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Breach of confidentiality?

13 replies

Viennaspark1 · 03/03/2026 21:44

Currently of work due to fleeing Domestic Abuse, informed work change of address and to NOT send any mail to my old address (ex's hime ) . Long story short - private and confidential mail was sent to him by work several times after informing them not too! I have had an apology, but ex opens all my mail and weponised all the contents, bombarded me with texts, phone calls regarding the content! Probably I would be back in work by now but it's caused me so much stress. Shall I go to hr? Union? Legal route?

OP posts:
Trusttheawesomeness · 03/03/2026 21:47

Why haven’t you set up a Royal Mail redirect? It takes less than 5 minutes online. I fled a domestic abuse relationship. I did that on the first day, had mail directed to a friend’s and then to my new address. On the first day of leaving.

Obviously take legal advice regarding what your work did, but take it from me, you need to be really really proactive in keeping yourself safe here because, in my experience, everyone else is shit at it and you can’t rely on them… as you have found out by trying to rely on your employer.

Viennaspark1 · 03/03/2026 21:57

Trusttheawesomeness · 03/03/2026 21:47

Why haven’t you set up a Royal Mail redirect? It takes less than 5 minutes online. I fled a domestic abuse relationship. I did that on the first day, had mail directed to a friend’s and then to my new address. On the first day of leaving.

Obviously take legal advice regarding what your work did, but take it from me, you need to be really really proactive in keeping yourself safe here because, in my experience, everyone else is shit at it and you can’t rely on them… as you have found out by trying to rely on your employer.

Yes I set up redirect but took couple of weeks, also it is not 100% guaranteed, so letters did get through

OP posts:
Viennaspark1 · 03/03/2026 22:00

And it's not my responsibility to ensure that my employer sends sensitive mail to the address. I did everything right, regardless of when my mail.was redirected

OP posts:
Quitelikeit · 03/03/2026 22:01

Report them

VanCleefArpels · 03/03/2026 22:03

Refer to the person in charge of GDPR monitoring as this is a data breach

MissMoneyFairy · 03/03/2026 22:09

Report, can you block him and report him for harassment, can you get a non mol order.

Viennaspark1 · 03/03/2026 22:14

MissMoneyFairy · 03/03/2026 22:09

Report, can you block him and report him for harassment, can you get a non mol order.

Yes I have
And blocked a while ago.
Thanks for replying

OP posts:
MissMoneyFairy · 03/03/2026 22:17

Is he still harassing you, I had similar when the council tax final bill was sent to my old address with my new address on it. Some people are just thoughtless and careless and don't understand the worries they cause.

Viennaspark1 · 03/03/2026 22:20

MissMoneyFairy · 03/03/2026 22:17

Is he still harassing you, I had similar when the council tax final bill was sent to my old address with my new address on it. Some people are just thoughtless and careless and don't understand the worries they cause.

Not anymore but I haven't seen him for months. Just the odd private number calling. Might not be him but prob is

OP posts:
Viennaspark1 · 03/03/2026 22:21

It's horrific. I've never felt so small and vulnerable. I know i won't always feel like this but it's just really awful.

OP posts:
JohnofWessex · 03/03/2026 22:22

Grievance?

AngryLikeHades · 05/03/2026 10:52

I can imagine how fear inducing this is!

Kimura · 07/03/2026 04:14

Essentially this is a data breach, or multiple data breaches, and potentially a breach of their duty of care.

You say that you initially notified your employer of your change of address when you moved out, and that they've since sent multiple items of confidential mail to the wrong address.

When did you first raise this with them, and did it happen again after you did so? If it did, how many times?

They are obligated to investigate any and every report of a data breach. You say they've apologized, but did they give you an explanation as to how it happened, and what action they've taken as a result? Are you satisfied that it won't happen again?

You have a number of options depending on what you're hoping to achieve.

Internal - If you're simply looking to resolve the issue and make sure it doesn't happen again.

  • You could ask for written confirmation that an investigation has taken place if this hasn't already been provided, including a breakdown of the resulting actions.
  • You could file a formal grievance against the company (and/or a specific department/individual, if the situation warrants it).

If you're in a Trade Union, seek their advice here. If not, ACAS.

External - If you're looking to hold them accountable and/or seek redress.

If the company fails to adequately deal with the breach, or if the initial breach was extremely serious (I would argue that in your case it was), you should refer them directly to the ICO.

You mention the legal route. Depending on the full circumstances, you may have a claim. The bar for a phycological injury claim is high though. Suffering distress/upset is not enough; you'll need a medical diagnosis of severe anxiety, PTSD or similar. Broadly, you'll also need to evidence that it was directly caused or made worse by your employer's actions/negligence, that they could/should have foreseen this happening and could have acted to prevent it.

If you've exhausted the company's internal complaints process and the situation is still so bad that you're compelled to resign, depending on your circumstances you may have a claim for constructive dismissal.

You should seek qualified legal advice ASAP on the above.

In any case, it is vitally important that you collect as much evidence as possible. This includes evidence of the breaches and their impact on you, medical evidence, and evidence of how your employer has responded. Ask for any face to face meetings or formal calls to be minuted, otherwise make your own notes and email them to all relevant parties afterwards.

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