The Information Commissioner’s Officer has reported details of a fine to Digital Growth Experts Limited (DGEL).  The company received a fine of £60,000 as a consequence of sending nuisance communications during the outbreak of the pandemic. During the period 29 February 2020  – 30 April 2020, a total of 17,241 text messages were sent out, 16,910 received.  The messages were promoting a hand sanitiser which claimed to be “effective against COVID-19”. The texts were sent out to people who had [...]

Being involved in a Police incident is already a very stressful time in your life. To then be informed that the Police have not protected your data causes further unnecessary worry and distress. The Police have a duty of care to protect us but all too often our data is not being looked after as well as it should. We have been contacted many times by clients whose personal data has been breached by the Police force dealing with their [...]

We are often contacted by individuals whose confidential medical data has been breached. Such data breaches are not widely reported in the media because their impact is not widespread, but for the individuals concerned the data breach can be extremely unsettling. Medical data is extremely sensitive – and might include details of conditions you would prefer not to reveal to another person, such as mental health issues or sexually transmitted infections for example. This is why a data breach of [...]

Now the lockdown has been lifted in part, the Government wants to keep track of customers and participants in potentially risky indoor environments for spreading the virus. So you will be asked to give your contact details when you visit restaurants and pubs, hairdressers, tailors, museums and possibly places of worship and community centres.  The date and times of attendance will also be logged. You will not be asked to provide proof of ID unless it is standard practice (such [...]

1 July 2020 Social media platform, Twitter, has revealed details of a data breach. Twitter became aware of the data breach on 20 May 2020 and an email has been sent to customers whom use the platform for advertising. Twitter has advised customers who hold Twitter Ads and/or Analytics accounts, that their personal data may have been stored for longer than it should have on the web browsers cache. This means, the personal data used by Twitter customers to log [...]