At some point, most of us have experienced the dread of hitting "send" on an email only to realize it went to the wrong person or included unintended recipients. Sometimes, you might be saved by the recall feature, but it’s not always reliable. This often leads to hastily crafted follow-up emails, pleading with the unintended recipient to delete the message. Occasionally, an alert recipient might notice the mistake first, leading to further confusion and panic. While some incidents may blow over without significant consequences, accidental data disclosure can have severe repercussions, potentially landing you in legal trouble.

Sending an email to the wrong recipient poses a substantial risk of improperly disclosing personal data, thereby creating a reportable data breach. Personal information could be in the email’s body or its attachments. Even simply putting email addresses in the wrong field can cause a breach. For example, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) reprimanded NHS North Highland for such an error. They mistakenly sent an email about HIV services to 37 recipients using the “CC” field instead of “BCC,” potentially revealing recipients’ HIV statuses—a significant data breach. Similar incidents involving disclosures about institutional abuse and gender dysphoria have also been reported by the ICO.

Legal Claims from Misdirected Emails

A misdirected email often necessitates reporting the data breach to the relevant data protection authority, especially if it poses risks to individuals’ rights and freedoms. This is particularly crucial if the disclosure might lead to discrimination or financial losses for the affected individuals.

Moreover, a misdirected email can result in legal claims for damages. For instance, a couple unsuccessfully sued a law firm in the England and Wales High Court for sending an account to the wrong recipients because they couldn’t prove actual loss or distress. However, it's easy to imagine scenarios where proving damages is possible, such as leaking sensitive banking details or a celebrity's health condition. The European Court of Justice recently affirmed that a data subject can claim damages if they prove a GDPR provision was infringed, leading to material or non-material damage.

Essential Measures to Prevent Data Breaches

Article 32(1) of the GDPR mandates companies to implement appropriate organizational and technical measures to ensure the security of personal data processing, including email management. The Danish Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet) has provided detailed guidance on outbound email security, requiring compliance by March 1, 2024.

Key points include:

• Conducting and documenting a risk assessment to evaluate potential unauthorized data disclosure through emails.

• Implementing both organizational and technical measures to mitigate risks.

• For organizations frequently sending sensitive data via email, technical measures are mandatory, such as alerting senders if an email is being sent to incorrect recipients.

• Performing a renewed risk assessment after any data breach to update security measures.

• Implementing guidelines for internal and external communications, raising employee awareness, and considering technical measures like copying email addresses from a CRM system, requiring a double-check of email addresses for large data volumes, deleting unused email addresses, activating a sending delay, and switching off the auto-complete function.

The ICO and Ireland’s Data Protection Commission have also issued guidance on sending bulk emails, recommending disabling the auto-complete function and enabling delays to correct errors.

Implementing Practical Solutions

Several dedicated solutions are available to help prevent misdirected emails. For example, SafeGDPR offers an email security plugin designed to stop misdirected emails and prevent malicious data exfiltration.

Given the availability of such tools, they are becoming part of the state of the art for data security. Organizations failing to employ such solutions might be found lacking if a data breach occurs due to a misdirected email. Therefore, it is imperative for organizations to review their email security measures and consider available market solutions to safeguard personal data and mitigate potential regulatory and legal consequences.

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