The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has called for stronger protections for people living with HIV who are being denied “basic dignity and privacy” by repeated data breaches that disclose their HIV status.
This comment comes as the ICO has fined the Central YMCA £7,500 for a data breach that affected people living with HIV.
The YMCA breach saw emails intended for those on a HIV support program sent to 264 email addresses using carbon copy (CC) instead of blind carbon copy (BCC), revealing the email addresses to all recipients.
The ICO said 166 individuals could be identified or potentially identified from their email address. As a result, it could be inferred that these individuals were likely to be living with HIV.
The fine was initially recommended to be £300,000, but this was subsequently reduced in line with the ICO's public sector approach to fines.
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