Breach of confidentiality

ccskitten · 20 December 2017 at 11:14AM

Hi all

I am just going through the process of remortgaging. The mortgage I am going for has free legal. Unfortunately they are being a little hazardous and have caused a breach of confidentiality.

They have scanned in my redemption statement for my current mortgage and emailed it to me. However, I have just noticed that someone else's redemption statement is on the same document. It contains their name, address, amount outstanding, early repayment fee etc. An obvious human error but I wouldn't like my financial information shared in this way.

I work in the NHS and am aware that if we have letters sent to the wrong address we are liable for fines up to £200k. Does anyone know if there are similar rules with financial information?

I have emailed the solicitor pointing out their error and asked for reassurance that my information hasn't similarly been sent to others. I wouldn't like to put a bet on whether I even receive a response. They must have a duty of candour to the other client to inform them of their mistake.

ccskitten :rudolf:

ACG · 20 December 2017 at 11:46AM

I do not think there is a limit on what anyone is liable for. If you can evidence the NHS has caused you to lose more than £200k, I am pretty sure they (or their insurers) would have to pay out more than £200k.

The same could be said here.

As you say, it is a human error, these things happen, there is probably not enough information there for anyone to do anything with, although if you were a fraudster it is a good start. Nothing more than you throwing a Mortgage statement out in the rubbish and someone getting hold of it, although that would also have an account number on and the name of the lender.

davidmcn · 20 December 2017 at 12:00PM

Data protection is data protection.

However, one person finding out how much one other person owes on their mortgage isn't in the same league as, say, accidentally putting details of a clinic's patient list on a website. So don't expect much to happen other than knuckles being rapped.

Mortgage_Adviser · 20 December 2017 at 3:42PM

OP, Would it make you to feel better if the person who has innocently made this mistake were to lose his/her job?
Thjis may as well happen. Especially if you chose to contact the person whose details were discloed to you in error and they decided to make a big fuss of it.
Unless you were to do something dodgy witht that info the person will not be disadvantaged in any way.
Just delete it/forget about it that's it.
Every one makes the errors

AnotherJoe · 20 December 2017 at 8:38PM

What was said above, you almost make it sound as if you want the same penalties as if someone posted their entire customer database on wiki leaks.
Since it was as obviously a mistak, then by definition in the same way there wouldn't be any records of them sending your details on to anyone else by mistake, I’m sure they didn’t make a note “posted wrong details to wrong customer”.

It was one record . Shred it and forget it.

kingstreet · 20 December 2017 at 8:48PM

When I make a mistake, as I obviously (but very rarely!) do, I hope that I'll be cut some slack.

This is attached to all our outgoing emails;-

The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you receive this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer.

I once sent an email to the wrong person. They had similar email addresses and I missed picking out there were two similar.

I would hope that in doing so someone wouldn't view that as a career-ender as that would be sad having spent over 30 years always putting the client first and having done nothing but made an honest mistake.

Likewise, a massive penalty would probably mean the end of the firm...