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Public Hospital – €400,000 Fine (Portugal, 2018)

€400,000Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados17 July 2018Portugal
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Fine

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A public hospital in Portugal was fined €400,000 for allowing staff to access patient data through fake profiles. This matters because it shows that hospitals must protect sensitive patient information and have proper access controls in place.

What happened

The hospital's staff accessed patient data using false profiles due to a poor profile management system.

Who was affected

Patients whose data was accessed by unauthorized hospital staff.

What the authority found

The authority found that the hospital failed to implement adequate security measures to protect patient data.

Why this matters

This case highlights the importance of strong data protection practices in healthcare settings. Hospitals and similar organizations should regularly review their access controls to prevent unauthorized data access.

Recorded legal citations
Automatically processed
Art. 32 GDPR
Art. 5(1)(f) GDPR
View original scraped data
Art. 5(1)(f) GDPR
Art. 32 GDPR

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Automated check recorded — 6 March 2026.

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Full Legal Summary
Detailed

Investigation revealed that the hospital’s staff, psychologists, dietitians and other professionals had access to patient data through false profiles. The profile management system appeared deficient – the hospital had 985 registered doctor profiles while only having 296 doctors. Moreover, doctors had unrestricted access to all patient files, regardless of the doctor’s specialty.

Related Enforcement Actions (0)

No other enforcement actions found for Public Hospital in PT

This is the only recorded action for this entity in this jurisdiction.

Details

Fine Date

17 July 2018

Authority

Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados

Fine Amount

€400,000

Enforcement Tracker ID

ETid-45

About this data

Data: CMS GDPR Enforcement Tracker
Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Automatically normalized and classified

Cite as: Cookie Fines. Public Hospital - Portugal (2018). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu

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