Caerphilly County Borough Council has concluded a data breach investigation after a Traveller family’s personal information was published on its website.
Full names, ages, occupation, and previous travelling locations of the family members – including young children – featured in an unredacted document on a planning application.
The application is for a permanent Gypsy and Traveller site on disused lane in Ynysddu. If approved, it would be first site of its kind the county borough.
Under the application’s proposals, the Gypsy and Traveller site would have two pitches for static and touring caravans, and a shared amenity building.
It would be located on the outskirts of the village near the Ynysddu Hotel, but the application says it would be “well screened” by woodland and would offer the families good access to public transport and the local school.
The personal information, which has since been removed, remained publicly available for several weeks but it had been with the council since April.
A Caerphilly County Borough Council spokeswoman said: “The incident has been investigated and has drawn to a close.
“Measures have been taken to reduce risk of a similar incident occurring in future.”
Authorities are required to report any data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office if there is a risk of emotional distress or physical or material damage to the person or people in question.
The ICO said they had not received such a report from Caerphilly council, adding that organisations are not required to report every breach to them.
“If an organisation decides that a breach doesn’t need to be reported they should keep their own record of it, and be able to explain why it wasn’t reported if necessary,” a spokeswoman said.