Data Breach and Its Impact Mental Health

What is Data Breach

A data breach occurs when your personal information is accessed without authorisation, lost, altered, mistakenly destroyed, or unlawfully revealed.

Any information that may be used to positively identify you as a person, alone or in combination with other information, is considered personal data. Considering this, personal information can range from your identity, postal address, phone number or email address to details from your bank account details, medical records, demographics or sexual orientation.

The effects of a personal data leak may be severe and widespread. Your mental health could suffer significantly from a personal data breach. Additionally, it might make any mental health issues you already have worse. For instance, the stress of a personal data breach could exacerbate the symptoms of a pre-existing anxiety condition or depressive disorder.

Now that we know what a data breach is let’s examine how it affects your mental health and what you can do if it results in psychological harm. So, without further ado, here are the details.

When a data breach happens, it immediately breeds disrespect and insecurity. Additionally, it tends to meddle with your sense of boundaries and self-defence, leaving you emotionally distressed, anxious, and depressed.

High degrees of anxiety, stress and depression are frequently experienced by victims of data breaches, which are particular to the data breach. Let’s examine the top issues with mental health brought up by cases of personal data breaches:

Social anxiety victims may become overly sensitive and paranoid in their interactions with others. They may also experience mood swings and similar disorders, such as depression or adjustment disorders, sleep problems, eating disorders and emotional instability.

Emotional distress is a type of mental anguish which leads to Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) and, in the worst cases, even Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It can negatively impact your life, damaging your relationships with your family and loved ones. It can also affect your ability to perform your job.

Due to data breaches, when personal information is leaked, it might lead to needing to move a house and get relocated completely. You may even lose a job, and your relationships can get impacted negatively. In addition, this action can lead to major depression alongside persistent anxiety and stress

Read: How to write a Psychology expert witness report

People are becoming more conscious of the risks associated with disclosing personal information to organisations, which may or may not be preserved and utilised for the person’s ignorance. The maintenance and update of passwords also cause security issues. Some people may experience tension and worry due to their greater knowledge of potential negative effects.

Nevertheless, your present mental health conditions could worsen if the third parties that protect your data fail. Due to this, you might experience mental health problems like major depressive disorder (MDD), persistent anxiety, panic attacks, acute stress disorder (ASD), and, in difficult situations, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

When the consequences of a data breach start to hider your daily life, you need a personal injury expert to get compensated for the psychological damages you have incurred. It is your fundamental right to do so under the UK law and in the following section we will talk about exactly how to seek compensation for your data breach.

It’s crucial to contact a claim expert who can advise you on your legal rights if you’re looking for psychological distress compensation because a data breach has hurt you.

A personal data breach, on the other hand, is when a security incident within a company compromises the confidentiality, accessibility, or integrity of your personal data. However, only some violations of data privacy law can result in a claim.

Thus, your claim must satisfy the requirements even when your company doesn’t follow the General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and The Data Protection Act of 2018. The UK GDPR states the requirements that a personal data breach must meet for you to be eligible to bring the following claims:

• The information and data breach must contain your personal data
• It must be caused by the controller or processor of the data acting improperly
• The breach must cause you pain and suffering, either financially or psychologically

Read: How a Neuropsychiatrist in Medico Legal Can help win the case in UK.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, one of the key requirements for making a claim is that the breach must result in physical, emotional, or financial harm to you. This includes any existing mental health conditions getting worse or developing certain psychological conditions due to the data breach. At Concise Medico, our team can assist you if a data breach has worsened your pre-existing mental health issues.

You can speak with data breach expert witness to find out more about whether you qualify for a claim. Getting expert help as quickly as possible if a psychological injury is detected is crucial. If you’re unsure of your legal rights, today.