Start Your Data Breach Compensation Claim Here

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?

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.

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.

When something like that happens, it has the capacity to tarnish the image of the company. That’s because the word gets out quickly when it comes to data breaches. That’s especially the case if a large number of users has been affected.

A recent example is the infamous 2019 Dubsmash data breach, in which 163 million users’ data was stolen and sold on the dark web. In this case, the website was hacked, but there are other incidents wherein the business owner himself is the culprit.

That’s why a lot of companies try to settle the case out of court, so as to avoid bad publicity. That’ll happen as long as you have a strong case, of course. But how to know that?

What Are GDPR Breach Claims?

These are the claims you file when you believe your data has been mishandled in some way. In this case, you could end up with sizeable GDPR compensation.

What’s the Fine for GDPR Breach?

Courts haven’t reached a consensus yet about fixed amounts of compensation. There are many factors that go into determining the compensation. The only clue we have about the exact amount of compensations awarded is previous winning claims.

One of the factors the amount will depend on is how sensitive the information that has been breached. If it isn’t that sensitive, and you haven’t endured a financial loss, the compensation may be up to £2,000.

On the other hand, if it’s sensitive information that has been breached, the compensation will be up to £8,000 and sometimes greater, especially if it concerns particularly sensitive information like your medical data. However, these amounts are awarded if the breach wasn’t intentional, or haven’t caused substantial financial loss.

So, if the damage you’ve sustained is more severe, the amounts can sky-rocket to £30,000 and £50,000. Now, let’s give you a glimpse of what the first steps in your GDPR compensation pursuit might look like

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.