How Does A Data Breach Compensation Calculator Work?

Data breach compensation calculator guide

Data breach compensation calculator guide

By Cat Reeves. Last Updated 15th September 2023. A data breach compensation calculator is a free tool that is available for you to use to help you estimate what you could receive in personal data breach compensation. This guide will explain how compensation calculators work, how the figures are reached, and how a solicitor from our panel could help you make your claim.

We will also explain what a Conditional Fee Agreement is and how one could help you fund legal representation for your claim. This guide will also address when you could claim for harm caused by a breach of your personal data.

Our team of advisors can provide more information on how data breaches can happen and what you can do to protect yourself in the future.

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Select a Section

  1. What Is A Data Breach Compensation Calculator?
  2. What You Need To Show To Claim For A Data Breach
  3. How To Claim For A Data Breach With A Data Breach Calculator
  4. What Types Of Compensation Could You Get For A Data Breach?
  5. Breach Of UK GDPR Compensation Calculator And Payout Examples
  6. Discuss Your Data Breach Claim With Our Team

What Is A Data Breach Compensation Calculator?

A personal data breach compensation calculator is a free tool that can help you get an idea of what you could receive should your personal data breach claim succeed. Our compensation calculator takes figures from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), a document used by legal professionals to help them value personal injury claims.

In order to claim for a data breach, the security, integrity, or availability of your personal data must have been compromised as a result of wrongful conduct on the part of the data controller or processor. You must also suffer harm as a result of the personal data breach in order to be able to claim.

What Is Personal Data?

Personal data is any information that could identify you, alone or when it’s put together with other information. It can include:

  • Phone number
  • Address
  • Date of birth
  • Credit card details
  • Email Address
  • Full name
  • Debit card information

Special category data is a type of personal data that is given extra protection due to its sensitive nature. Special category data can include personal data relating to your:

  • Health information, including your medical records
  • Nationality or ethnicity
  • Religious or political information
  • Sexual orientation

Get in touch with our advisors today for more information on making a personal data breach claim.

What You Need To Show To Claim For A Data Breach

As we mentioned earlier, you must be able to provide proof of certain circumstances in order to claim for a personal data breach. This can range from proof of the breach to proof of the harm you suffered, be it psychological or financial.

There are multiple forms of evidence you can gather to support your claim, including:

You must also ensure that your claim falls within the set time limit. This is generally six years for a claim against a private organisation but falls to one year if it is against a public body.

Contact us today for more information on what you may need to show to prove your personal data breach claim.

How To Claim For A Data Breach With A Data Breach Calculator

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) are the two central pieces of legislation that provide protection for your personal data in the UK. According to data protection legislation, personal data breaches that affect your freedoms and rights must be reported to the ICO within 72 hours, and you, as the data subject, must be informed without undue delay.

However, if you have not been made aware of a personal data breach but suspect that your personal data may have been affected, you can contact the organisation themselves for more information. Should their reply be unsatisfactory, you can make a report to the ICO.

The ICO can impose fines on organisations found to be in breach of data protection legislation, but they cannot provide compensation.

Using our personal data breach compensation calculator can give you an idea of how much compensation you could receive. Get in touch with our advisors today to learn more.

What Types Of Compensation Could You Get For A Data Breach?

Non-material damages are the head of a claim related to the psychological injuries that occurred because of a personal data breach. For example, you may suffer mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and stress.

Material damages relate to the financial losses you have suffered due to a personal data breach. For example, if your credit or debit card details were exposed by the breach, this could lead to significant financial harm. This is because criminals may make fraudulent purchases on your credit card, or withdrawals could be made from your account without your permission.

Additionally, the Court of  Appeals ruled through Vidal-Hall and Others V Google [2015] that claimants are entitled to make a claim for non-material damages alone and no longer need to claim in tandem with material damages. Now, each head of claim can be pursued separately as well as both together.

Get in touch with our advisors today to learn more about the types of compensation you could get following a personal data breach.

Breach Of UK GDPR Compensation Calculator And Payout Examples

If you are eligible to claim data breach compensation, you could be awarded compensation for your non-material damage. This refers to the psychological harm you have suffered due to a personal data breach.

When a legal professional, such as a lawyer, is valuing your personal data breach claim, they may use the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) to help them. This is a document that provides compensation guidelines for various types of physical and psychological injuries. In the table below, we have used some of the amounts listed in the 16th edition of this publication.

The table should be treated as a guide only

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Psychological Injuries Compensation brackets Description
Reactive Psychiatric Disorder (Severe) £59,860 to £100,670 Effects of the illness prevent any function at the pre-trauma level.
Reactive Psychiatric Disorder (Moderately Severe) £23,150 to £59,860 Some change of a better prognosis with professional treatment.
Reactive Psychiatric Disorder (Moderate) £8,180 to £23,150 There are no disabling effects remaining.
Reactive Psychiatric Disorder (Less Severe) £3,950 to £8,180 A recovery has been achieved in a period of one to two years.
Psychiatric Damage (Severe) £54,830 to £115,730 Significant issues coping with daily life.
Psychiatric Damage (Moderately Severe) £19,070 to £54,830 While there are still significant issues, the prognosis may have more optimism.
Psychiatric Damage (Moderate) £5,860 to £19,070 This bracket includes marked improvement of symptoms by the time of trial.
Psychiatric Damage (Less Severe) £1,540 to £5,860 Consideration given to length of disability and severity of symptoms.

For a free valuation of your claim, you can contact our advisory team today.

Discuss Your Data Breach Claim With Our Team

A solicitor from our panel may be able to help if you’re ready to seek compensation following a UK GDPR data breach and your claim meets the eligibility criteria. There are many benefits that can come with working with a solicitor; for example, they can help you collect evidence to support your claim. They may also be able to give you a more personalised compensation estimate than a data breach compensation calculator could.

Our panel of solicitors work on a No Win No Fee basis and offer their clients a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). When you work with a solicitor under a CFA, you aren’t asked to pay any upfront fees in order for them to start work on your case. Similarly, you don’t pay anything for their ongoing work, nor do you pay for their services if your claim fails.

You’ll only pay a fee for their work if your claim succeeds. This success fee is taken from your compensation as a small percentage. However, the percentage they can take is limited by a legal cap, which helps ensure that you keep the majority of what you receive.

To find out if a solicitor from our panel could help you, contact our team of advisors today. A member of our team can evaluate your claim for free and can answer any questions you might have about the data breach claims process. Then, if your claim is valid, they may connect you with a solicitor from our panel. To get in touch:

Examples Of Data Breach Claims

For more helpful guides, you can try:

Or, for more information:

Contact our advisors today for more information on using a personal data breach compensation calculator.

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