De Telegraaf reported that the municipality of The Hague reported a data breach on Tuesday. This concerns an email that was sent by the municipality itself to one hundred and eighty parents whose children are on the waiting list for swimming lessons in one of the municipal swimming pools. An attachment with private information about twenty-six hundred children was added to the email.
“The purpose of the email was to conduct a survey about swimming lessons. The wrong list was sent,” the council writes in a letter to the Hague city council, which speaks of a ‘human error’. The appendix contains information such as telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, home addresses and names. After the error was discovered, the municipality’s Privacy Officer was informed within an hour. “Technically an attempt was made to undo the sending of the email. We have no guarantee that this has been successful in all cases,” the council writes. Those involved, whose private data was shared, were informed on Monday evening.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority was also informed about the data breach. “Technically and procedurally, all necessary steps have been taken to minimize the risk for those involved and the municipality,” the municipal council said. “We deeply regret that this could have happened and apologize to all involved.”
The Hague city hall apologizes for the mistake.
Cookie Consent with Real Cookie Banner