The Law Gazette

From time to time I get asked to review books for The Law Gazette, the publication of record to solicitors in England and Wales. A book I have recently read and reviewed is ‘Data Subject Rights Under the GDPR’ by Helena U. Vrabec, which covers a subject that is very close to the hearts of us here at Irvings.

The review will be posted on The Law Gazette website shortly, and we will post a link on here when it is, but one conclusion in the book that struck me was that Data subjects (i.e. you and me) lack the ability and motivation to scrutinize key details of personal data processing to make informed details about that data.

Often this is deliberate, websites will deliberately have long and onerous terms and condition that realistically you are not going read through before ticking the consent box at the end. And the amount of data that some companies now hold on us is deeply troubling. Isn’t it weird how you can be discussing with your partner that you might buy a new sofa, then get bombarded with adverts for sofas through your phone and PC?

What to do

The best way to hold these companies to account is to bring a claim against them if you do become aware that they have breached your data. The GDPR is there for a reason, to compensate you if you have been a victim of a breach. Once a breach has taken place it cannot be undone, there may be ways of remedying it and limiting the damage by stopping it from happening again but you have already suffered a loss. If you are notified that you have been, or may have been, a victim of a breach then contact Irvings so we can help you hold these companies to account by obtaining financial compensation on your behalf. Hit them where it hurts, in the pocket!