How To Make A Claim For A Trade Union Membership Data Breach

This guide helps you understand what you need to know on claiming trade union membership data breach compensation.

A guide on claiming after a trade union membership data breach

If you are considering making a data breach claim, this guide also explains the compensation you could seek. We also give you an idea of what your trade union membership data breach claim may be worth and how to connect to data breach solicitors if you need legal support.

If you need support, do not hesitate to call our advisors for free legal advice where we will show you your options. They can also connect you with our panel of data breach solicitors to help you pursue compensation. Ways to reach us:

Call us free on the number at the top of the page
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Choose A Section

Guidance On Claiming Compensation For A Trade Union Membership Data Breach
What Is A Trade Union Data Breach?
Examples Of Data Breaches Involving Trade Unions
How Much Could I Get For A Trade Union Membership Data Breach?
Steps To Get A No Win No Fee Agreement
Further Information About Trade Union Data Breaches

Guidance On Claiming Compensation For A Trade Union Membership Data Breach

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 require that personal data is kept private. Personal data, or personal information, is data that can be used to identify you. What’s more, the law provides for you to make a claim if you suffer harm due to a data breach that was the fault of an organisation that was supposed to protect it.

Organisations that process personal data or decide why and how it is processed have a responsibility to protect it. Data controllers are organisations that make decisions on data processing and may also process personal information. They sometimes hire other parties called data processors to process personal data on their behalf.

Examples of personal data include:

Name
Home address
Date of birth
Email address
Phone number
Bank account number

Personal Data Breach: Special Category Data

There is some personal data that is seen as more sensitive. It’s known as special category data. Consequently, special care is to be taken to protect data that falls in this category. For instance, you could suffer prejudice from your employer if it becomes public that you belong to a particular trade union. Examples of special category data include:

sex life and sexual orientation
trade union membership
racial or ethnic origin
religious or philosophical beliefs
political opinions
genetic data
biometric data (for ID purposes)

A trade union membership data breach and other special category data breaches can have a bigger impact and cause more damage. The effects can be permanent as people’s views of you can change. For instance, you may not have chosen to reveal your membership in a particular trade union.

If a data breach happens because of an organisation’s wrongful conduct, it could lead to a claim. For example, if a data controller or processor failed to protect your personal data because of substandard online security systems, you could seek compensation. However, you’d need to show that you suffered financial loss or psychological harm, such as anxiety or distress, as a result.

If you need support to make your data breach claim, do not hesitate to reach out to our advisors for free legal advice.

What Is A Trade Union Membership Data Breach?

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is an independent body that enforces data protection legislation. It defines a personal data breach as an incident that causes personal data to be unlafully or accidentaly:

Disclosed; or
Accessed; or
Destroyed; or
Altered; or
Lost.

A personal data breach includes when an unauthorised party accesses your personal data. It can also be a trade union membership data breach when your trade union deliberately or accidentally sends your personal data to an unauthorised recipient, despite having your correct address.

Data Protection Laws

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 are data protection legislation on which data breach claims are based.

However, in order to claim, you need to have suffered material damage (financial loss), or non-material damage (psychological harm such as stress, anxiety or depression).

Examples Of Data Breaches Involving Trade Unions

Organisations can process your personal data on a lawful basis. Sometimes, belonging to a trade union may give them certain rights to process your personal data. For instance, you may give your consent to the trade union to communicate your membership with your employers. Joining the trade union could imply that you want them to represent you on any issues with your employer.

However, using your personal data unlawfully, or failing to protect it properly, could cause a personal data breach. The trade union or other organisation should take steps to protect your personal data from cyber hacks, for example.

Some trade union membership data breaches occur for non-criminal reasons. Examples of causes of a data breach include:

Personal data being emailed to the wrong person
personal data posted or faxed to the wrong person
A failure to redact personal information in a published report
A failure to use BCC in emails to multiple personal addresses
Verbal disclosures of personal information
Incorrect disposal of paperwork or hardware containing personal data

Statistics For Data Breaches

The ICO keeps track of the latest data security trends. The figures are based on Q4 2021/22 reports of personal data breaches received by the ICO.

2,172 data breach incidents
4 incidents of alteration of personal data
381 incidents of data emailed to the wrong recipients
217 incidents of data posted or faxed to an incorrect recipient
71 incidents of verbal disclosure of personal data
9 incidents of the wrong disposal of paperwork

How Much Could I Get For A Trade Union Data Breach?

The knowledge that your personal data is out in the open can be unsettling. If you have been diagnosed with emotional injuries after your trade union membership data breach, you could have grounds to claim compensation. This can also be referred to as a claim for non-material damage.

Your data breach claim could consist of material or non-material damages.

Data Breach Compensation For Non-Material Damage

In the case of Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc [2015] – Court of Appeal, the Court set a precedent, allowing people to claim for psychological damage whether or not there had been any financial loss. Before this case, you could only claim for mental harm caused by a data breach if you’d also suffered financial loss.

A list of psychological injuries with potential corresponding compensation can be seen in the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). Solicitors use these compensation amounts to assist them in valuing claims. These guidelines will not guarantee your data breach payout as it will depend on the severity of your injuries and their impact on your life.

We’ve used figures from the 16th edition of the April 2022 JCG to create the compensation table below. This table is for illustrative purposes.

Injury	Severity	Note	Amount
Psychological Damage	(a) Severe	Problems with ability to cope, relationships, future vulnerability.	£54,830 to £115,730
Psychological Damage	(b) Moderately Severe	Permanent or long-standing disability preventing a return to comparable employment.	£19,070 to £54,830
Psychological Damage	(c) Moderate	Marked improvement.	£5,860 to £19,070
Psychological Damage	(d) Less Severe	This category will take into account how much factors like sleep and daily activities were impacted.	£1,540 to £5,860
Anxiety Disorder	(a) Severe	Permanent effects prevent the injured person from working at all.	£59,860 to £100,670
Anxiety Disorder	(b) Moderately Severe	Some recovery with professional help.	£23,150 to £59,860
Anxiety Disorder	(c) Moderate	Largely recovered.	£8,180 to £23,150
Anxiety Disorder	(d) Less Severe	Virtually full recovery.	£3,950 to £8,180

What Does Material Damage Mean?

Material damages refer to financial losses stemming from the breach of your personal data. If money has been stolen from your bank account or your details were used to enter a contract leading to a financial loss, you could claim. Future financial losses, for instance, the loss of credibility to get a mortgage, could be included in a claim for material damages.

To ask our advisors to value your claim for free, why not get in touch?

Steps To Get A No Win No Fee Agreement

Our panel of data breach solicitors are able to represent you on a No Win No Fee basis after signing a conditional fee agreement. This agreement means that you will not pay an upfront solicitor’s fee before you can start the claims process.

You also will not pay an ongoing solicitor’s fee during the claims process. Additionally, if your claim is not successful, you will not pay this fee at all.

A small percentage of your compensation will go to the solicitor (for their services) if your claim is successful. This percentage is capped by law so that you retain the majority of your compensation.

Ask About Making A Trade Union Data Breach Claim

Call us free of charge on the number at the top of the page
Fill out our online contact form
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Further Information About Making A Trade Union Membership Data Breach Claim

You could get more information by reading our other guides:

External resources that could be helpful:

Report a data breach

Personal data breaches

Making a data breach complaint to the Government

Writer Mary March

Publisher Ruth Voss

Trade Union Membership Data Breach Claims