Grandmother exposed after Watford Community Housing leak

Sharon Cooper Collins, 50, was one of 3,545 tenants to have personal information revealed in a blunder of “human error” made by Watford Community Housing when it sent out an email on March 23 to inform them of changes to services due to coronavirus.

Attached in the email was a spreadsheet that contained information including full names, gender, addresses, mobile numbers, email addresses, ethnic origins, religion and sexual orientation.

And Ms Cooper, who describes herself as relatively youthful, discovered that disabilities was also listed in the leak.

The email only listed disabilities with a ‘Yes’ / ‘No’ category – and did not name the actual disability - but Ms Cooper explained she normally chose not to tell others of her disability status other than to close friends and families.

Now that some information is public, and to strengthen her case, she has further revealed she suffers from a spinal cord condition which causes a weakness to her left side and relies on a walking stick to get around.

During the time of the leak, she claims the latch of her front door was broken and it was unable to close.

While the issue has since been resolved by Watford Community Housing, she says she was worried that having her adddress -  and the fact she had a disability - exposed, she could have put her in danger.

However, no break in was reported.

She said: “I feel so vulnerable - I live alone and with my front door being broken and my details being known by thousands of people - I’m worried for my safety. Anyone who received this data will now know that I’m a middle-aged disabled woman living alone.

“My most personal details have been violated. I suffer with anxiety and this has made the condition so much worse.”

Although Watford Community Housing has pledged to support those affected with any concerns, Ms Cooper explained she is “upset and angry” that the mistake happened in the first place.

Now after seeking representation with Angelus Law, a Liverpool based law-firm which says they have around 100 clients affected by the issue, she said: “I’m very concerned with how much data has been leaked - someone could potentially steal my identity.”

Oonagh Burns, director of the firm, said: “The Watford Housing Association data breach is an example of how a careless mistake by a data controller/data processor can have devastating effects on individuals, therefore organisations that are controlling and processing individuals’ personal details need to have robust processes in place to ensure events like this do not take place.”

Watford Community Housing has consistently apologised since the leak and offered support – particularly with safety concerns for vulnerable people and those suspecting possible identity theft.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) previously concluded regulatory action should not be taken, but issued some recommendations to prevent a similar incident from happening.

A spokesperson said: “Our customers’ safety and wellbeing is our top priority and we would like to reiterate our apology for the data incident that occurred in March 2020. To support our customers who were impacted by the incident, we provided a comprehensive support package and offered tailored individual support to anyone who has contacted us with concerns.

“We sent a letter to every customer affected, detailing the support that is available, which includes free access to identity and credit monitoring services. We also set up a dedicated helpline to provide one-to-one support and we have worked with a number of our customers in this way to address their specific concerns.

“All of this support remains available and we are focused on assisting any customers affected by the incident. More information can be found on our website at wcht.org.uk and we would encourage anyone who has concerns to contact us by emailing CustomerRelationsTeam@wcht.org.uk so that we can work with them and provide further support.”