Wrong email address provided

[tony84]

This has not happened but I am sure it will do, if not for me for someone...

Lets assume I give my email address as [email protected] (and miss out the o in my name) or something less obvious. If the person then sends confidential information - has GDPR been breached?

 

[alan1302]

No

 

[Mike Kilby PC.dp]

If this is you asking customers to send you information, it wouldn't be a breach but it also wouldn't look very professional to give out a wrong email.

If it's you giving another business your email, and they're using it, there is a potential GDPR breach here, but not necessarily what you think.

If you've given them an email and they send to it that itself is not a breach because you gave them that email and the error is yours. I have actually done that by giving someone an email containing a dot instead of an underscore.

Where there is a potential breach however is this;
When collecting personal data, the Data controller has a responsibility to ensure it is accurately collected. This is why often there's a "enter your email" and "re-enter your email" on webforms, to ensure it's not been mis-typed, of why some systems send a confirmation email when collecting a new email address.
Technically if they've failed to verify the email you gave them was accurate, they are failing to meet the Accuracy principle of GDPR.

Worse still however is sending confidential information by email. If they choose to send such information "in the clear" by email, they are breaching the Security principle of GDPR. Any confidential information send by email should be encrypted, or at the very least password protected.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I would have thought that in your game Tony you could be on very dodgy ground.
Your dealing with files that are of great confidentially to your customers

 

[Newchodge]

Not quite relevant, but there was an employment law appeal recently. Something had to happen within x time of the claimant receiving notification by email. The claimant made a mistake in their email address, and that is where the notification was sent. The court held that the time had not started to run when the email was sent because it was not sent to the claimant.

 

[tony84]

I would have thought that in your game Tony you could be on very dodgy ground.
Your dealing with files that are of great confidentially to your customers

I agree.

It was more of just a generic question though as someone sent me their email address but when typing it out it either autocorrected to something else or they just typed it out wrong.

Nothing confidential, I just emailed our terms of business over, which are on our website in the public domain anyway. I just thought this probably happens quite a bit so wondered where we stand.

We actually use a portal for our customers so important documents are stored on there for customers to log in and download... or at least it will be rolled out fully from next month.