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Police leaked sex offender details

DyfedPowysPoliceDYFED POWYS Police Force has been fined £150,000 after an email containing information which could have been used to identify eight sex offenders was sent to a member of the public by mistake.
An investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office into the incident, which happened last year, found that Dyfed-Powys Police did not have the right measures in place to keep personal information secure, and has now fined the force £150,000.
Anne Jones, ICO Assistant Commissioner (Wales), said: “While at first glance this might seem like simple human error, it was made possible by the poor procedures the force had in place around protecting people’s personal data.
“This is a troubling story, and one that will do little to reassure the local community that its police force can be trusted to look after sensitive information.”
The email error came after an officer emailed colleagues with details including a list of eight people based in Powys, including their names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses. The email also contained information that inferred that the individuals were sex offenders.
But the officer mistakenly sent the email to a member of a local community scheme, after selecting the wrong name in the force’s email address book.
That address book was only meant to be used for internal emails, but an ICO investigation found that it had grown to contain frequently used email addresses for people outside of the force. The recipient of the email was the first name in the alphabetical list, and had received five emails meant for other people in just four days in April 2015.
Ms Jones said: “This was an accident waiting to happen. The force failed to take advantage of earlier opportunities to address the problem, and now faces the consequences of getting it wrong.”
Deputy Chief Constable Liane James, said: “We accept that mistakes were made and have acted to make the necessary changes to processes and systems. We work hard to ensure the safety of the data available to us and will continue to take the learning from this, now and in the future.”

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