Federal authorities are investigating after the private phone numbers of Anthony Albanese, Sussan Ley, Scott Morrison and senior government staff were discovered to be freely available in large contact databases published by American marketing companies.
The acting prime minister, Richard Marles, whose own details were available online, said the government held “concern” over the revelation, first reported by the independent media outlet Ette Media.
“We’re obviously aware of this. We’ve notified authorities, and that is being worked through,” he said on Tuesday.
Ette reported on Monday night that a website had published the details of numerous Australian public figures in a large database. The company – which Guardian Australia has chosen not to identify – describes itself as a “data intelligence” tool for business sales, contacts and marketing. Its website spruiks its product as a way to find emails and phone numbers for “professionals” and companies, claiming to have the details of hundreds of millions of people and businesses.
Guardian Australia has verified that legitimate phone details currently or previously belonging to the prime minister and the opposition leader, the former prime minister Scott Morrison, the education minister, Jason Clare, and numerous other politicians have been posted on the website.
Guardian Australia has found a similar set of data and contacts on a separate website, also based in the United States, sharing the details of senior federal politicians and staff.
The websites also list purported details for Marles, former prime ministers Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, numerous senior staff in the prime minister’s office, the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, and independent senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie, which Guardian Australia has not been able to verify. The same website also lists details for Donald Trump Jr, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, among many others.
The contact database appears to be a mix of publicly available information – such as email addresses posted on public websites – and private information.
“No one’s been prank-calling me but maybe that’ll happen this afternoon, so I don’t know,” Minns said at a news conference this morning.
“I think it is a concern if your personal data is out there. We want to make sure that we’re protecting that. But, you know, this is one of the age that we live in. Technology is rapidly changing … this is one in a long line of information from public officials or regular citizens that just seems to tumble out.
“We want to look at ways of strengthening it but I also think in some ways it’s going to be inevitable in the future.”
Federal political sources downplayed the seriousness of the issue, believing the issue is not believed to be related to a data leak or breach.
Sources noted the private contact information for politicians was often already widely available and known by stakeholders and members of the public they had interacted with. Some pointed out that politicians often kept the same contact details for years, from when they were more junior politicians who freely distributed their numbers on public documents such as press releases or community announcements.
Some politicians are reaching out to the websites in question to have their details removed, a function those businesses offer on request. Guardian Australia has contacted the websites for comment.
“Obviously, there is concern,” Marles said.
A spokesperson for Ley said they were not aware of her contact details being available on the sites, only learning when contacted by media, and had reached out to online services for more information.
“This is obviously concerning,” Ley’s office said. “We have asked the website to remove the information.”
