Scottish Borders Council has apologised for a data breach which affected around 600 customers.
The council was in the process of alerting around 1,300 residents that they are eligible for a payment - but three of the emails sent to multiple individuals displayed all recipient email addresses in error.
The council has now said it apologises if any distress or embarrassment was caused, and asked anyone who received the email to simply delete it.
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All those eligible for the payment will be contacted to confirm eligibility and payment arrangements before the end of this week.
A Scottish Borders Council spokesperson said: “We would like to apologise unreservedly to all our customers affected by this data breach and for any distress or embarrassment this has caused.
We have issued an apology following a data breach affecting around 600 customers and have contacted the Information Commissioner's Office regarding this matter - https://t.co/rCJ0RDXnpr
— SBC (@scotborders) February 18, 2021
“Those customers who have received an email which includes others’ email addresses are asked to delete it. All payments will be made as planned to these individuals.
“Individual email addresses were disclosed, this is personal information. The content of the email also outlined that eligibility for the payment was due to the receipt of free school meals, which we absolutely appreciate is a sensitive matter for individuals.
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“We are taking the incident very seriously and have discussed it with the Information Commissioner’s Office. We are taking steps to put in place a technical solution to minimise the chances of a similar incident occurring again.”
Anyone affected by this data breach with any specific additional concerns should contact our Data Protection team or call 0300 100 1800.
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