individuals, companies, or even the government itself.

When Can I Make a Data Protection Breach

If you suffer any damage whether it’s material, or emotional because of a data protection breach, then you have a right to make a claim and require compensation. Claim?

What Is a Personal Data Breach?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) describes a personal data breach as a violation of secure or confidential personal information by an unauthorised party. The personal data may be lost, misused, stolen, or destroyed. This covers both accidental and deliberate breaches of data.

An example of a personal data breach is when an unauthorised third party like a hacker gains access to your data. Another data breach example is the loss of availability or alteration of your personal data without permission.

Can I Make a Personal Data Breach Claim?

Suppose you’ve been victim to a security violation, meaning your personal information has been violated, copied, stolen, destroyed, or transmitted by an organisation. You have the right to claim compensation for a data protection breach.

When Do I Need to Notify about a Personal Data Breach?

Under the GDPR, notifications are generated when the breach of personal information is believed to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals. However, this process is optional and not mandatory. Therefore, not all data breaches need to be notified to the authorities.

What Information Must a Personal Data Breach Notification Have?

Under the GDPR, there are some points to be included in the notification. When reporting a personal data breach, you must describe the nature of the breach, including, if possible, the categories and the approximate number of data subjects and data records concerned.

How Can I Determine if My Personal Data Was Stolen?

If there’s a data breach affecting your personal information, an organisation is obligated to inform both you and the ICO.

The organisation should clarify in plain language:

  • Consequences of the said data breach.
  • Measures taken to handle the breach and its adverse effects.
  • Contact details of the officer in charge of data protection in the company.

If you think that your personal information has been violated due to a data breach but haven’t been notified by the organisation involved, contact them straight away.

What Compensation Could A Data Breach Solicitor Claim On My Behalf?

A data breach solicitor will work on your behalf to secure the maximum GDPR breach compensation to which you are entitled. This would include not only compensation for any financial losses, but also due to any distress caused by the data breach.

Examples of financial impact might include losses incurred as a result of cybercriminals applying for credit cards or setting up fraudulent bank accounts using your stolen data or even gaining access to your own existing bank accounts. Even if the breach has not led to any specific financial loss to you, you are still entitled to claim compensation for the distress, worry and inconvenience resulting from the data breach.

How do I know if I have a valid data breach claim?

An organisation is required under GDPR to inform you if they have breached your personal data in any way, and typically the first you might hear about it would be an email from the company concerned. Despite this, you may not know about a data breach by a particular company until you hear that they have been fined by the Information Commissioner’s Office ICO.

When you contact us, we’ll get in touch with the company in question and use any information available from the ICO to establish whether your data has been breached.

I've suffered no financial losses as a result of the data breach, can I still make a claim?

If an organisation has failed to protect your data, you are entitled to claim compensation regardless of whether you have suffered any losses or not. We can make a claim on your behalf for anguish or anxiety caused by a data breach, but if you have suffered financial harm as a direct result of the breach, the amount of compensation you might be able to claim would likely be far greater.

What Are Some Data Breach Examples?

We’ve seen multiple high-profile cases over the years. The results of these were enormous. Let’s talk about some of the biggest data breaches that have occurred:

LinkedIn

Back in 2012, the popular social media platform, LinkedIn, was hit by a huge computer data breach. As if this wasn’t scandalous enough, LinkedIn, at the time, reported that 6.5 million accounts have been compromised. In 2016, however, the hackers admitted to breaching 167 million accounts, exposing their credentials. 

While the hackers were caught and imprisoned, the data they stole still remains on the dark web; they had sold it to a Russian forum. As a result, LinkedIn advised its users to change their passwords if they haven’t already since 2012.

 

Dubsmash

If you were active on social media between 2017 and 2018, you probably know how the video-messaging app, Dubsmash, was one of the hottest trends. Well, in 2018, a data breach compromised the data of 162 million Dubsmash users.

The hackers were able to get hold of users’ email addresses, usernames, dates of birth, and passwords, then sold them to Dream Market, a dark web market. Later, the information was sold to other websites.

Dubsmash hasn’t confirmed the number of the breached accounts or how the breach occurred, but it still advised users to change their passwords. 

Dixons Carphone

Dixons Carphone is a British electrical and telecommunications retailer. In 2018, it was hit by what would be announced as the biggest online data breach in the UK. The data breach affected 10.2 million customers and compromised their personal data.

As a result of this huge breach, Dixons Carphone was fined £500.000, which is the maximum fine for such cases. 

UK Government

The UK government has suffered from thousands of data breaches from August 2019 to July 2020, according to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. The breaches hit several governmental institutions.

These institutions include the NHS Digital, where the data of 38 people, including employees and patients, was breached. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) also presented 181 notifications of data breaches throughout that period.

How much will it cost me to make a data breach claim?

We work on a No Win, No Fee basis, so this means that if your claim is not successful, you will not owe us a thing. Only in the event of a successful compensation claim would you be required to pay us a percentage of your settlement, so there is absolutely no risk involved in making a data breach claim.

Can a solicitor help confirm I was one of those affected by a data breach?

When you contact us, we’ll put you in touch with an expert data breach solicitor who will be able to contact the company in question and use any information you have provides plus that available from the ICO to establish whether your data has indeed been breached.

Can I still claim even though I’ve suffered no financial losses as a result of the data breach?

It’s not just financial losses that are taken into consideration when it comes to data breach compensation. If an organisation has failed to securely store your data, your data breach solicitor can claim for any distress that has been caused to you as a result of the data breach.

How Data Breach Claims Can Help You with Your Compensation Claim?

If you’re determined on going to court, you should have legal support. At Data Breach Claims, we’ll help you determine whether you have a strong case or not. If it’s a yes, our team will introduce you to the best and most suitable solicitors and claims management companies for you.

The experts will give you solid legal advice and help present your claim to the court to guarantee you get the compensation that truly makes up for the hardships you had to go through.

If you've seen all that you need to see, we ask Why use us?

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