What is an example of a breach of confidentiality?

Asked by: Royal Murphy V  |  Last update: September 2, 2025
Score: 4.4/5 (61 votes)

Breach of confidentiality examples Medical records being disclosed to a third party without your consent. An email containing confidential information is sent to the wrong person. An employee discusses their employer's affairs with someone outside of the organisation.

What are five examples of breach of confidentiality?

Breaches of Confidentiality
  • Lost or stolen laptops storing participant information.
  • Lost or stolen USB/thumb drives with unencrypted participant information.
  • Accessing PHI without a business need to know.
  • Any unencrypted PHI sent outside of the Health Sciences Center.

Which example represents a breach of confidentiality?

Final answer: The example that represents a breach of confidentiality is discussing patient information in public places, as it involves unauthorized disclosure of patient information. Other options are related to billing fraud rather than privacy violations.

What counts as a breach of confidentiality?

A breach of confidentiality is when data or private information is disclosed to a third party without the data owner's consent.

Which of the following is considered a breach of confidentiality?

Examples of breach of confidentiality

An employee steals confidential data. An employee discloses information like bankruptcies and any other data they deem to be non-confidential. An employee sends an email to a client's competitor with confidential data. An employee talks about confidential data somewhere else.

What is Confidentiality? Different types, Examples and breach of confidentiality

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Which example may illustrate a breach of confidentiality?

Here's some breach of confidentiality examples you could find yourself facing: Saving sensitive information on an unsecure computer that leaves the data accessible to others. Sharing employees' personal data, like payroll details, bank details, home addresses and medical records.

How to prove breach of confidentiality?

Legal Implications of a Breach of Confidentiality

Proving a breach requires collecting evidence such as emails, documents, and other records showing unauthorized disclosure. Witness testimony from individuals who witnessed the breach or have relevant information is crucial.

Can I sue for breach of confidentiality?

Anything your doctor shares without your consent can be a breach of confidentiality unless there's an exception under the law. You can sue your doctor for breach of confidentiality and recover compensation for your physical, psychological, and financial losses.

What information is considered confidential?

Confidential information is personal information shared with only a few people for a designated purpose. The person who is receiving the information from you, the receiver, generally cannot take advantage and use your information for their personal gain, such as giving the information out to unauthorized third parties.

In what instances can you breach confidentiality?

Situations in which confidentiality will need to be broken:

There is disclosure or evidence of physical, sexual or serious emotional abuse or neglect. Suicide is threatened or attempted. There is disclosure or evidence of serious self-harm (including drug or alcohol misuse that may be life-threatening).

Which is a violation of confidential information?

A breach of confidentiality occurs when information given in confidence is disclosed to a third party without consent. Most confidentiality breaches happen accidentally.

What are three confidentiality examples?

Names, dates of birth, addresses, contact details (of staff, clients, patients, pupils, etcetera). Personal bank details and credit card information. Images of staff, pupils or clients that confirm their identity and can be linked to additional personal information.

What is an example of when breaking confidentiality may be done?

There are a few situations that may require a therapist to break confidentiality: If the client may be an immediate danger to themself or another. If the client is endangering another who cannot protect themself, as in the case of a child, a person with a disability, or elder abuse.

Can I get compensation for breach of confidentiality?

If you make a successful claim for a breach of your personal data, you could be awarded compensation for your material damage (money lost because of the compromise of your data) and non-material damage (harm to your mental health due to the data breach).

What is a real life example of confidentiality?

A good example of a method for protecting sensitive data and ensuring confidentiality is requiring an account number or routing number when banking online. Data encryption is another common method of ensuring confidentiality.

What are the 4 examples of the exceptions to confidentiality?

Therapists and mental health professionals are legally obligated to report in several situations:
  • Child abuse or neglect: All states require professionals to report suspected child abuse or neglect. ...
  • Elder abuse: ...
  • Threats of violence: ...
  • Severe mental illness:

What type of information would not be considered confidential?

Non-Confidential Information means information which: (i) is, as of the time of its disclosure or thereafter becomes part of the public domain through no fault of the receiving party; (ii) can be demonstrated by credible evidence: (a) as rightfully known to the receiving party prior to the time of its disclosure, or (b ...

When can confidentiality be broken?

Murder, manslaughter, rape, treason, kidnapping, child abuse or other cases where individuals have suffered serious harm may all warrant breaching confidentiality.

What makes something legally confidential?

1.2 “Confidential Information” means information furnished by the disclosing party, whether orally, in writing, electronically, in other tangible form or format, or through or by observation, and identified as confidential or proprietary, or otherwise disclosed in a manner such that a reasonable person would understand ...

Can you sue someone for telling your secrets?

Do I have a case against my so-called friend who shared this confidential information? A: There is a jury instruction in California for harm caused by public disclosure of private facts.

What are the elements of breach of confidence?

There are three elements to an action of breach of confidence: Confidential information; Disclosed in circumstances of confidence; Actual or threatened disclosure.

Who is liable for breach of confidentiality?

Breach of Confidentiality Under Employment Contracts

Former employees can still be held liable for violations of these terms post-employment. If a former employee is found to have disclosed or mishandled confidential information, the employer may have grounds to sue based on a breach of the employment contract.

What is the most common breach of confidentiality?

A classic example of a breach of confidentiality is mistakenly sending Client A an email that was meant for Client B. In this instance, you've shared Client B's sensitive information with a third party without their consent. This could either be by you as the business owner or one of your employees.

What voids a confidentiality agreement?

Unreasonable scope of the agreement

Setting an unrealistic duration or harsh restrictive terms, like an NDA that lasts a lifetime, can invalidate the agreement. Similarly, having an overly broad agreement that covers information that is not confidential can result in legal complications.

How do you prove a breach?

If you intend to make a claim for damages for breach of contract, you need to be able to prove that:
  1. There was a valid and binding contract in place.
  2. The other party breached the contract.
  3. You suffered a loss as a result of the breach.