I was recently horrified to learn of a Sydney council hosting pdfs and word documents publicly displaying people’s addresses, rennovation costs, phone numbers and more worringly hard copies of their signatures.

Anyone can go to the council’s website, hit search and before you know it half your private life there for all to see. There’s no verification process involved and the pdf’s are extremely clear detail wise.

In an age of private security worries it amazes me that not only is this legal but nobody seems to give a damn that it is.

The website in question belongs to Leichhardt Council in Sydney. If you browse over to their site and click on ‘Application Tracking Online‘ and agree to their disclaimer you are then free to browse the applications.

Punch in some dates to search between and click search at the bottom of the page. From here simply click one of the square boxes in the ‘link’ column of the entry you wish to view. Then all you have to do is click ‘open all’ at the bottom of the page and all the high quality pdfs and word documents become available to you.

Here’s an example of what’s available, note that I’ve pixelated the image to protect the details of the owner;

Clicking on the pdf files reveals a startling amount of high quality information. With a signature, an address and telephone numbers all you’d need is a date of birth to successfully steal someone’s identity. If you’ve sent a personal document to your council it’s all right there for anyone to legally browse from the comfort of their own home.

I checked my own council website the City of Port Phillip and thankfully they don’t host any pdf or word documents although they still publicly list names and addresses. As a matter of public interest it might be worth checking your own council’s webpage and making sure they’re not sharing your personal information with the world.

I know if I’d just filed for a planning permit and anyone could browse over and see all my details I’d be raising hell with my council to have it removed. It’s one thing to go to the council and request to see the documentation and another entirely to just be able to see everything over an internet connection.

With the punishment for stealing and attempting to sell 60,000 credit card holder’s details in Australia being a $150 fine and 12 month good behaviour bond, is it any wonder Australian councils don’t give a crap who has online access to your information?


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