Stormont 'inadvertently' publishes personal data - including private emails and sexual orientation - online

Concerns about the page on the Assembly website were raised with officials and the Information Commissioner’s Office by TUV MLA Timothy Gaston on Thursday evening.

However, the personal data which was still available to view on Friday morning. It has since been taken down, with a message saying “this consultation is temporarily unavailable” appearing instead.

It relates to a consultation run as part of the Executive Office committee’s inquiry into gaps in equality legislation in Northern Ireland.

Respondents were given options about whether they wanted their response published, or kept private. However, there were two options for those who wanted their views to be made public. The second – “publish response anonymously” – offered to remove “all personal identifiers including name, organisation and email”.

It appears that many of those who had personal information published had not selected this second option. Some respondents had used official email addresses of organisations they worked for, however others had provided personal email addresses.

In an email alerting officials to the issue on Thursday evening, Mr Gaston said: “Where members of the public and groups have responded saying that they do not wish to be anonymous their personal information (age, name, email address and even in some cases their sexual orientation) has been published online. I believe this presents a serious data protection issue – one which I will be drawing to the attention of the Information Commissioner”.

An Assembly spokesperson said: “We have become aware that information within some of those responses, which may not be directly relevant to the Inquiry, was inadvertently published on our website. As a precaution, the consultation documents have been temporarily removed. We will comply fully with our obligations under the UK GDPR, including notifying the ICO, if appropriate.”