The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has mailed private information of Victorian residents to the wrong postal addresses, in a series of privacy breaches that raises questions about the security of voter details on the electoral roll. The privacy breaches exposed the date of birth, email address, driver’s licence number, gender, previous home addresses, country of birth and mobile numbers for electorates, including those held by Environment Minister Greg Hunt and Infrastructure and Transport Minister Darren Chester. ABC’s 7.30 understands the privacy of at least seven residents has been breached by the AEC.
Holly, from Altona in the federal electorate of Gellibrand, applied online to change her electoral details with the AEC on May 12. The resulting mail she received from the AEC contained a pre-filled form which was filled with the private details of another Victorian resident.
That resident also attempted to change their electoral details on the same day as Holly, but received the personal information of yet another Victorian resident, who resides in Mr Hunt’s electorate of Flinders.
The residents began calling in each other find out if their details has been swapped and how they could retrieve their personal information and Holly complained to the AEC.