Data Protection

14.08.16

Asylum seekers awarded privacy damages following data leak

In the case of TLT and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Home Secretary was ordered to pay a total of £39,500 to six asylum seekers whose confidential information was accidentally published on the Home Office website.  The information remained on the website for two weeks before being taken down.  Mr…

11.08.16

Police pay out £75,000 in privacy damages after using 999 call for training

Greater Manchester Police have agreed to pay a victim of domestic violence £75,000 in compensation after using a recording of her distressed 999 call together with other information that identified her and her medical history in training exercises.  The claimant had consented to the 999 tape being used for training purposes, but only on an anonymous basis. The claimant brought a…

18.07.16

Appeal in Google v Vidal-Hall withdrawn

Google has withdrawn its appeal to the Supreme Court in  Vidal-Hall v Google Inc [2015] EWCA Civ 311.  Therefore the landmark Court of Appeal decision, discussed here on this blog, that damages can be awarded under the Data Protection Act 1998 for distress and anxiety, even if no financial loss suffered, will stand as good law. Google had been seeking…

30.06.16

Sir Cliff Richard investigation highlights issues with pre-charge bail

Sir Cliff Richard is one of many famous faces to have been investigated for allegations of historic sex abuse, with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service ultimately taking no further action.  Although Sir Cliff was never arrested or charged, his ordeal brings into question tactics that are being deployed by police and the necessity for reform regarding…

Restraining publication of images taken at private zoo — Human Rights Act 1998 engaged

Brett Wilson LLP partner Iain Wilson is interviewed by Anne Bruce.  This article was first published on Lexis® PSL IP & IT analysis on 28 June 2016 In Heythrop Zoological Gardens Ltd and another v Captive Animals Protection Society the court rejected the claimant’s application for an interim injunction to prevent the publication of photographs and videos of…

23.05.16

The ‘Right to be Forgotten': the scope of delisting

It is now just over two years since the Court of Justice of the European Union first ruled that Google was a data processor and that the principles of EU Directive 95/46/EC (‘the Data Protection Directive’), and the various national legislation that implement them, applied to its search results.  The specific right to have search…

22.05.16

Data protection: NHS Trust fined £180,000 for HIV data leak in breach of medical confidence case

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been fined £180,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a result of a serious data breach by the 56 Dean Street sexual health clinic in which hundreds of patients’ HIV status were inadvertently disclosed in an emailed newsletter. A number of patients signed up to receive…

12.03.16

Google extends "right to be forgotten" to all versions of its search engine

Google has succumbed to pressure from European data regulators and announced a wider system of delisting where it agrees to remove search engine results under the so-called “right to be forgotten” principle. Where Google agrees to delist results these will now be filtered from all versions of Google when a search is conducted in the…

4.11.15

Misuse of Private Information: ICO fines CPS £200,000 following theft of sex attack victims' interview videos

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been fined £200,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for failing to take adequate data protection steps to ensure that video interviews of sex attack victims were stored securely. Interviews of 43 victims and witnesses were stored on two laptops that were stolen in a burglary in September 2014.  The videos were in the process…

30.10.15

Iain Wilson interviewed by The Tab on how the internet can turn against you through Cyberbullying

Brett Wilson LLP partner Iain Wilson features in the latest edition of the UK’s biggest student newspaper The Tab in an article by Bob Palmer on how the internet can turn against you.  A copy of the article can be found here.