Spire Healthcare Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide – How Much Compensation Can I Claim? – Amounts For Spire Healthcare Data Breach
My Data Privacy Was Breached By Spire Healthcare, Could I Make A Claim?
If any of your personal information is compromised without your consent, regardless of whether this was deliberate or accidental, then you’ve suffered from what’s commonly referred to as a data breach. Whether your personal information was accessed, leaked, disclosed or destroyed, if your data was entrusted to an organisation that failed to protect it, then you could make a claim against them for any suffering that they’ve caused you.
This article aims to provide a comprehensive guide on how to make a claim against private healthcare organisations, particularly concerning a Spire Healthcare data breach.
Whether you’re interested in learning how to establish liability for your data breach or calculating how much compensation you could be entitled to as part of your claim, please continue reading to find out more.
Alternatively, if you’d like to save yourself the hassle and risk associated with making a claim yourself, why not get in touch with our specialist team at Legal Expert today? Our solicitors can handle your claim for you, with their years of legal experience giving your case the best chance of success.
To see how we could help you, please speak to one of our specialist advisors for a free consultation on your situation. You can find out whether you have grounds for a valid claim and be connected with one of our solicitors who can start handling your case on a No Win No Fee basis right away.
We’re available 24/7 to take your call, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch today:
- Call 0800 073 8804
- Complete a contact form
- Email info@legalexpert.co.uk
- Use the chatbox on your screen
Select A Section
- A Guide to Data Breach Claims Against Spire Healthcare
- What Is A Data Breach By Spire Healthcare?
- The GDPR And Medical Data Security Breaches
- How A Private Medical Service Provider Could Breach Data Protection Law
- Examples Of Data Breaches By Private Healthcare Organisations
- How To Report A Healthcare Company To The Information Commissioner’s Office
- What Could Be Claimed For A Breach Of Medical Data?
- Healthcare Data Breach Compensation Calculator
- No Win No Fee Data Breach Claims Against Spire Healthcare
- Find A Lawyer Who Handles Claims For Data Breaches
- Speak To A Solicitor
- Quick Extra Resource
A Guide to Data Breach Claims Against Spire Healthcare
In order to help you understand your rights after falling victim to a data breach through no fault of your own, we’ll begin by firstly familiarising you with some relevant definitions. This includes explaining what’s meant when we refer to data and describing what a data breach involves.
In addition, we’ll provide you with some principles of data protection practices outlined in UK law to help you determine whether your data may have been unlawfully handled, resulting in a possible Spire Healthcare data breach.
Next, we’ll talk about the different types of data that a healthcare provider may collect from you and why. We’ll then discuss some common causes of data breaches and present a case study of a real data breach experienced by a private healthcare organisation to help illustrate how a Spire Healthcare data breach could occur.
Following this, we’ve recommended some steps that you could take in the case that you’ve fallen victim to a data breach. These include directly contacting the organisation responsible to raise your concern, and reporting your data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for them to investigate.
In terms of claiming for a Spire Healthcare data breach, we’ll outline the different types of damage that you could seek compensation for and discuss how much you could be entitled to for your suffering.
We’ll then provide you with some of our top tips on how to give your claim the best chance of success, including the benefits of making your claim on a No Win No Fee basis and how a solicitor could maximise your compensation settlement for you.
Alternatively, a free consultation with one of our specialist advisors could tell you everything that you need to know about making your Spire Healthcare data breach claim today. So, whether you have any queries about the information you’ve read in this guide or you’d like to see how our team at Legal Expert could help you, please get in touch.
Limitation Periods
If you’re considering making a Spire Healthcare data breach claim, we’d like to first ensure that you’re aware of the relevant time limits that apply. If you wait too long before taking legal action, then you risk losing out on the compensation that you deserve as your grounds for a claim could expire.
Generally, you have up to 6 years to make a data breach claim. For cases involving a breach of your human rights, this time limit is reduced to just 1 year before you’re no longer entitled to compensation.
If you’re interested in finding out whether your claim is still valid according to its limitation period, please get in touch with one of our specialist advisors today for a free assessment.
What Is A Data Breach By Spire Healthcare?
In order to help you understand your rights after falling victim to a Spire Healthcare data breach through no fault of your own, we’ll begin by firstly familiarising you with some relevant definitions. In this section, we’ll explain what’s meant when we refer to data and describe what a data breach typically involves.
Any of your personal information that has the ability to act as an identifier, whether that be directly or indirectly, is referred to as data. For example, details like your name, address, date of birth and phone number, as well as your financial information and medical records could all be used to identify you.
If any of your personal information is compromised without your consent, regardless of whether this was deliberate or accidental, then you’ve suffered a security incident that’s commonly referred to as a data breach.
Whether your personal information was accessed, leaked, disclosed or destroyed, if your data was entrusted to an organisation that failed to protect it, then you could be able to make a claim against them for any suffering that they’ve caused you.
If you entrusted your data to an organisation and they failed to protect it, you could be able to make a claim against them for any suffering that they’ve caused you as a result of your data breach.
Please continue reading our guide to making a Spire Healthcare data breach claim or get in touch with one of our specialist advisors today to talk about your situation and see how we could help.
The GDPR And Medical Data Security Breaches
According to UK data protection legislation, organisations must follow certain practices to ensure the privacy of their subjects’ personal information. If they’re found to have acted in breach of these regulations and compromised this data as a result, they could be penalised as a result or face limitations on how they can interact with data in the future.
As of 2018, the UK enacted the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) into its legislation. The DPA uses the key principles of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as a framework for its data protection rules, informing how UK organisations can and can’t interact with data. As a result, an organisation must have your permission before it handles any of your data and must do so according to the following principles:
- Data processing must be fair
- Data must be securely protected
- Data on file must be regularly updated
- Data must not be kept for longer than necessary
- Data must only be used for purposes that the subject has consented to
- Data must not be transferred to countries without their own data protection regulations
If an organisation suffers a data breach and your personal information could be impacted as a result, then they’re required to alert you of this within 72 hours. If you find yourself in this situation and you believe that Spire Healthcare’s failings were responsible for your data breach, you could be entitled to compensation for any suffering that they’ve caused you. However, supplying evidence of the breach and the harm caused will be crucial to the success of any case against them.
To find out more, please get in touch with one of our specialist advisors at Legal Expert today and see how our solicitors could help you make a claim.
How A Private Medical Service Provider Could Breach Data Protection Law
In this section, we’ll discuss some common causes of data breaches in private healthcare environments to help illustrate how a Spire Healthcare data breach could happen.
As you may know, your medical records hold a lot of personal information about you. From your name, date of birth and contact details to health-related information, this makes medical databases a lucrative target for cyberattacks.
In such instances, hackers make it past security measures in place to infiltrate medical databases, seeking enough information to benefit them financially, whether that be through theft, selling data on the dark web, or even identity fraud.
On the other hand, medical data breaches can also be caused by those responsible for protecting your data. In deliberate instances of a data breach, your personal information may be accessed by a member of staff without authorisation to do so. Alternatively, human error is a common cause of data breaches, with examples such as:
- Documents containing your data left in view of others
- Communications or correspondence containing your data being missent to another recipient
- Improper storage of your data, making it easily accessible to those without authorisation
Examples Of Data Breaches By Private Healthcare Organisations
To further illustrate how a Spire Healthcare data breach could happen and what action could be taken, this section will present you with a real case study of a data breach in a private healthcare setting.
In June 2020, Babylon Health experienced a data breach which exposed patients’ confidential information.
The company had recently developed an app to allow consultations with doctors, therapists and other health professionals to take place over video calls during the Covid-19 pandemic, to limit face-to-face contact over lockdown. However, one user discovered that they were able to watch video recordings of consultations with other patients, which could be accessed in a subsection of their profiles.
Once Babylon Health was alerted of this error in their app, it was resolved within 2 hours. Despite having over 2 million users, it’s thought that only 1 patient’s consultation recording was accessed without authorisation.
Babylon Health described the incident as a software failure rather than a cyberattack and reported the security issue to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/10/babylon-health-data-breach-gp-app-users-able-to-see-other-peoples-consultations
How To Report A Healthcare Company To The Information Commissioner’s Office
If you’ve fallen victim to a Spire Healthcare data breach and you believe that the organisation was responsible for it, this section will outline some steps that you could take.
Firstly, you could get in touch with the organisation directly to address your concerns with them. We would advise you to outline how you’ve been affected by your data breach and state that you would like to be compensated for the suffering that they’ve caused you. Any response that they give could be used against them if it contains an admission that they breached data protection regulations, thereby supporting your claim against them.
Furthermore, you may wish to raise the issue of your data breach with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is an independent organisation that can investigate data protection practices if you report them within 3 months of your data breach. They aim to ensure that data protection laws are being adhered to and have the power to punish non-compliance with fines and other such sanctions.
If they find the organisation in question to be liable for your data breach, then this could further evidence your claim against them. However, ICO decisions simply act as guidance to organisations, meaning they can’t provide you with compensation regardless of their findings.
What Could Be Claimed For A Breach Of Medical Data?
In making a claim for a potential Spire Healthcare data breach, there are two types of damage caused that you could be compensated for—material damage and non-material damage.
- Material damage attempts to recover any financial losses that your data breach may have resulted in. If someone without authorisation gained access to your bank details, you could be at risk of theft or even an identity fraud crime. Either of these things can cause irreparable damage to your credit rating and can cause lasting problems.
- Non-material damage aims to account for any psychological harm that your data breach may have resulted in for you. If your privacy has been violated, this could cause you to suffer mental distress. This could also have an impact on wider aspects of your life, such as trouble sleeping or functioning as normal as you did before your data was breached.
If you’d like to learn more about how compensation for data breach claims is calculated, please see the next section of this guide or get in touch with one of our specialist advisors today for a free assessment of your circumstances.
Healthcare Data Breach Compensation Calculator
Whether you’ve suffered from financial losses in the wake of your data breach or experienced mental distress as a result, you could be entitled to compensation for either of these types of damage as part of your possible Spire Healthcare data breach claim.
In the past, data breach claims required financial losses to have been caused in order for any compensation to be given. However, this all changed after the ruling of Justice Mitting in 2015 in the case of Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc. There it was held that mental harm caused by a data breach can now be compensated, regardless of whether or not the claimant incurred any financial losses.
Therefore, you could be able to claim for non-material damage regardless of whether you suffered any material damage.
Justice Mitting also held that compensation for non-material damage in data breach claims can be calculated in the same way that personal injury claims are, using estimated settlement brackets from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) as guidance.
For some examples of how much compensation you could be entitled to for non-material damage, please see the table below:
| Suffering | Severity | Compensation | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) | Less severe | Up to £7,680 | You will make a full recovery within 1-2 years, with any persisting symptoms only being minor. |
| Psychiatric Damage | Moderate | £5,500 to £17,900 | You will demonstrate a marked improvement and have a good prognosis. |
| Psychiatric Damage | Less severe | £1,440 to £5,500 | You will find daily activities difficult and experience sleeping problems as a result of your mental health, but your prognosis will be positive. |
As indicated in the table above, the exact amount of your compensation is valued according to the extent of your suffering. To assess this, your solicitor will send you to be medically assessed by an independent expert. They’ll examine how they believe the data breach to have impacted your life, looking at wider aspects that may have been affected such as your relationships, work and general quality of life.
If you’re looking for a more immediate estimation, we’d advise you to avoid using a tool like a personal injury compensation calculator. These tools generate generalised figures rather than accurate estimations, as they don’t consider factors that make your case unique.
Instead, why not get in touch with one of our specialist advisors at Legal Expert today for a more accurate assessment? We can tell you how much compensation you could be entitled to, free of charge, and there’s no obligation for you to continue if you don’t want to.
No Win No Fee Data Breach Claims Against Spire Healthcare
Many data breach victims are put off from making a claim by the financial risk associated, even if they know that someone else was responsible for their suffering. If you find yourself in this situation, then a No Win No Fee agreement may be the solution to your worries.
Here are some key benefits in case you’re unfamiliar with this type of agreement:
- You pay your solicitor nothing if they don’t win your case for you
- There are no upfront costs or hidden fees to pay at any point of your agreement
If your solicitor wins your case for you, then you’ll owe them what’s commonly called a ‘success fee’ to cover their legal costs. This would be deducted from your compensation award. However, to ensure transparency, this is a nominal percentage of your compensation that’s outlined in your agreement before you sign it. In addition, it’s capped by law so you still get the maximum compensation that you deserve.
Find A Lawyer Who Handles Claims For Data Breaches
Finding a solicitor to handle your potential Spire Healthcare data breach claim could improve your case’s chances of success, with their knowledge and expertise helping you win the compensation that you deserve.
To find the best solicitor for you, you could ask family and friends for recommendations, visit your local high street to find a firm near you or look through online reviews to see which service is most recommended.
Alternatively, why not head over to our reviews page to see how our past clients recommend our services? To learn more about us and our service, please see the next section of this article.
Speak To A Solicitor
If you’ve suffered from a Spire Healthcare data breach and you’d like to save yourself the hassle and risk associated with making a claim yourself, why not get in touch with our specialist team at Legal Expert today? Our solicitors can handle your case for you, with their years of legal experience giving your claim the best chances of success.
To see how we could help you, please speak to one of our specialist advisors for a free consultation on your situation. You can find out whether you have grounds for a valid claim and be connected with one of our solicitors who can start handling your claim on a No Win No Fee basis right away. We’re available 24/7 to take your call, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch today:
- Call 0800 073 8804
- Complete a contact form
- Email info@legalexpert.co.uk
- Use the chatbox on your screen
Quick Extra Resources
As we conclude our guide to making a Spire Healthcare data breach claim, we’d like to thank you for reading. We hope our advice has given you a better understanding of how you could successfully secure the compensation for your suffering that you deserve.
If you’ve found our guide useful, we’d like to reiterate how our team at Legal Expert could help you make a successful claim. So, please get in touch today or take a look at some of the additional resources provided below:
Private Hospital Claims Guide – here you’ll find a more detailed guide on how to make a claim against a private hospital.
Claim Limitation Periods – this page provides everything you need to know about time limits for claims.
No Win No Fee services – if you’d like more information about how a No Win No Fee agreement could benefit you, please click this link.
For full access to the UK’s and the EU’s relevant data protection regulations, please see the links below:
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Other Useful Guides
- Redditch Borough Council Data Breach
- Regents University London Data Breach
- Robert Gordon University Data Breach
- Roehampton University Data Breach
- Royal Agricultural University Data Breach
- Royal Free Hospital Data Breach
- Rugby Borough Council Data Breach
- Salford City Council Data Breach
- Scarborough Borough Council Data Breach
- Solent University Data Breach
- South Tyneside Council Data Breach
- Southampton City Council Data Breach
- Southend-on-Sea Borough Council Data Breach
- My Personal Data Has Been Lost After a Breach, What Are My Rights?
- St Albans Council Data Breach
- St Marys University Twickenham Data Breach
- Staffordshire University Data Breach
- Standard Chartered Data Breach
- Sutton Coldfield Council Data Breach
- Swindon Borough Council Data Breach
- School Data Breach Compensation Claims
Guide by Mavers
Edited by Billing
