A ‘HUMAN ERROR’ is being blamed for a recent data protection blunder at Pembrokeshire County Council after an email which contained contact details for 70 businesses was sent out on Friday (Oct 15).

The email, which was sent from the Trade Waste team at the Council, was sent to businesses who have trade waste agreements with the council informing them that their trade waste would cease due to them not returning their agreements.

The content of the email was intended to be read by the recipient only, however due to a human error instead of the businesses being added through the Blind Copy function – meaning no recipient can see who else is in the email thread – they were sent in the copy function – meaning all 70 businesses could see each other’s personal email addresses.

Not only were email addresses shared, it also tells all 70 recipients that they have each failed to return their waste agreement and that their contracts will be ceased.

The Herald was contacted by a number of businesses who expressed their disappointment at the council for their lack of privacy for account holders.

One local business owner, who wishes to remain anonymous said: “I am deeply concerned that the council have shared my personal information with 69 other businesses. 

“Not only does the sharing of my email address make it possible to be identified personally, and as a business, but it also informs others that I no longer have a trade waste agreement with the Council.

“As a business owner we have extremely strict data protection rules that we must adhere to for both staff and customers and I would expect an organisation such as a council to have more stringent policies in place to avoid this.

“This is wholly unacceptable and I have made my feelings very clear through a formal complaint.”

An email was later sent to all recipients to apologise for the incident and ask for the email to be irretrievably deleted.

The council has said despite employees having to sign up to a data protection policy on start of employment and regular training is given – this mistake was down to ‘human error’.

A small data protection team has been set up to deal with the incident and they have assured this newspaper that remedial action will be taken to ensure this does not happen again.

A Pembrokeshire County Council spokesperson said: “On 15 October 2021, an e-mail was sent to 70 email addresses informing them that they had not returned their trade waste agreements to the trade waste team and as a result collections of their trade waste would cease. 

“As a result of human error, the email contacts were not blind copied and all recipients were therefore made aware of each other’s email addresses. 

“As soon as this error was identified, this was reported to the Data Protection team and a follow up email was sent to all affected parties apologising and asking for the email to be irretrievably deleted.

“This incident will be logged and followed up by the Data Protection Team with remedial actions recommended to help ensure this does not happen again. 

“Pembrokeshire County Council endeavours to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal data. 

“A Data Protection Policy is in place which all employees have to sign up to on commencement of their employment and regular training is provided. 

“A small dedicated Data Protection Team is in place to offer advice and assistance with monitoring compliance.”