Data breaches by local authorities have unfortunately become very common. Where a council or a body under the council’s authority, such as social services, has breached your data, you may be eligible to make a claim for compensation for any financial loss or distress suffered as result of the breach.
Given the sensitive nature of some of the information local authorities hold about us, an unauthorised disclosure of that information can have an extremely detrimental impact on the lives of those affected by the data breach.
Examples of data breaches by local authorities include:
- Failure to redact personal sensitive information and sharing it with people who should not have access to that information
- Disclosing personal information to the wrong person
- Deliberately disclosing personal information to third parties
- Obtaining and sharing personal information without consent
- Publishing personal information without consent
Councils will commonly retain the following types of personal data:
- Name, address, date of birth, ethnicity, gender
- Medical information
- Financial information
- Education records
- Family information
- Criminal history
This information is used, legitimately, by councils to perform their functions as a local authority. This is to provide health and social care services, to protect the public interest, and to protect individuals by safeguarding adults or children.
But councils and local authorities have a duty to protect and secure our personal data, and to ensure that its employees are properly trained to handle our personal information in line with data protection legislation.
If you believe your data might have been breached by your local authority, please get in touch today and one of our data protection solicitors will let you know whether you can bring a claim.