Port Phillip Council privacy breach exposes 700 email addresses

PORT Phillip Council has admitted a major privacy leak after exposing up to 700 ratepayers’ email addresses

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PORT Phillip Council has admitted a major privacy leak after exposing up to 700 ratepayers’ email addresses in a newsletter to residents about changes in Acland St in St Kilda.

The data blunder was realised soon after the leak occurred last Friday but council only owned up five days later, notifying residents late on Wednesday.

The offending email was sent by the council’s Acland Street Vibrant Villages team to a group of recipients, the City of Port Phillip’s privacy officer said.

A total of 18 complaints have been received so far in response to the gaffe.

“Unfortunately this email was unintentionally sent to a mailing list which resulted in your email address being visible to other email recipients of this message,” the privacy officer said.

Efforts were made to recall the emails but they mostly failed.

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Port Phillip council chief executive Peter Smith.

Port Phillip chief executive Peter Smith said a council officer sent a monthly Acland Street e-newsletter to inform people about events and attractions in the street’s plaza.

“Email addresses were mistakenly entered into the Cc field rather than the Bcc field, and unfortunately the recipients’ email addresses were revealed to each other,’’ Mr Smith said.

“We apologise unreservedly for this human error and understand this is causing privacy concerns for some recipients, an issue we take very seriously.’’

Council has reviewed the problem and was seeking to avoid a repeat by possibly using an alternative mailing program, he said.

The email group of 700 recipients included staff, councillors, traders and ratepayers.

People who were concerned that their privacy had been breached were urged to contact the council to lodge a formal complaint.

The council spent more than $1 million on changes to the popular dining and shopping strip, despite fears of traders.

One of the changes included moving the No 96 tram terminus 54m down Acland St to create a mall.

The Port Phillip privacy breach comes after Kingston Council had to appoint an independent investigator in November 2016 when it emailed 900 people with an attached spreadsheet containing the details of more than 2000 child and maternal health care clients.

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@IanRoyall