Australia ordered to pay migrants for privacy breach
An Australian watchdog on Wednesday ordered the government to pay
damages to over a thousand asylum seekers whose personal data was wrongly made
public seven years ago.
Lawyers believe this is the first time in Australian history that
compensation has been ordered for a mass privacy breach.
More than 9,000 migrants had their personal information -- including
their name, date of birth, citizenship, reason for detention and location they
were being held -- mistakenly published online in 2014.
Around 1,300 could now each receive sums of up to US$15,500 within 12
months, after they formed a class action lawsuit to claim damages.
"This breach meant that any
person searching the internet could access the personal information surrounding
thousands of people applying for protection in Australia," said lawyer
Sarah Dale of the Refugee Advice and Casework Service.
"This includes authorities and
indeed even the perpetrators of the persecution, in the countries from which
they fled."
Australia's information commissioner said the Department of Home Affairs
had "interfered with the privacy of 9,251 detainees in immigration
detention by mistakenly releasing their personal information."
The published report "contained embedded personal information that
could identify all persons in immigration detention on 31 January 2014".
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who was immigration minister when the
incident happened, called the breach "unacceptable" at the time.
