Personal details of world leaders accidentally revealed by G20 organisers

[alp227]

Source: the guardian

The personal details of world leaders at the last G20 summit were accidentally disclosed by the Australian immigration department, which did not consider it necessary to inform those world leaders of the privacy breach.

The Guardian can reveal an employee of the agency inadvertently sent the passport numbers, visa details and other personal identifiers of all world leaders attending the summit to the organisers of the Asian Cup football tournament.

The United States president, Barack Obama, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, and the British prime minister, David Cameron, were among those who attended the Brisbane summit in November and whose details were exposed.

The Australian privacy commissioner was contacted by the director of the visa services division of Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection to inform them of the data breach on 7 November 2014 and seek urgent advice.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/30/personal-details-of-world-leaders-accidentally-revealed-by-g20-organisers

[elleng]

1. OOPS!

[Major Hogwash]

2. Good Christ!!

Nobody is immune from having their personal information blasted all over the freakin' internet!!!!!!!!!!

[heaven05]

3. oh well

s*** happens....

[Sunlei]

4. omg, Putin demands the crusts off his toast & BHO wants smilieface pancakes every breakfast

[cosmicone]

6. BHO? That is a right-wing term for President Obama. n/t

[Sunlei]

7. what? even President Os initials are now poisoned by the radical republican media?

[cosmicone]

8. It is because they made a big deal of his middle name

On every right wing site or show, he was purposely referred to as "Barrack Hussein Obama" thus making the usage nefarious.

Was Jimmy Carter ever called James Earl Carter or JEC? Or Bill Clinton ever referred to as William Jefferson Clinton or WJC?

[Sunlei]

9. we need more space in the DU title line for President Obamas big long name :)

I don't want to call him plain old Obama or BO

[elias49]

5. Oh snap!

Hey, if they have nothing to hide...

[herding cats]

10. I'm not sure what damage, if any, can be done with the specific info

“The personal information which has been breached is the name, date of birth, title, position nationality, passport number, visa grant number and visa subclass held relating to 31 international leaders (ie prime ministers, presidents and their equivalents) attending the G20 leaders summit,” the officer wrote.

But how it was dealt with is problematic.

The immigration officer then recommended that the world leaders not be made aware of the breach of their personal information.

“Given that the risks of the breach are considered very low and the actions that have been taken to limit the further distribution of the email, I do not consider it necessary to notify the clients of the breach,” she wrote.

The recommendation not to disclose the breach to the world leaders may be at odds with privacy law in some of their countries.