By Stephen Hudson. Last Updated 11th June 2024. This guide will explain whether you could make a claim for a CCTV data breach. When we think of personal data breaches, we may think of security incidents that expose written data. However, personal data is information that identifies a person. So, CCTV footage when capturing and recording may include a data subject’s personal data. Therefore, any organisation that is capturing a data subject’s personal data and information becomes a data controller. A data controller must abide by data protection laws.
You may be eligible to claim compensation if a data controller such as an organisation that uses CCTV that records personal data breaches your personal information because they failed to secure the CCTV footage. If your claim is successful, you will receive up to two heads of claim:
- Firstly material damages to compensate you for any financial losses associated with the data breach.
- Secondly, non-material damages will compensate you for any emotional distress or psychological injuries the breach may have caused.
To see if you can begin your data breach claim, don’t hesitate to contact Legal Expert today. An advisor will be happy to assess your case. And we can assign a data breach solicitor to work on your claim if we believe the defendant owes you compensation. Please use the details below to contact us:
- Call our data breach claims helpline on 0800 073 8804
- Or, fill out our online claims form today
Select A Section
- What Is A CCTV Data Breach?
- Is CCTV Personal Data?
- Capturing Images Of People Outside Your Property Boundary
- Workplace CCTV Data Breach Claims
- How To Claim For A CCTV Data Breach
- CCTV Data Breach Compensation Calculator
- Begin Your CCTV Data Breach Claim
What Is A CCTV Data Breach?
Personal data is data that identifies an individual. The data could be the person’s name, address or phone number. However, the law considers CCTV footage to be personal data if the footage can identify a person visually or by any other means.
Organisations often use CCTV footage for security purposes. For example, a jewellery shop may use CCTV footage on their grounds to capture any attempted robberies.
A data breach is a security incident that compromises personal data protection. So, a CCTV data breach could happen when a recording that contains personal data is involved in a security incident whereby it is altered, stolen, destroyed, lost, or accessed without authority or disclosed.
Guidelines For Using CCTV
According to Government guidelines as a business that uses CCTV, you must be registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. These Government guidelines explain how to use CCTV to comply with the law.
- Businesses must pay a data protection fee. Some are exempt
- Businesses must display a sign to inform people that they are recording them.
- Only authorised personnel can view CCTV footage
- And businesses must use the CCTV footage for the intended purpose only
Is CCTV Personal Data?
You may be wondering, “Is CCTV personal data?” and in certain cases, the answer is yes. For example, if your image is captured by CCTV at work, the Data Protection Act and UK GDPR both apply. This applies to all CCTV footage captured in businesses, and there are certain rules that businesses must follow if they have a CCTV system installed.
For example, guidance on CCTV in businesses states that businesses must make it known to people that they are being recorded, and they must also control who has access to these recordings. Businesses that use CCTV to monitor their employees must also ensure that they have a legitimate reason for doing so, such as to prevent crime.
However, these laws on CCTV footage do not apply if you have installed a camera in your own home for household reasons, for example, to prevent theft. The rules may apply if you use your system to capture images from outside your property boundary.
Contact our team today to learn more about claiming for a personal data breach.
Capturing Images Of People Outside Your Property Boundary
Many people use domestic CCTV systems to protect their property. Data protection laws do not apply to you if you have a domestic CCTV system that only films within your property boundary, including your garden. However, if you record outside your property boundary, that captures images of others, you must comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
There are more legal requirements for using CCTV at home. Firstly, if your CCTV captures personal data you become a data controller and must abide by data protection laws. You must operate the CCTV within the remits of the law, upholding the rights of the people you are capturing.
Workplace CCTV Data Breach Claims
A CCTV data breach can also happen at work. For example, an employer may fail to adhere to the UK GDPR or the Data Protection Act which leads to the footage containing personal data of a data subject being involved in a breach. This could happen in different ways including allowing unauthorised persons to view the CCTV footage that contains footage of individuals. Also, CCTV footage that contains personal information could be lost or stolen causing a data breach.
In order to use CCTV, your employer must have a valid basis for doing so such as to protect the property. They must also abide by the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act when it comes to any footage on the CCTV that contains images that could identify an individual.
How To Claim For A CCTV Data Breach
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), organisations must protect the personal data they collect. So if an organisation allows a CCTV data protection breach or doesn’t do enough to prevent a data breach, the victims may be eligible to claim compensation. This is also on the condition that victims have suffered emotional distress, psychiatric injuries such as stress caused by the data breach or financial losses.
If you have been affected by a data breach involving CCTV footage, please contact Legal Expert to inquire about claiming compensation. If we believe the defendant owes you compensation, we can provide you with a skilled lawyer to handle your claim.
How Long Do I Have To Claim For A CCTV Data Breach?
Now that we’ve discussed the laws on CCTV footage and data protection, we’ll take a look at how long you have to start your claim.
There are time limits involved when making a claim for a personal data breach. Generally, you will have six years to start proceedings. However, if you intend to make a claim against a public body, such as a local council, then this drops to one year. This begins on the date of the breach, or the date you become aware of the breach.
Our advisors are on hand to help. Through a free consultation, they can answer the question, “Is CCTV personal data?” and offer more information on the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act, and CCTV footage data breaches. Get in touch today to learn more.
CCTV Data Breach Compensation Calculator
When a successful CCTV data breach claim has been made, you could receive compensation for your material and non-material damage.
Non-material damage refers to any psychological harm you’ve endured due to the personal data breach.
Those valuing your claim for a non-material damage payout may check the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This document provides compensation guidelines for numerous physical and psychological injuries. You can view some of these entries from the JCG in the table below. However, do note that the table is a guide only, and the first entry in the table is not included within the JCG.
| Injury | Level Of Severity | Award Brackets |
|---|---|---|
| Severe Psychological Harm Plus Financial Losses | Severe | Up to £200,000+ |
| Psychiatric Damage | Severe | £66,920 to £141,240 |
| Psychiatric Damage | Moderately Severe | £23,270 to £66,920 |
| Psychiatric Damage | Moderate | £7,150 to £23,270 |
| Psychiatric Damage | Less Severe | £1,880 to £7,150 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Severe | £73,050 to £122,850 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Moderately Severe | £28,250 to £73,050 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Moderate | £9,980 to £28,250 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Less Severe | £4,820 to £9,980 |
Material damage refers to the financial losses you have suffered due to the personal data breach.
For instance, if you’ve taken unpaid time off work to recover from psychological injuries caused by the CCTV data breach, then your loss of earnings could be covered under material damage. Evidence is needed to claim for your financial losses. This could include documents such as wage slips, invoices or bank statements.
Contact our advisors for free today for more advice on how much you could potentially claim if you’ve been impacted by a CCTV data protection breach.
Begin Your CCTV Data Breach Claim
To start your claim for a CCTV data breach, please contact Legal Expert today. We can provide you with a knowledgeable data breach solicitor if you are eligible to claim.
You can fund the service of your solicitor with a No Win No Fee agreement. This means a Conditional Fee Agreement may be the contract you sign to formalise this funding basis. So, generally, there will be no upfront solicitors fee.
Instead, you will pay a success fee if your solicitor wins your claim. What’s more, the success fee is deducted from your compensation payout at a legally capped rate.
To see if you can begin your CCTV data protection breach claim, please get in touch with us using the details below:
- Call us on 0800 073 8804
- Could you email us to begin your claim online?
- Or, speak to an advisor using our Live Support widget
Learn More About Public And Private Data Breach Claims
If you wish to know more about claiming compensation for a data breach, please look at the resources below:
- Read our Housing Association Data Breach Compensation Claims guide to find out if you could claim for a housing association data breach.
- If you would like to claim against a local council, our Local Authority And Council Data Breach Compensation Claims guide could help.
- Our informative HR Data Breaches Compensation Claims guide offers more information on claiming for a HR data breach.
- Employer Data Breach Claims Guide
- A government guide to using CCTV systems on your property
- Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2022
- Avoid phishing scams and other online fraud
Thank you for reading our guide to CCTV footage data breach claims.
