By Victoria Stone-Meadows
The City of Casey has called in police and the privacy commissioner after a bag of documents and a laptop containing sensitive information was stolen from a council employee’s car.
The documents and laptop computer were stored in the boot of a car belong to a council employed Maternal Child Health practitioner when they were stolen on Saturday 20 May.
Some 100 families from across the municipality have been affected by the theft of personal information and the City of Casey has notified and offered support to everyone involved.
While the council has stated the stolen documents did not contain any personal health information it has not clarified how much detailed information has been compromised.
The council has confirmed it will be reviewing procedures relating to documentation to avoid a repeat situation occurring in future.
“Given the extreme seriousness of the matter, council has launched an investigation to establish the facts and is reviewing its document management procedures,” a council statement said.
The theft has been reported to police and the Commissioner for Privacy and Data Protection has been made aware the information was stolen.
The commissioner has responsibility to ensure organisations such as local government comply with the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) as detailed in the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014.
