HIV Data Protection Breach – Can I Claim Compensation?

Have you experienced harm as a result of an HIV data protection breach? When your health or medical data is compromised in a personal data breach, this can have serious consequences for both your mental health and your finances.

HIV data protection breach

Can I claim for an HIV data protection breach?

In this guide, we’ll look at how a personal data breach could impact you psychologically or financially. Breaches can occur through many different avenues, from human error to cybercrime. Additionally, we’ll provide you with information on how eligibility works when making a personal data breach claim.

Legal professionals use a text called the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) to help them assign values to compensation claims. Further in this article, we will explore this document and illustrate some guideline compensation brackets. 

Our advisors can provide free legal advice and can tell you if you have a valid claim. If you are found to be eligible, they may connect you with an expert data breach solicitor from our panel. To learn more, get in touch today:

Select A Section

  1. What Is A HIV Data Protection Breach?
  2. Who Could You Make An HIV Data Protection Breach Claim Against?
  3. What Evidence Do You Need To Claim For A Data Breach?
  4. The Bloomsbury Patient Network Data Breach
  5. What Is The Average HIV Data Protection Breach Compensation Amount?
  6. How Do I Begin A Claim?

What Is A HIV Data Protection Breach?

Firstly, a personal data breach occurs when a security incident causes the integrity, availability, or confidentiality of your personal data to become compromised. A data protection breach, on the other hand, occurs when organisations do not comply with data protection legislation. 

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) provides organisations with the necessary steps they must take to protect the data of UK residents. However, not all data protection breaches will form a valid claim.

Under the UK GDPR, there are three main conditions that your claim must meet in order to be eligible to claim. These include:

  • The breach has to contain your personal data – This is any information that could identify you
  • You must experience harm because of the breach
  • The breach must be a result of wrongful conduct on the part of the organisation

The UK GDPR and the DPA are enforced by an organisation called the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). As an independent organisation, they can open investigations and penalise agencies that fail to apply these safeguards. 

Contact our advisors today to learn more about making a claim for an HIV data protection breach.

Who Could You Make An HIV Data Protection Breach Claim Against?

Data protection can be a complex area of law, and you may not be familiar with some of the terms that legal professionals use when discussing claims. Below, you can find some helpful definitions.

  • Data subject – The person who the data refers to
  • Data controller  – The organisation responsible for deciding how and why they should use the data
  • Data processor – The organisation that is responsible for processing the data on the controller’s behalf

You can make a personal data breach claim against the organisation responsible for safeguarding your information. This could be the data controller or the data processor.

To find out if your claim is valid, contact our advisors today.

What Evidence Do You Need To Claim For A Data Breach?

HIV data, and any information pertaining to your health, such as your conditions or your medical records, is classed as special category data. This is a type of personal data, and it means that under data protection law, this information requires extra protection. 

Evidence is an important part of making a personal data breach claim. In order to be eligible to claim, you must be able to provide proof that the breach was a result of wrongful conduct, as well as proof of the harm you suffer. Some examples of evidence that you could provide to help strengthen your claim include:

  • Notification of a breach occurring from the data controller
  • Any correspondence with the data controller or with the ICO
  • Medical records that demonstrate the psychological impact of the breach
  • Bank statements that illustrate the financial impact of the breach

A No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel could help you collect evidence to help strengthen your claim. Contact our team today to learn more.

The Bloomsbury Patient Network Data Breach

The Bloomsbury Patient Network provides support and information to HIV-positive people. In 2014, a staff member did not use the blind carbon copy (BCC) feature when sending a batch email. This allowed the email addresses of 200 people to be viewed by fellow recipients, 56 of which contained their full or partial names. This incident happened twice within the same year.

Following this, the ICO levied a fine of £250 against the clinic.

( Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35131543 )

To learn more about how an HIV data protection breach could occur, contact our advisors today.

What Is The Average HIV Data Protection Breach Compensation Amount?

As all personal data breach claims are unique, there is no average payout for an HIV data protection breach. However, there are still ways in which you can get an idea of what you could receive if your claim is successful.

Data breach compensation can come in the form of two heads. These are material damage and non-material damage. Material damage aims to compensate for the financial impacts of the breach. For example, if your debit or credit card details are included in a breach, this could result in criminals stealing money from your account.

However, non-material damage aims to compensate for the psychological effects of a breach. For example, you may experience anxiety, stress, or depression following a personal data breach. The compensation calculator table below uses figures from the JCG to illustrate what certain psychological injuries could be worth in terms of non-material damage

Edit
Injuries Description of injuries Compensation
Mental suffering: Severe (a) A poor prognosis is determined as a result of severe, permanent effects on the claimant’s ability to cope with daily life. £54,830 – £115,730
Mental suffering: Moderately Severe (b) A much more optimistic prognosis than above, though issues are still severe and long-standing. £19,070 – £54,830
Mental suffering: Moderate (c) There is a good prognosis, which is reflected in an improvement of symptoms by the time of trial. £5,860 – £19,070
Mental suffering: Less Severe (d) Remaining phobias and their affect on daily activities are considered. £1,540 – £5,860
PTSD: Severe (a) Severe, permanent effects cause the claimant to be unable to function as they would have pre-trauma. £59,860 – £100,670
PTSD: Moderately Severe (b) With professional help, some recovery can be made. However, there is still likely to be some disability. £23,150 – £59,860
PTSD: Moderate (c) The persistent effects of this disorder aren’t disabling, with the recovery still moving forward. £8,180 – £23,150
PTSD: Less Severe (d) As the recovery has been made within 1-2 years, some minor effects may continue. £3,950 – £8,180
Further damage Loss of earnings and additional financial impacts £100k +

In past cases, non-material damage was only available to those already claiming material damage. However, since the case of Vidal-Hall and Others v Google Inc [2015], this has changed. You may not claim for non-material damage with material damage or alone.

Our advisors can provide a free consultation for your claim, in which they can tell you if it is valid and how much you could receive should you succeed. Get in touch today to learn more.

How Do I Begin A Claim?

If you are looking to begin your claim for an HIV data protection breach, our panel of solicitors can help.

Conditional Fee Agreements (CFAs) fall under the umbrella of No Win No Fee arrangements and can help provide you with a means to fund legal representation. What this means is that you won’t be paying any upfront fees or costs for the solicitor’s services. 

If your claim succeeds under a CFA, you will pay a success fee. This is a percentage of your compensation that will be agreed upon with your solicitor before you begin your claim. However, if you do not succeed, this fee is not paid.

Our advisors can connect you with a solicitor from our panel if they find your claim to be valid. To learn more or to get free legal advice surrounding your claim for an HIV data protection breach, you can:

References

For more helpful guides, you may be interested in:

Or, for access to more resources:

To learn more about how to make a claim following an HIV data protection breach, get in touch today.

Writer ZS

Checked by HP