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Councils accidentally share 2,600 email addresses from housing waiting list
Two councils in the West Midlands have apologised after accidentally sharing the email addresses of around 2,600 people on their shared housing waiting list.
Wychavon and Malvern Hills councils emailed people on the waiting list on 24 August, asking them to register on a new software system.
But email addresses were visible to anyone from the same district who also received the email.
The authorities said their legal teams have concluded that the risk to those affected is low as no other personal information was leaked.
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Vic Allison, chief executive of Wychavon and Malvern Hills councils, said: “Since this was identified, we have risk assessed the situation with the support of our legal team and while it is unfortunate that email addresses were shared, there were no other identifiable or personal pieces of information shared and therefore the risk is low.
“These email addresses have not been shared anywhere else.
“The error was identified straight away and was reported to our data protection lead who, after seeking guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office, is providing advice and recommendations on next steps.
“We sincerely apologise for any distress that may have been caused by this mistake and we will do all we can to ensure that mistakes such as this don’t happen again going forward.”
Wychavon Council had 2,892 households on its housing waiting list at the end of 2018/19, while Malvern Hills had 1,531.
There have been multiple personal data issues in the social housing sector since 2019.
Home Group contacted around 4,000 residents last October warning them of a “possible data vulnerability” in its IT systems.
In March, Watford Community Housing accidentally sent out an email containing contact and personal details, including ethnicity and sexual orientation, about a “significant portion” of its customers.
