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Royal Agricultural University Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide – How Much Compensation Can I Claim? – Amounts For Royal Agricultural University Data Breach

Your Right To Claim If Impacted By A Breach Of Data Protection At A University

Universities keep and use the personal information of staff, alumni, financial supporters and students for many reasons. For example, communication through email, phone or letters can be crucial to your experience with them. But what happens if someone misuses your personal data? This guide explores what could justify data breach claims against the Royal Agricultural University. We’ll also discuss what you can do following a breach of data protection.

There are recent privacy laws that give you (a data subject) control over how others use your data:

  1. Data Protection Act 2018
  2. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

These laws require those who hold your personal information (data controllers) to protect your data and use it only as necessary. Whether intentional or not, if someone—inside or outside the organisation—misuses your data, it could be a breach of data privacy law.

Royal Agricultural University data breach claims guide

Royal Agricultural University data breach claims guide

In the event that the data protection breach poses a risk to you, the data controller must inform you, report it to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), carry out an investigation and possibly be fined. 

Additionally, you could make a data breach compensation claim. If you suffer psychological or financial damage because of the university data breach, you could be awarded compensation to reflect what you’ve endured.

Legal Expert could help you if you can prove you were the victim of a privacy violation. Our team of advisors can put you in touch with our data breach solicitors. 

Alternatively, if you’d simply like to find out more about what you read in this guide on what a data breach at the Royal Agricultural University means, call us on 0800 073 8804. You can also write to us by clicking here or chat with us now using our live chat. 

Our advisors provide free legal advice and are ready to take your call or live chat message any time, any day.

Select A Section

  1. A Guide On Data Breach Claims Against The Royal Agricultural University
  2. What Are Breaches In Data Protection At The Royal Agricultural University?
  3. GDPR Breach Complaints
  4. Types Of Breaches In Data Protection At Universities
  5. What Percentage Of Breaches In Data Protection Affect Universities?
  6. University Cybercrime Claims
  7. What Compensation Could I Be Owed?
  8. Settlement Calculator For Data Breaches At The Royal Agricultural University
  9. Am I Owed Compensation From My University?
  10. No Win No Fee Data Breach Claims Against The Royal Agricultural University
  11. Begin Your Case
  12. Related Guides 

A Guide On Data Breach Claims Against The Royal Agricultural University

As an employee, alumni or student of a university, you may come across a privacy notice or data sharing agreement when asked for personal information such as your contact, bank or equality and diversity details. This is because, under privacy laws, data controllers like a university must:

  • Tell you why they need your personal information.
  • Let you know how they’ll use it.
  • Request your permission to use it. (They don’t always need your consent, however.)

An example of creating awareness of how data is stored for former students is the privacy notice on RAU’s Alumni and Development Office database site. It explains where and how they store the information and who can access it, as well as providing an ‘opt-out’ choice.

Data controllers must also take steps to protect your data, for example through IT security and cyber security. We discuss the concept of data protection and potential events before and after a data breach by universities in this guide.

We explore what could be meant by data breach claims against the Royal Agricultural University. To do this, we look at examples of breaches at universities and statistics related to the use of personal data. We also provide information on what and how you could claim if you are subject to a privacy breach. This guide also includes a table so you can see how solicitors may value compensation for psychiatric injuries.

Time Limit for Claims

If you’re eligible to claim, you have a time limit of 6 years from the date you obtained knowledge of the breach. However, this is reduced to 1 year if it led to a breach of your human rights.

Our solicitors would usually advise taking action as soon as possible due to time limits. It’s also generally easier for you to remember the facts surrounding your case if the event was recent. 

Our data breach solicitors offer a No Win No Fee service for claims they accept. Use our live chat or freephone on the number at the top of the page to speak to our advisors, who can connect you to our solicitors or can give you more information on limitation periods.

What Are Breaches In Data Protection At The Royal Agricultural University?

Before the introduction of GDPR, if (hypothetically) you had heard there was a Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester data breach or a breach at any university, you may have considered it to be the result of malware, a virus, ransomware or spyware. Though a cyber attack can cause a data breach, the GDPR acknowledges and attempts to protect you from other causes of personal privacy breaches.

For example, if a university employee took a copy of your passport for onboarding purposes and printed it but didn’t correctly dispose of the paper, someone could access it without your consent. If someone were to take your information from that paper, that would be a data breach. They could exploit the information and cause harm and the data controller could be held responsible.

Data breach claims against the Royal Agricultural University or any university could involve past or present students, employees or financial supporters.

A data breach occurs when your personal information is unlawfully:

  • Lost
  • Destroyed
  • Accessed
  • Changed
  • Disclosed

If you give your permission for any of the above to happen to your personal data, it would not be a data breach. There are also instances where a controller does not legally need your consent to use your data: in life-threatening situations where your medical records should be shared, for example.

Breaches of data protection at any organisation could be carried out by someone inside or outside the institution accidentally or deliberately.

Blackbaud Data Breach

In 2020, the Blackbaud data breach affected many universities. Blackbaud is a cloud computing provider for educational institutions, nonprofits and other bodies. Cybercriminals were able to hack the provider’s systems and stole and ransomed personal data. Blackbaud paid the ransoms and the attackers allegedly destroyed the data.

Following such a data breach, the data controller should:

  • Inform the ICO.
  • Begin an investigation.
  • Let you know what happened and how, and what personal information was exposed.

If you suffered a data breach at any university, you may find that they took the above steps. Whether or not data controllers take these steps, you could claim if you suffer due to a data breach. Call our advisors to find out more. They provide free legal advice and you’re under no obligation to use our other services.

GDPR Breach Complaints

Potential criteria for making data breach claims against the Royal Agricultural University could involve non-compliance with the GDPR. These regulations came into force in 2018 in the EU and have been integrated into UK data privacy law.

Royal Agricultural University data protection guidelines or policies should align with the GDPR. As a data controller, the university should follow these GDPR principles:

  1. Process personal data lawfully, fairly and tell you why they’re processing it.
  2. Gather data from you for permissible reasons.
  3. Only hold or use the minimum, necessary information.
  4. Make sure the data is accurate and they keep it updated.
  5. Hold data for no longer than they need it for.
  6. Ensure they store data and process it securely and privately.

Potential breaches of the GDPR at the Royal Agricultural University, or any other university, may require reporting to the ICO and could have further consequences. This is illustrative of how GDPR changed the landscape of data privacy for data subjects.

If you can’t find an answer to your question in this section on potential Royal Agricultural University GDPR breaches, feel free to contact us by calling or sending a message through our live chat. You don’t have to proceed with our services after talking.

Types Of Breaches In Data Protection At Universities

In this part of our guide to what data breach claims against the Royal Agricultural University might possibly entail, we look at the University of Greenwich. The university was fined £120,000 for breaching data protection regulations.

In 2004, a student and academic from the Computing and Mathematics School (CMS) created a microsite for a conference. The microsite included a form that allowed delegates to upload papers by public URL. Nobody removed or updated this function after the conference. The microsite was compromised in 2013 and suffered a cyber attack in January 2016 that resulted in attackers accessing databases held on the webserver.

Around 19,500 data subjects had their personal details posted on a separate site. The attackers compromised 3,500 of these people’s sensitive information, including staff sickness records and extenuating circumstances relating to mental health.

In June 2016, the university found out about the breaches and informed the ICO. Though the university had not been aware of the microsite, they were the data controller. They were responsible for the breach of data privacy throughout the institution. Because they didn’t carry out adequate IT security or cybersecurity measures to prevent the breach of data protection, the ICO fined them.

Following a university data breach, those who have their sensitive data exploited may especially suffer. When breaches cause mental suffering that you can prove, you could claim. You could also claim if you’ve suffered financially. To find out more, contact our data breach claim advisors. The number is at the top of the page.

What Percentage Of Breaches In Data Protection Affect Universities?

As you read this guide concerning whether data subjects can make data breach claims against the Royal Agricultural University, we understand that you may be wondering how universities look at protecting personal information.

Jisc (formerly Joint Information Systems Committee) is a not-for-profit company that provides digital technology and resources to higher education, further education and research sectors. Their annual cybersecurity survey was sent out in the summer of 2020. It found that:

  • 72% of higher education respondents marked phishing/social engineering as their top threat.
  • Second to this, they were concerned about ransomware, malware and cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

Another 2020 report based on the results from Freedom of Information requests found that:

  • 54% of respondent universities had to report a data breach to the ICO in the past 12 months.
  • 46% of staff hadn’t had data privacy training in the last year.
  • Just 51% of universities provide security training (such as computer security and network security) to students.

Source: https://www.redscan.com/media/The-state-of-cyber-security-across-UK-universities-Redscan-report.pdf

Evidently, though universities may be aware of the seriousness of data protection, staff and student training has room for improvement.

It may be an idea to check your awareness too. A possible concept for a data breach could involve a breach of a data-sharing agreement or the terms of a privacy notice that leads you to suffer.

If a data breach caused your suffering and you can prove it, send a message to an advisor through our live chat. Because an advisor is available at any time of day, we can speak with you whenever you’re ready.

University Cybercrime Claims

In this section of the guide relating to what could constitute data breach claims against the Royal Agricultural University, we examine how cybersecurity attacks happen and prevention methods.

In late 2019, the Government released a report assessing the threat of cyber attacks on UK universities. It listed the main two threats as:

  1. Cybercriminals wanting financial gain.
  2. Nation-states trying to get personal information and intellectual property, such as research, for tactical advantage.

The second threat was all too real in 2020 when hostile states attempted to hack British universities for Covid-19 research.

To prevent a Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester data breach, or a breach at any university, the government report recommends:

  • Giving and maintaining security awareness for staff and students alike.
  • Providing strict network access controls.
  • Dividing high-value research.
  • Having security policies.
  • Having as secure a computer network design as possible.

To find out what preventative measures there are for a data breach at the Royal Agricultural University, we recommend you read their university data breach policy or guidelines.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/03/hostile-states-trying-to-steal-coronavirus-research-says-uk-agency

What Compensation Could I Be Owed?

We’ve now looked at whether data breach claims against the Royal Agricultural University are possible. Following a successful data breach claim, your compensation should reflect what you have suffered.

For example, if you’ve suffered financially and psychologically, you could claim for both. If you’ve suffered one or the other, you could also claim.

Material damages compensate you for the financial loss you’ve endured because of the privacy breach. You would need to prove these losses. You should take time to consider whether the theft of your financial details will affect you in the future, as you could recover the costs.

Non-material damages compensate you for psychological harm that you wouldn’t have experienced had there not been a data breach. You could also claim compensation if the breach worsened a pre-existing mental health condition.

Consider how a potential data breach could affect your health, finances and whether the results could be permanent. This could be important in any data breach claim.

Our guide to the potentialities of a Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester data breach may not cover everything you seek to know about compensation. Read the section below to find out more, call us or use our live chat on this page for free legal advice.

Settlement Calculator For Data Breaches At The Royal Agricultural University  

This section of our guide to understanding data breach claims against the Royal Agricultural University focuses on how professionals calculate non-material damages.

We can’t calculate the financial damage possible breaches of data protection at the Royal Agricultural University could cause because that is unique to you. Some may not experience any financial damage. That’s why, following the case of Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc [2015], it was decided that compensation should be given if there’s no financial damage, but there is psychiatric injury.

The parameters in the table below are based on the Judicial College Guidelines. They outline potential compensation estimates in personal injury claims. (The JCG is a publication that solicitors may use to help them when valuing injuries.)

Edit
Injury Type Severity Compensation Bracket Further Details
Psychiatric damage Less severe Up to to £5,500 For minor psychiatric injury, the amount of the award will take into consideration what aspects of daily life were affected and how long for.
Psychiatric damage Severe £51,460 to £108,620 For the highest brackets of compensation, factors such as the impact on claimant’s handling of relationships, their job or ability to function determine the award.
PTSD Less severe Up to £7,680 For minor effects, the claimant will have mostly recovered and if there are any remaining symptoms, they will not significantly impede on the claimant.
PTSD Severe £56,180 to £94,470 For the highest brackets of compensation, effects will involve permanency in that the claimant’s prognosis wouldn’t allow for full mental health recovery.

To be sure that your solicitor achieves an accurate compensation valuation, you would need to attend a medical assessment as part of the claims process. The independent medical professional’s findings could prove that the data breach worsened or caused your psychological suffering.

If you find that our guide relating to Royal Agricultural University GDPR breaches misses nuances of your case, give us a call. Our advisors give free legal advice. And, there’s no pressure on you to use our services after talking.

Am I Owed Compensation From My University?

Now that we’ve defined the process of possible data breach claims against the Royal Agricultural University, you may be considering what you can do next. Those who choose to make a claim through a solicitor may want to find an expert suited to their case.

With the digital era upon us, solicitors are able to work on your case from anywhere in the country. This means that you have a wealth of talent at your fingertips but doesn’t negate the necessity to make sure you have found a quality solicitor. We recommend you check online reviews to see if the lawyers:

  • Are reliable and good at communicating.
  • Don’t settle for anything below what you deserve.
  • Have a history of successful cases.

If you’d like our advisors to do the work for you, they can connect you with our data breach lawyers so you can get the representation that is suitable for you. If you’re unsure, take a look at Legal Expert’s reviews or simply call our team on the number at the bottom of the page for free legal advice.

No Win No Fee Data Breach Claims Against The Royal Agricultural University

In this part of our guide to breaches of the GDPR at the Royal Agricultural University, we consider what options those uneasy about financial risk have.

No Win No Fee agreements can be beneficial if you’re unable to fund a solicitor yourself or are worried about the risk of losing your case along with money. Under such an agreement:

  • If your case loses, you don’t have to pay your solicitor fees.
  • There are no upfront solicitor fees.
  • There aren’t any ongoing solicitor fees.
  • If your case wins, you pay a success fee to your solicitor. The law limits this to a small amount.

Our data breach solicitors offer such services. To talk through your case with a solicitor and ensure that making a claim would be reasonable, call us on the number at the bottom of the page or use our live chat feature.

Begin Your Case

Now that you have read about elements surrounding Royal Agricultural University data protection, you have an opportunity to get in touch with us to ask any questions. You get free legal advice without needing to commit to using our services when you contact us through any of the methods below:

Our friendly advisors are on-hand 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. They give truthful advice on how strong your claim might be because they understand that your time is valuable. Should a solicitor take up your case, they will handle it as a No Win No Fee service, meaning they share the risk of your case alongside you.

Related Guides

Below we list sources that relate to our guide on data breach claims against the Royal Agricultural University. Simply click a link to find out more. If, at any time, you think that you would like to talk with an advisor, feel free to get in touch. Our contact details are above.

RAU’s Alumni and Development Office database

Find out more about your data rights as an alumnus of the Royal Agricultural University.

About the ICO

Read about who the Information Commissioner’s Office are, what they do and more, including news and consultations.

Every Mind Matters

The NHS provides a host of support for different mental health needs. Their site could have the advice you’re looking for.

Work-Related Illness Compensation

You could claim for work-related illnesses such as stress or physical illness such as hearing loss. Read our guide to know more.

Professional Negligence: How to Claim

You could claim if a professional has caused you to suffer. Our guide can explain how.

PTSD Claims

If you’ve lived with post-traumatic stress disorder because of someone else’s neglect, read our guide on what you could do.

Solicitors

Our guide to finding a solicitor you like and trust is thorough. It includes tips on what to look out for and how to search.

Other Useful Compensation Guides

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