A Trainee Breached My Personal Data At Work – Can I Claim Compensation?
A Trainee Breached My Personal Data At Work Claims Guide
In this guide we examine what you could do if a trainee breached your personal data at work. Learn about the impact of a data breach on employees and employer data breach compensation eligibility.
We investigate what rights you as a data subject are given under the data protection legislation. Additionally, we explore what defines a data breach. We look at who could be potentially held accountable for a data breach should your protected personal data be included in one. The legislation also sets out specific compensation eligibility criteria should you wish to claim.
Employers hold various personal and special category data about their employees. We explore a few examples and also look at what impact this could have on your life if it is included in a data breach.
To conclude this guide, we explore what a No Win No Fee agreement means. You may wish to claim compensation for a personal data breach at work and may find the process easier with legal representation, which is where a No Win No Fee solicitor could help.
If at any point while reading this guide, you have any questions about what to do following a trainee that has breached your personal data at work, you can speak to our advisors.
To speak to a member of the team:
- Start your claim online
- Use the live chat
- Call 0800 073 8804
Select A Section
- Who Is Accountable If Data Is Mishandled In Your Place Of Work In The UK?
- What Could Be The Impact Of A Data Breach On Employees?
- Types Of Personal Data Handled In The Workplace
- A Trainee Breached My Personal Data At Work – Can I Claim Compensation?
- What Could I Claim If A Trainee Breached My Personal Data At Work?
- No Win No Fee Claims For A Data Breach At Work
Who Is Accountable If Data Is Mishandled In Your Place Of Work In The UK?
As a data controller, your employer is responsible for ensuring that staff with data access are provided with data protection training. A personal data breach is defined as a security incident that could occur accidentally or unlawfully. If a data breach occurred, personal and special category data held by your employer could be:
- Destroyed
- Lost
- Altered
- Disclosed
- Accessed without authorisation.
The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 govern data protection.
Under this legislation:
- Data controllers, typically an organisation, so your employer, is held responsible should a data breach occur due to their failure to comply with data protection legislation. A processor may be appointed to act on behalf of a controller.
- More rights are given to data subjects over the processing of their personal data.
- Additionally, the legislation sets the data breach compensation eligibility. We’ll examine this later on in this guide.
Call us today if a trainee breached your personal data at work.
What Could Be The Impact Of A Data Breach On Employees?
You may experience both financial and emotional harm should a trainee have breached your personal data at work. Additionally, the breach could have included enough personal or special category data for someone to commit identity theft.
You might ask, ‘how quickly should a data breach be reported?’ If your personal data is included in a data breach and this could infringe on your rights, you should be informed without undue delay. Additionally, you should be told what information was included. You could also be told how the breach occurred and what is being done to put it right.
Any communication from your employer regarding your personal data’s inclusion in a data breach could support a data breach claim. Alternatively, if you suspect your personal or special category data was included in a data breach, you could report your suspicions to the organisation. If they’re response is unsatisfactory or they don’t respond, you could report your concerns to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The ICO is an independent authority established to uphold data protection rights. As part of their role, they investigate data breach complaints.
Free legal advice is available from our data breach claims team.
How Many People Could Be Impacted By Data Breaches At Work?
Another part of the ICO’s role is monitoring reported security incident trends across various sectors. The graph below contains data for the fourth financial quarter 2021/22 non-cyber incidents across sectors.
Selected reported non-cyber incidents across sectors, Q4 financial year 2021/22
Types Of Personal Data Handled In The Workplace
If a trainee breached your personal data at work, you may be interested to know what data is protected by the legislation. Data that could be used to identify you is considered personal data. It includes:
- Name
- Address
- Email address
- Phone number
- Bank account and sort code.
The legislation gives additional protections to special category data. This is due to its sensitivity. Your employer may hold some of your special category personal data such as your Trade Union membership, or details of a medical condition you may have.
Get in touch with our advisors 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if you need more information on whether you can claim if a trainee breached your personal data at work.
A Trainee Breached My Personal Data At Work – Can I Claim Compensation?
Article 82 of the UK GDPR sets data breach compensation eligibility. To make a claim valid:
- You must prove that your employer failed to adhere to data protection legislation.
- The breach included your personal or special category data, such as your employer breaching your mental health information.
- The breach caused you harm, either financially or mentally.
If a trainee breached your personal data at work, you might wish to seek legal advice. Even if it was an accidental data breach at work, you still might have a valid claim. A No Win No Fee solicitor could provide their services under the terms of a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). We’ll discuss CFAs further in this guide.
Our data breach claims team can advise on your next steps if a trainee breached your personal data at work. If your claim seems eligible and you wish to proceed, they could put you in touch with a No Win No Fee solicitor .
What Could I Claim If A Trainee Breached My Personal Data At Work?
You might be interested to know how much compensation you could get for a personal data breach. In this section, we examine the two heads that could form an employer data breach compensation claim. These are material damage to recover financial losses and non-material damage to compensate for mental injuries, such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Since the Vidal-Hall and Others v. Google Inc. (2015) Court of Appeal case, the way data breach compensation is awarded changed. Prior to this case, you could only claim for your mental harm if the data breach caused financial losses. This case set a precedent, however, and now, you can claim mental health damages without claiming for financial loss.
Material Damage
Under this head, you could recover your monetary damages. Evidence is required, such as bank statements.
Non-material Damage
If the data breach caused harm to your mental health, such as stress, you could claim non-material damage. To help assign value to your mental suffering, legal professionals will use a document called the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). It provides a list of injuries sitting alongside compensation brackets.
We’ve included figures for psychological suffering from the 16th edition, published in April 2022 below. These are only guidelines.
| Injury | Potential compensation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Severe mental injury (a) | £54,830 to £115,730 | Coping with life and relationships is difficult. Recovery chances are poor. |
| Moderately severe mental injury (b) | £19,070 to £54,830 | There’s been difficulties coping with life, but the prognosis is more optimistic than in a more severe injury. |
| Moderate mental injury (c) | £5,860 to £19,070 | Improvements occur after problems coping with life with a good prognosis. |
| Less severe mental injury (d) | £1,540 to £5,860 | A period of disability occurs. |
| Severe PTSD (a) | £59,860 to £100,670 | Functioning at pre-trauma levels will not return. Symptoms impact all areas of life. |
| Moderately severe PTSD (b) | £23,150 to £59,860 | Professional help allows for some recovery, but the significant disability will last into the foreseeable future. |
| Moderate PTSD (c) | £8,180 to £23,150 | Recovery has largely taken place, but some symptoms may continue. These are not grossly disabling. |
| Less severe PTSD (d) | £3,950 to £8,180 | A virtual full recovery occurs, although some minor symptoms may continue. |
Our data breach claims team can estimate your potential employer data breach compensation.
No Win No Fee Claims For A Data Breach At Work
As stated previously, you may wish to hire the services of a specialist data breach solicitor under the terms of a CFA. You won’t pay an upfront solicitors fee. A success fee is taken from the awards of successful claims instead. If a claim doesn’t succeed, however, there is no success fee to pay. Legal caps apply to the success fee.
Our data breach claims team can advise on the steps to take after a trainee breached your personal data at work. Get in touch 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for free legal advice.
To speak to a member of the team:
- Start your claim online
- Use the live chat
- Call 0800 073 8804
Related Claims Against Employers
The following links might be useful:
Further guides:
