Over the past few decades we have seen a dramatic rise in compensation trends in the UK. From bank charges, car accidents, personal injury and most recently PPI claims. With the window for PPI claims now closed (as of August 2019); is data breach compensation the new PPI claim?
Data Breach Compensation
Over the last 12 months there has been a significant rise in the number of websites and companies popping up, offering to win you compensation if your information has been leaked as part of a data breach. A quick Google Search for Data Breach Claim will find a number of providers, some charging a fee and others working on a ‘No win No Fee’ basis.
There is quite a variety of suppliers out there. Some are targeting specific breaches such as the ‘British Airway 2018’ breach or ‘Talk Talk Breach 2015’, while others are targeting a wider audience.
2018 BA Data Breach
Data Breach or Identity Theft
Claiming Compensation for Data Breaches 2021
Although some of these companies have been offering ‘Data Breach Compensation’ services for a few years, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of companies since 2018. This seems to have been partly accelerated by the introduction of GDPR as well as the Californian equivalent CCPA, as well as the time period elapsing for PPI claims.
It is important to note that you do not need to use one of these companies to make a claim. If you have grounds to make a complaint, you can do this directly or via the courts.
Surely this is a good thing?
Hopefully, Yes. The thought of being liable for a big institution fine, as well as individual compensation claims will hopefully encourage more businesses to further tighten their security and policy. Likewise, companies will hopefully become more transparent about the data they collect, and what they do with it. That being said if this is not tightly regulated it could easily be open to abuse. I think time will tell on this one.