Wellington City Council Data Breach

This week sees independent reviewers called in to evaluate the extent of a data breach of the Wellington City Council that inadvertently released personal details of people involved in road crashes. The "serious harm data breach" involved details of 1876 crashes involving 4224 people.

In addition to the names of the drivers, the medical details of the drivers were also breached - including their blood alcohol levels, whether they were under the influence of drugs at the time, and resulting hospitalisations. Their car registration numbers and personal accounts of the incidents were released alongside their medical details.

Wellington City Council Chief strategy and governance officer Stephen McArthur said a "harm matrix" has determined that eight individuals reached the threshold for being personally notified. An independent review is underway, and documents are being reviewed and interviews are being scheduled this week.

Additionally, a public notice has been published on the council's website to notify those affected. "We are sincerely sorry to anybody affected, and to the wider Wellington public: we will learn from this incident and endeavour to be a better kaitiaki (guardian) of personal information in the future," the notice said.

The spreadsheet was made public - without redactions - following an official information request for analysis on the council's plan to reduce speed limits on most Wellington streets to 30km/h. Wellington City Council officials used the same spreadsheet when they miscalculated the cost-benefit analysis of the speed reduction plan. The benefit of reducing crashes was overstated by more than $250 million.

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau previously stated that she was extremely disappointed at the news of the data breach. "I can't express how frustrated I am at the data breach, coming as it does on top of the human error made in calculations regarding the 30km/h speed limit. It's just not good enough."