The email addresses of more than 3,000 people receiving the government’s monthly tourism stipend were accidentally released by the Ministry of Border Control and Labour Tuesday morning.
The ministry, early on Tuesday afternoon, released a statement acknowledging that the data breach had occurred.
It said that a mass email sent to 3,329 individuals receiving the displaced tourism workers’ stipend to notify them of this month’s payment date “inadvertently displayed the email addresses of all recipients”.
The ministry said the breach was due to human error, and it has reported the matter to the Office of the Ombudsman.
“An apology was sent to all email recipients advising them of the breach and notifying them that the Ministry is making procedural changes to avoid such situations in the future,” the statement said.
The Compass was contacted Tuesday morning by some recipients who said they were upset to see that everyone who received the email could see their names and would know that they were receiving government payment.
One said, “Surely this is a breach of privacy, and it’s also shaming people who have had to receive the stipend.”
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Who is to say it was not done on purpose.Who ever it was should face some consequence..this is incomptenence at its worst!! That information is people’s private right.Its like disclosing to the public everyone on governments payroll.A very serious breach and a lane apology is not good enough!!
Maybe it’s also shaming people who others on the list know should not be receiving a stipend.