Hi,
This is a question regarding how to start a lawsuit regarding data loss when a company fails to exercise reasonable care in protecting the information, and what amount can be claimed. Interested in acting asap.
I am running a research group of 10 people at a university. When IT performed installation of my new laptop that included data transfer from the previous machine, all the data has been lost (~200 GB).
Most of the lost data is unrecoverable. Therefore critical research records, presentations, grant applications and analysis disappeared. Since scientific work and research group management depends on these records it has been impeded.
The host failed to back up data in an outside location, which is a normal procedure in research institutes that would guarantee the data recovery.
The data that was partially recovered will take a lot of time to restore because file names are not recovered and its not trivial to allocate the information to the right sources. Therefore grant applications that were in preparation will have to be cancelled, particularly a proposal for 7 MSEK to the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research that was supposed to provide 5-year research funding for the research group.
A significant harm is also caused due to the fact that data loss pauses central research activities, interactions with collaborators and teaching commitments that will result in affecting productivity in the immediate term and reputation damage in the long term.
Thank you