Exam Results Data Breach Compensation Claims

By Danielle Jordan. Last Updated 27th February 2024. This guide will explain if it is possible to claim compensation for an exam results data breach. Data breaches can be a gross violation of privacy. The Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation UK GDPR are the most stringent data protection laws to date. They give greater control to the data subject, an individual whose personal data is processed, and apply greater security of personal information. If a school or university (data controllers) breaches information about your exam results, and you experience emotional distress can you make a claim? In extreme situations, you may have suffered acute stress from the data breach or another psychiatric injury.

Exam results data breach claims guide

As schools, universities and exam boards are data controllers they are responsible for protecting the personal data they collect. Whether a school exam results data breach or a university exam results data breach harmed you, to be eligible to claim compensation you must be able to demonstrate that personal data was breached because the data controller failed to adhere to the correct data protection laws. Similarly, if a school breached your child’s personal data, you could act as a litigation friend and claim compensation on their behalf.

Don’t hesitate to contact us today to begin your educational data breach claim. Call our advice line on 0800 073 8804, or you can contact us online. If we can see that you are eligible for compensation, we can provide you with a skilled lawyer to handle your claim.

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What Is An Exam Results Data Breach?
Data Breach Claim – What Makes You Eligible To Claim Compensation?
Causes Of An Exam Results Data Breach
What Should You Do After An Exam Results Data Breach
Exam Results Data Breach Compensation Calculator
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What Is An Exam Results Data Breach?

A personal data breach is a security incident in which personal data has either been lost, stolen, destroyed, altered, disclosed or accessed without a lawful basis. An exam results data breach can happen if a school or university processes such data in an unlawful way. However, data breaches can also happen through accidental means or deliberate actions. Human error is the single most common cause of data breaches.

The Data Protection Act 2018

The Data Protection Act gives you the right to know what data an organisation holds on you. However, it also outlines other rights designed to protect your personal data from being breached or used in a way that might cause you harm or loss.

What the Data Protection Act says, in terms of your rights, includes:

Having access to your personal data
Being informed about how and why your data is collected and processed
Having any incorrect information updated
The ability to have your data erased
Stopping your data from being processed unlawfully

Following a breach of the Data Protection Act, your exam results could be exposed, causing you to suffer. Get in touch to find out if you are eligible to claim compensation.

Education Data Breach Statistics

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) publishes data security incident trends every quarter. These statistics show us how common education and childcare data security incidents are in the UK:

Education and childcare institutions reported to the ICO 388 data security incidents, in Q3 2021/22.
311 were non-cyber security incidents.
77 were cyber security incidents.

Data Breach Claim – What Makes You Eligible To Claim Compensation?

Following a data breach, you may wonder if you are eligible for compensation. In this section, we look at Article 82 of the UK GDPR. This is the article that sets the right to data breach compensation.

It states that if your personal data was compromised as a result of an organisation’s failure to adhere to the data protection legislation and you suffered damage, either non-material or material, you could be eligible to make a data breach claim.

However, you must have evidence supporting your claim. For example, the school or exam board may have notified you of a data breach. Communication between yourself and the organisation can help support your claim. It must also show that your personal data was included. Additionally, if the ICO investigated the breach, this could also support your claim.

You will also need to have evidence that proves you were harmed due to your personal data’s compromise in order to claim. For example, you could submit medical records to prove non-material damage. In addition to this, you might be requested to attend an independent medical exam to assess the severity of your mental suffering. To prove non-material damage, you could submit bank statements if someone used your compromised personal data to access your bank account.

To discuss data breach compensation amounts in the UK, call our advisors. They can offer free advice about what evidence you could submit as well as assess your eligibility to claim.

Causes Of An Exam Results Data Breach

Many data breaches are accidental and caused by human error. However, data breaches can also happen because of malicious or illegal activity such as a cyber attack. Here are some example scenarios of how data breaches can happen:

A school forgets to update a student’s contact details and sends personal data to the wrong address.
A laptop is lost or stolen with the files containing students’ personal details.
School data breaches can happen if a school publishes a document on their website without redacting any personal information first.
Likewise, a university data breach can happen if a secretary leaves files containing students’ personal details in a public area.

When Should Data Breaches Be Reported?

As previously stated, personal data could be compromised due to exam results. For example, if a school does not update an address and sends results to the wrong postage address. Although under the Data Protection Act, exam results would likely not be considered personal data and therefore can be shared, though some data included within results may be considered personal.

If you ask, “are exam results personal data?”, the personal data that could be compromised includes any information that may identify you as the subject. For example, your name, address, phone number and email address are considered personal data.

If you suspect your personal data has been compromised, you may like to know when data breaches should be reported. The data controller must notify you without undue delay if your personal data was included in a breach and your rights could be impacted. Additionally, the data controller has 72 hours after the incident was noticed to report it to the ICO.

Call our advisors to discuss whether exam results are confidential. If they think you have a valid claim for a personal data breach, you could be put in touch with our No Win No Fee solicitors.

What Should You Do After An Exam Results Data Breach?

The UK General Data Protection Regulation UK GDPR allows data subjects who have had their personal or sensitive information involved in a data breach to be eligible to make a claim.

You may be eligible to make a data breach claim if:

An organisation breached your personal data.
The organisation must have failed to protect your data from a security threat,
Subsequently, you experienced emotional distress or psychological injuries and/or financial losses because of the data breach.

Please get in touch with Legal Expert today if a data breach exposed your exam results. If we can see that you have legitimate grounds to claim compensation, we can provide you with a No Win No Fee lawyer to handle your claim.

Exam Results Data Breach Compensation Calculator

If your personal data breach claim is successful, you can receive up to two types of compensation:

Firstly, you can claim material damages. If you lost money or other assets because of the data breach, you might be able to claim back these costs.
Secondly, you can claim non-material damages, compensation for emotional distress or mental health problems you suffered because of the data breach. Having your personal information exposed can be an upsetting experience. In some cases, victims develop psychological injuries as a result.

You can use this table as a data protection breach calculator. Please look up the distress or injuries you experienced to see what you may be eligible to claim in non-material damages.

Edit
Severity	Injury	Notes	Damages
Severe	Psychiatric Damage Generally	The impact to which treatment affects your condition influences the award within this bracket.	£54,830 to £115,730
Moderately Severe	Psychiatric Damage Generally	You may struggle to maintain relationships in your life.	£19,070 to £54,830
Moderate	Psychiatric Damage Generally	The prognosis is good and you have made a marked improvement.	£5,860 to £19,070
Less Severe	Psychiatric Damage Generally	You may be unable to sleep.	£1,540 to £5,860
Severe	Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder	Permanent effects may stop you from returning to work.	£59,860 to £100,670
Moderately Severe	Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder	Significant disability is likely for the foreseeable future.	£23,150 to £59,860
Moderate	Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder	Ongoing effects may not be too impactful.	£8,180 to £23,150
Less Severe	Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder	A full recovery is expected to occur by two years.	£3,950 to £8,180

We used compensation guidelines from the Judicial College to create this table. Although solicitors use these guidelines to help them value data breach claims, the final compensation payment may vary. When you speak to a claims advisor, they can provide you with a personalised compensation quote.

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When you claim compensation for a data breach, you may choose to use a No Win No Fee solicitor. This means you will not pay a solicitor’s fee before your solicitor starts to work on your claim.

Instead, if your solicitor wins your claim; you will pay a success fee. The success fee is a legally capped payment deducted from your compensation payment. Therefore using a No Win No Fee agreement to fund the work of your solicitor is the more affordable option for many claimants.

Please get in touch with us today to see if you can begin your claim for a university or school exam results data breach. If we can see that another party owes you compensation, we will assign a skilled lawyer to start working on your claim.