What Is A Claim For A Data Breach At A Sexual Health Clinic?

In this guide we look at when it might be possible to make a claim for a data breach at a sexual health clinic claim. We explore what a data breach is and the legislation in place to help keep your personal data secure. 

Data Breach At A Sexual Health Clinic

Data Breach At A Sexual Health Clinic Guide

The legislation gives data subjects compensation rights. However, eligibility criteria must be met. We look at what you need to prove in order to make a valid claim. 

We also examine examples of human error data breaches. Additionally, we look at what preventative measures organisations can take to protect your personal data. Also, we examine what special category data could be held by a sexual health clinic. 

In addition, we look at examples of potential compensation in mental health damage claims from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). We also explore what financial harm you could experience due to a data breach and how you could recover this money in a claim. 

We conclude with a look at No Win No Fee solicitors. You may find hiring a solicitor helps to ease the claiming process, and we explain how this kind of agreement could help you fund their work. Our advisors can discuss your potential data breach claim 24/7. 

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  1. What Is A Data Breach At A Sexual Health Clinic?
  2. Examples Of Data Breaches At Sexual Health Clinics
  3. What Data Could Be Held By A Sexual Health Clinic?
  4. How Could A Sexual Health Clinic Data Breach Impact You?
  5. What Compensation Could You Get For A Data Breach At A Sexual Health Clinic?
  6. Get Help Claiming For A Data Breach At A Sexual Health Clinic

What Is A Data Breach At A Sexual Health Clinic?

In the UK, we have two key pieces of legislation that help protect personal data. These are the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the regulatory body for data protection in the UK. They define a breach of your personal data as a security incident that affects the confidentiality, availability or integrity of your personal data.

Personal data is any information that can be used to identify you in isolation or when it’s put together with other information. Personal data can also include special category data, which is a kind of personal data that needs more protection because of its sensitive nature. This includes medical records.

Data subjects may have the right to claim compensation after a data breach. Certain eligibility criteria apply:

  • The data controller did not adhere to the legislation. 
  • The data breach included your personal data. 
  • You experienced harm as a direct result of the breach 

Speak to our advisors if you have evidence your data was included in a data breach at a sexual health clinic. They may be able to offer you free legal advice about claiming. 

Healthcare Data Breach Figures

The ICO is an independent body set up to help protect data security. As part of their role, they collect reported data security incident trends statistics. This includes non-cyber incidents in the health sector reported during quarter four of the 2020/21 financial year. We’ve included these statistics in the graph below. 

Q4 2021/22 health sector non-cyber incidents

Q4 2021/22 health sector non-cyber incidents

Examples Of Data Breaches At Sexual Health Clinics

Human error could result in a data breach at a sexual health clinic. It could be prevented if staff are given data protection training. To avoid a verbal disclosure, for example, staff could be taught not to discuss patient details around unauthorised parties. 

Cybersecurity training could be included also. Staff members may fail to use the BCC when sending out emails to multiple recipients, for example, and use the CC function instead. The BCC allows emails to be sent without any of the other recipients being able to see the other email addresses. When using CC while sending an email, recipients can identify the email addresses of everyone who received the email. 

The 56 Dean Street clinic experienced a data breach. This involved sending out a newsletter with email recipients carbon copied (CC) instead of blind carbon copied (BCC). People who visited the clinic could be identified from the list of email recipients. The clinic was fined as a result. 

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36247186

If you have evidence that your personal data was breached, contact our advisors for free legal advice. 

What Data Could Be Held By A Sexual Health Clinic?

Personal data held by a sexual health clinic could include:

  • Name
  • Date of birth
  • Address
  • Email address
  • Phone number

The organisation must inform you without undue delay if a data breach occurs that impacts your rights.  The organisation should inform you:

  • How it occurred
  • Information that was included
  • What they are doing to put it right.

If you’re worried about how your personal data is being used, then you can contact the organisation directly and they will be able to clarify if a breach has occurred and, if so, what data was impacted.

Contact our advisors to discuss the next steps you could take.

How Could A Sexual Health Clinic Data Breach Impact You?

You may experience anxiety after a data breach at a sexual health clinic. Due to a Court of Appeal ruling in the Vidal-Hall and others v. Google Inc. (2015) case, you can now claim compensation for mental health damages alone. Prior to this precedent-setting case, you could only claim for emotional damage if you experienced financial losses as well. We explore data breach compensation in the next section.

Identity theft could occur if, for example, your medical records contain enough information about you.  This could cause distress and make you lose out on money or have your credit score impacted. 

Lost medical records can also be considered to be a data breach. The loss of your medical records may cause you harm. If your medical information has been misplaced, you may not receive invitations to preventative screening tests, for example. 

Contact our advisors should you wish to know steps you can take after a data breach at a sexual health clinic. 

What Compensation Could You Get For A Data Breach At A Sexual Health Clinic?

You may want to know how much a medical data breach claim is worth. In this section, we explore potential compensation awards. As previously mentioned, you can claim data breach compensation even if you do not experience any financial loss. 

Two heads could form a data breach settlement. These are material damages and non-material damages. We examine both in further detail below. 

Material Damages In A Medical Data Breach Claim 

You could recover your monetary losses if you experience financial harm due to a data breach. For example, a clinical data breach claim could be due to identity theft. You will need to supply evidence, such as bank statements, to recover your losses. 

Non-material Damages In A Medical Data Breach Claim

Under this head, you can claim for any mental health damages suffered due to the breach, such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) are used to help assign value to personal injury claims. Legal professionals can now use the same document when valuing mental health damage in data breach claims. The JCG provides a set of compensation brackets listed alongside injuries that could be sustained. 

The table below includes examples from the latest edition, published in April 2022. 

Edit
Injury Severity Potential Compensation Notes
Psychological Injury Severe (a) £54,830 to £115,730 The claimant is unable to deal with life and relationships. The prognosis is very poor.
Psychological Injury Moderately severe (b) £19,070 to £54,830 Although the prognosis is optimistic, the claimant will experience significant problems coping with life and relationships due to the injury.
Psychological Injury Moderate (c) £5,860 to £19,070 The claimant experiences improvements with their ability to cope with life and relationships and the prognosis is good.
Psychological Injury Less severe (d) £1,540 to £5,860 The claimant’s daily life and sleep will be impacted by symptoms for a period of time. The amount awarded will depend on the extent to which this occurred.
PTSD Severe (a) £59,860 to £100,670 All areas of a claimant’s life are impacted resulting in a permanent inability to function at the level as before the trauma.
PTSD Moderately severe (b) £23,150 to £59,860 Symptoms cause the claimant significant disability lasting into the foreseeable future. However, some recovery is possible with the help of a professional.
PTSD Moderate (c) £8,180 to £23,150 The claimant mostly recovers, however, they may experience lingering symptoms, although they don’t cause disability to a gross degree.
PTSD Less severe (d) £3,950 to £8,180 The claimant virtually recovers fully but may experience some minor symptoms beyond 1-2 years.

For more information on how much you could receive in a claim, speak with a member of our team today.

Get Help Claiming For A Data Breach At A Sexual Health Clinic

If you decide to hire a solicitor to handle your clinical data breach claim, you could minimise the upfront costs of doing so with a No Win No Fee solicitor. A Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) is a common kind of No Win No Fee agreement. 

This means that your solicitor will not charge you an upfront solicitor’s fee in order to start work on your case. Your solicitor will take a legally capped success fee out of the award of a successful claim. If your claim isn’t successful, however, your solicitor will not take a success fee. 

Our advisors can discuss with you when making a data breach at a sexual health clinic claim might be possible. You could be connected to our panel of No Win No Fee solicitors if your claim is valid. 

To contact our advisors:

Find Out More About Healthcare Data Breaches

The following links may be helpful:

Further data breach guides:

Thank you for reading our guide on claiming for a data breach at a sexual health clinic. Speak with our team for free legal advice.

Writer IW

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