If you receive a data breach notification that confirms that your information has been potentially misused or exposed, it is important to take action and claim compensation with us as Specialist GDPR Solicitors.
Read on for some advice, and make sure to contact us for free, no-obligation legal help about pursuing compensation here now.
What to do if you receive a data breach notification
If you receive a data breach notification that confirms that your information has been potentially misused or exposed, it is important to take vital steps to protect yourself immediately. Firstly, you should be issued with advice by the organisation who has informed you about the data breach, which should include information about what exactly has been potentially exposed. If any information is financial then you would be wise to contact your banks as a matter of urgency to receive advice from them about what steps you may need to take to protect your accounts.
Another key consideration is whether any passwords and user information have been involved. It is strongly recommended that you do not reuse passwords across multiple platforms because it only then takes one password to be compromised for several of your accounts to be affected. If you have reused passwords that are involved in a data breach, you would be wise to change your passwords as a matter of urgency after a data breach.
Another important thing to do after you receive a data breach notification is to be vigilant and keep an eye on any contact you receive by phone, text and email. It could be that your personal details are being used by scammers who are attempting to contact you to obtain further information or try to direct you to fraudulent websites.
In the aftermath of a data breach, it is quite common for people to notice increases in spam contact. In some severe cases, such as after the TalkTalk cyberattack of 2015, some victims were contacted by people who claimed to be from TalkTalk who had information about their accounts. That is a particularly sinister form of scam that people need to be very aware of.
Finally, it would also be wise to keep an eye generally on your accounts for any potentially suspicious activity.
How to take legal action for compensation
If you receive a data breach notification confirming that your information has been misused or exposed, it is also important to know what legal action you can take. The GDPR can entitle the victim of a data breach to claim compensation for any distress that has been caused by the loss of control of personal information. As such, if you suffer distress and this has arisen from negligence and a breach of the GDPR, you could be owed thousands of pounds of compensation.
The best thing to do is to contact our team for free, no-obligation legal advice here now to find out if we are able to represent you for a legal case on a No Win, No Fee basis.
Data breach compensation amounts in the UK
When it comes to data breach compensation amounts in the UK, different law firms are recovering different amounts, and we know that some law firms are recovering way less than we are. What we can tell you is that our average data breach compensation settlement amount for us as a firm is just over £6,000 in damages alone. We can also tell you that it is not uncommon for us to recover over £10,000 when it comes to particularly personal and sensitive information being involved, such as medical data breach claims.
Hopefully, this shows you that it is well worth pursuing a case, particularly when we can work on a No Win, No Fee basis.