Staff error exposes London, Ont., residents' personal information on city website
CBC
When Cassy Player logged on to the City of London’s transportation benefits portal on Sunday evening, she planned to apply for a bus pass subsidy, as she had done the past three years.
As usual, she said, she expected to see a list of her previous applications and personal income information on the website’s home page for the southwestern Ontario city.
Instead, she saw personal information of hundreds of other people who had applied for the transit subsidy, dating back to 2017. Player said that when she scrolled through the website, she saw the full names of applicants, their dependents’ names, birth dates, jobs and income.
“Out loud I said, ‘Is this some kind of joke?’” Player said.
CBC News has viewed the screen shots taken by Player that show multiple pages displaying the information.
The city admits it was made aware of the problem with the website, which is run by a third party called SmartSimple, on Saturday and said it immediately took it off line.
As of Tuesday morning, the site was still offline.
“The City of London takes its responsibility of protecting the security of individuals and their personal information very seriously, and is fully committed to upholding the highest standards of accountability and transparency,” said Cheryl Smith, deputy city manager of neighbourhood and community-wide services.
However, Player said she could still access the website Sunday evening and only noticed it was unavailable Monday afternoon. CBC News viewed screen shots captured around 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
Not only could she access personal information, she could see partially completed applications, and while she didn't do it, she believes could have been able to submit them on their behalf.
“The more I sat with it, I was like, ‘This is not good, right?’ My kids’ information, their birth date, their first and last names are on there. Who wants this stuff?” Player said.
The city said the information of 11 people was visible to the public. It said an update done by staff caused the problem, but it's since been resolved with new proceedures in place to prevent further breaches.
Player said the technical incident has made her especially concerned about the privacy of low-income individuals.
“It’s kind of exposing vulnerable people," Player said. "I don’t know what people can do with this information in regards to identity theft.”
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