Ex-employees taking contact lists and other information from company databases with them when they go is becoming a major source of legal disputes.
The High Court heard a record 167 disputes over confidential business information “theft” last year, the majority being civil claims brought by businesses against former employees. The figure marks a 58% rise on 2011, when there were 106 such cases. There were just 45 in 2010.
Mark Finn, Principal at EMW law firm, which sourced the figures, said: “The boom in cloud computing and the widespread use of services like Dropbox have made copying a large database something that can be accomplished by virtually anyone in seconds.”
