Reason for Qantas app ‘privacy breach’ revealed

Qantas has delivered a fresh update after a shock breach of its app allowed some customers to receive other people’s details instead of their own.

Qantas has delivered a fresh update into Wednesday’s data breakdown that temporarily permitted customers to receive other people’s details instead of their own.

In a late afternoon announcement, the national airline said the Qantas app was “currently stable and operating normally following an issue with its homepage today”.

Earlier, an apparent tech glitch upended the widely used app, with travellers reporting seeing other passengers’ information on their app.

Technology expert Trevor Long said he had captured about 12 people’s details, as well as boarding passes in the space of just 15 minutes.

“The thing with a boarding pass is that it has a QR code in it, that’s valid until the flight. “Even if they resolve this issue, that boarding pass is valid,” he said.

“Qantas is going to have to re-issue boarding passes at the very least, which will create chaos for people who saved the boarding pass on their digital wallet on their smartphone.”

A technology breakdown hit the popular Qantas app on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Jono Searle

Another customer told NCA NewsWire they had five different individuals details, status and points show on their app.

“The staff were gobsmacked and played down my concerns of a data breach.”

Qantas has apologised to customers for the issue and said the breakdown flowed from a “technology issue” and may have been related to “recent system changes”.

“At this stage, there is no indication of a cyber security incident,” the company said.

“The issue was isolated to the Qantas app with some frequent flyers able to see the travel information of other customers, including name, upcoming flight details, points balance and status.

“No further personal or financial information was shared and customers would not have been able to transfer or use the Qantas Points of other frequent flyers.

The company announced at 4.50pm that the app was stable and operating normally. Picture: Supplied

“We’re not aware of any customers travelling with incorrect boarding passes.”

At 4.50pm, the company clarified further there were two periods throughout Wednesday where some customers were shown the flight and booking details of other frequent flyers.

“This didn’t include financial information, and no customers were able to transfer or use the Qantas Points of other frequent flyers,” the company said.

“We have processes in place to make sure that customers were not able to board flights using the boarding pass of another customer and there were no reports of this happening.

“We sincerely apologise to all customers impacted and continue to monitor the Qantas app closely.”