Our team is representing a number of individuals who have received confirmation that they have been affected by the Arden University data breach.
Given that potentially tens of thousands of people may be affected by this incident, this may form into a group or multi-party legal case for compensation. Having assessed what has happened, we have agreed to take legal action forward on a No Win, No Fee basis for those who we represent.
Arden University data breach: what has happened?
Communication that is headed as an important security notice has been issued to Arden university students in relation to a potential information exposure event. According to information that our clients have provided to us, Arden University reportedly became aware on Tuesday 9th August 2022 that someone using a student account may have obtained some 44,000 historical and current student records.
The important security notice lists the following as information that could potentially be affected:
- name
- student number
- address
- email address
- telephone number
- date of birth
- ethnicity
- disability category
- gender
It is thought that the Arden university data breach does not involve financial information and that this was not a case of compromised or hacked systems or servers. They have stated that this was a case of human error in respect of the storage of secure information.
Group Action for compensation
We have agreed to take compensation claims forward for those who have already contacted us and we are representing them for legal claims on a No Win, No Fee basis. Given the volumes of people potentially affected by the Arden University data breach, this may form into a group or multi-party action which is what we specialise in. This way of working can allow for the efficient pursuit of many claims as part of one legal action, and these can amount to thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people.
The GDPR can entitle a victim who has been affected by a data breach to claim compensation for any distress they have suffered that is caused by the loss of control of their personal information. The GDPR can also allow people to recover damages for losses and expenses but, in this case, it looks like it will just be a case of claiming for distress only.
Most data breach claims in our experience are just for distress and they can equate to thousands of pounds depending on the nature of the information that has been affected. Notably in this incident, some of the information that may be affected can be classed as “special category” information, which is afforded additional protection in accordance with the GDPR. The reason for this is that the law recognises that this kind of information is particularly personal and sensitive, so the impact on the victim can be more substantial.
When we pursue your GDPR compensation claim, we can account for the level of any distress that people have suffered from, and a part of this is assessing the nature of the information that has been affected.
Contacting our legal team for help
If you have received the important security notice that you may have been affected by the Arden University data breach, please do not hesitate to contact our legal team for free, no-obligation legal advice here now.
We already representing a number of people on a No Win, No Fee basis and we may be able to help you too.
First published by Author on August 22, 2022
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