Council and local authority data breaches

Council and local authority data breaches can have a significant impact on those who are affected, which is why we can represent victims on a No Win, No Fee basis.

Your Lawyers, as leading privacy compensation experts, may be able to represent you for a case now, and all you need to do is speak to our team for free, no-obligation legal advice here now.

Claiming compensation for council and local authority data breaches

Victims of council and local authority data breaches could be entitled to pursue compensation using the GDPR. The GDPR is not just there to govern best practices, policies and procedures in relation to information management in the UK, it is also there for victims to use in the event something goes wrong. When it comes to councils and local authorities, there is a lot that can go wrong, given the volume of information that they store and process, and the nature of it. From personal details, to financial data, and even medical and sensitive domestic information, there is a lot that could be misused or exposed.

Local authority data breaches that lead to claims for compensation usually need to involve some form of negligence on the part of the council. This could be the accidental disclosure of data, or the leakage of information in correspondence, or even data being exposed in a cyberattack. Ultimately, winning a case can come down to the simple question of whether there was more that a council or local authority agency should have done to have prevented the breach from occurring in the first place.

The easiest way to find out if you could be entitled to pursue a case is to contact our team for free, no-obligation legal advice here now.

Council email data leaks – a common occurrence

One of the most common reasons for council and local authority data breaches is that of email data leaks. So many of these events have happened, where councils have sent mass emails to groups of people using the “CC” function instead of the “BCC” function. This methodology for mass mailing should not be used at all, given there is plenty of readily available software that organisations can use. However, despite this fact, plenty of councils have still tried to use this archaic way of issuing mass communications, and it only takes one simple error to get it very wrong.

When all the recipients are “CC’d” into the email rather than “BCC’d”, they can see each other’s data. In some cases, this could be seen as a minimal data breach where it is names and email addresses that have been exposed. However, it is important to consider the context of a breach: if the recipient list is receiving an email in relation to domestic violence, or for needing financial help, this kind of email data leak could essentially expose sensitive information about people, given the context. This is one of the most important things to consider, and why council email data leaks can have such a significant impact on those affected.

Snooping incidents in the public sector

Snooping incidents in the public sector have been a real problem over the last few years, and the UK’s data regulator – the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – has issued plenty of prosecutions to employees who have engaged in such activity. Unfortunately, with increasing digitisation comes increasing ease of access to information. Whilst this can be good to make sure that services provided are the best they can be, you can also allow unauthorised and inappropriate access, unless data access is properly managed.

Snooping on information can amount to a crime, and it can also lead to the victims pursuing claims for compensation on a No Win, No Fee basis.

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