City of Port Phillip Accidentally Published Personal Information

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

The Metropolis of Port Phillip Council has by chance revealed to information.gov.au private info of an unknown variety of residents who had reported graffiti, in keeping with an article from ITNews supported by a assertion launched by the council.

In accordance with the assertion, throughout work to automate the technology of a graffiti dataset, an incorrect model was chosen which led to the unapproved publication of non-public info resembling names, cellphone numbers and/or e mail addresses of the individuals who reported graffiti to the council. Because the article notes, of the roughly 764 e mail addresses and 859 cellphone numbers that had been revealed, 53% of the e-mail addresses belonged to companies and 28% of the cellphone numbers had been for landlines and 1300 numbers.

The council purportedly grew to become conscious of the breach on 5 October 2020, and following an inside investigation it was decided that the information breach began in March 2020. The council has indicated that the breach is being appropriately addressed by the group and that every one steps will probably be taken to make sure that future breaches of this nature don’t happen.

An extra concern for the council, nevertheless, was that in some cases, the property deal with used to determine the placement of the graffiti may hyperlink to the related particular person who reported the graffiti to that deal with. We perceive that getting your fence “tagged” by graffiti is irritating for residents of the council. Nonetheless, maybe the digital “spraying” of the complainant’s cellphone quantity, e mail and in some circumstances addresses would signify a much more regarding matter.

We are going to preserve you up to date on any additional developments.