Cambridge Water & South Staffs Water

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Hi
Just before Christmas Cambridge Water & South Staffs Water both sent out letters to customers informing them of a data breach in August 2022.
This week some customers are now receiving letters stating that it was their data that is now available on the Dark Web.
My dad is one of them with South Staffs Water.

The letter explains as to what information (personal details, account info and DD info) has been taken, and then refers to their website http://south-staffs-water.co.uk/help-and-advice/support#supportamdadvice

With in the website it goes in to more detail as to what happened, action taken, notifications and support.

Now it's under the support area I have questions.

1) There is no mention of anything relating to compensation.
I thought under the UK GDPR compensation can now be claimed for Distress as well as Financial loss. Am I correct in saying this and do you have any information on how to do this.
There are a lot of ambulance chasers on the internet offering to claim for the customers impacted.  I think I read somewhere that an award can range from £50 to £1000 -- even £50 is better than nothing.

2) This is the one that peeves me a little:
They have said that they have worked with TransUnion and secured a service called True identity for a period of 12mths. 

Good for them and well done some people may say... But:

True identity alerts if your data is on dark web (clearscore offer similar) but what's the point as they have already confirmed the data breach and the info is on the dark web.

Also what happens after 12mths free?, Yep you have to pay for it.
Now they provide a link to a login page, where you can click to sign up.
At signup you need an access code (presuming this is generated by south Staffs)
So based on that my assumption is South Staffs Water will now get a referral fee for every monthly payment you make after the 12mths free is up.

It looks like they admit to a data breach, offer no form or way to compensate and make money off this breach.

Am I being a fool in thinking the above or is there genuine cause for concern?

[dx100uk]

there is not normally any financial compensation upon these unless it en-masse and everyone gets a small sum.

and you most certainly dont need any kind of external protection.

 

sadly these things happen.

 

dx