The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has totally transformed the rights that persons have in relation to the protection of their personal data.
Significantly, the GDPR provides a right to seek a remedy from the courts if there has been an infringement of a person’s data protection rights under the GDPR.
These rights include the right to be provided with information on the purposes for which personal data is being collected and processed, the right to have inaccurate personal data rectified and the right to have personal data erased by a data controller where the personal data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was originally collected.
A person can also seek a remedy from the courts where a personal data breach has occurred. This includes any breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration of disclosure of personal data.
BEFORE GDPR
Before the GDPR, Irish law held that a person who had suffered a personal data breach had to prove that they suffered financial consequences before they could recover damages from the courts. However, under the GDPR, a person can now claim for non-financial damage that they have suffered. This is likely to include the distress caused by the personal data breach and could include damages for the loss of control of personal information.
Of course, the level of GDPR compensation a court might award will depend on the nature of the data breach, the significance of the data breached and the effect on the individual of its disclosure.
It is important that we are all aware of our rights under the GDPR, including the right to possible GDPR compensation for damage caused by a data breach.
HAVE YOU SUFFERED A DATA PROTECTION BREACH?
If you believe that you have been the victim of a data breach, or if you have been informed by a company you deal with or your employer that a breach has occurred, it is important that you take legal advice so that you can be informed of your options and the remedies open to you, including the possibility of court proceedings leading to compensation. In this regard please contact My Case Solicitors, Brehon House, 2 The Rise, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 on telephone number (01) 820 1701 or by email to info@mycase.ie.