Watchdog looking into how data resurfaced 3 days after being deleted
The privacy watchdog is investigating how a confidential file on 20,000 police complainants reappeared on the internet just three days after it was removed from Google's archives.
A person using the moniker 'Big Crook' posted a message onto a local newsgroup website, news. newsgroup.la, on Tuesday announcing that the file was available through BitTorrent, a file-sharing application.
The message claimed the file 'has been downloaded over 200,000 times since it was released 72 hours ago'.
The file, which contains personal details on people who made complaints to the Independent Police Complaints Council, was inadvertently put on a website by a council contractor three years ago.
It was taken off the website after the South China Morning Post revealed on Friday that shareholder activist David Webb had discovered the information while searching for an address on Google. The search engine also removed the file from its archives on Sunday after being notified.
A council spokesman said it was 'extremely concerned' that the information was available again and hoped the file would be removed and those responsible traced and prosecuted.