City Accidentally Releases Private Info In Apps Data Release Oops

Earlier this summer, the city announced a contest—"NYC Big Apps"—to encourage developers to create applications that harness the city's data and can enrich the lives of New Yorkers. But earlier this week, when releasing some more materials to developers, the city, um, offered up some private data as well!

According to the NY Times, "In what appears to have been an accidental data breach, the city provided, as part of one data set, private information from representatives of women’s groups. A data file containing information on 1,100 such groups that had registered with the city’s Commission on Women’s Issues included fields for each participant’s 'secret question' and answer. (Participants had been asked for the question and answer to log in to the Women’s Resource Network, a Web site organized by the commission.)" In other words, no need for someone on 4chan to hack the secret questions!

Some of the "victims" spoke to the Times—one was upset while another was philosophical, "It wasn’t something like a top-secret Web site. If you came back and told me my credit card company had released my information, I would be more concerned." And the NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications told the Times, "We immediately addressed the issues with the two columns of data out of more than 170 data sets across 30 city agencies and commissions, and reviewed all other information to ensure no similar instances."