Information sharing without consent: legal advice

Information sharing without consent or proper and informed consent can amount to a breach of important data protection laws like GDPR, and it may allow a victim to make a claim for compensation.

Information is being shared all the time, and some organisations are still hiding behind their privacy policies and terms and conditions which don’t always make matters too clear. One of the biggest problems is information being shared for marketing purposes, and people then being hounded by aggressive sales tactics. When it comes to confidential and sensitive data like medical information, we don’t want it shared for obvious reasons.

If your information has been shared without your consent, what can you do about it?

You rights when it comes to information sharing without consent

Information sharing without consent can amount to a breach of GDPR, or where an incident took place prior to May 2018, the Data Protection Act.

There have been many instances where organisations have accidentally shared data without proper or full consent, and it’s often with third-party companies they work with. They still need your permission to share such data, so any sharing without proper consent can still be a breach.

Even the collection of data without proper consent can also be a breach. One of the dozens of group action cases we’re representing people for fits into this category; the We-Vibe data breach.

When can you claim?

You may be eligible to make a claim for data breach compensation if you’re the victim of information sharing without consent in some cases.

What we need to look at to assess if we can offer you No Win, No Fee representation is:

• Whether there was any clear and informed consent for the sharing;
• Who the information has been shared with and for what reasons;
• What data, and how much of it, was shared.

If you are distressed as a result of the data sharing, you may then be eligible to make a claim. Although organisations guilty of sharing information without consent are often quick to remind people that no compromise of systems has taken place, victims can still suffer distress form this kind of incident.

Claiming compensation for information sharing without consent

If we consider that your potential case for information sharing without consent is strong enough to be able to take a claim forward, we may be able to represent you.

Data breach compensation amounts are one of the first things that we consider. If the nature of the incident, coupled with the level of distress suffered, is serious enough, that’s when we may be able to take a case forward.

British Airways group action: join today!

Unlawfully accessing personal data and compensation claims