The phone numbers of Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese and the US president Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., are among several private numbers that have been made public on a website.
Those of the Australian opposition leader Sussan Ley, the country’s former prime minister Scott Morrison, and its former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop were also listed publicly, prompting a federal investigation.
Albanese’s office confirmed it was aware of the situation, while Ley’s staff said they had requested that the information be removed.
Australia’s deputy prime minister said his government was aware of the website, which is based in the U.S., and had taken measures to address the leak after the privacy breach was reported by independent media outlet Ette Media Tuesday.
“We are obviously aware of this,” Richard Marles said. “We’ve notified authorities and that is being worked through.”
The website, which belongs to a data intelligence company, offers an opt-out form to delete contact details within seven days. The website claims to use AI to scan social media, job portals and other platforms for contact details. It allows users limited free searches on the database, with millions of contacts available and the option to access more through a paid subscription.
However, several numbers on the website are wrongly attributed to powerful world leaders, including India’s Narendra Modi.
LinkedIn may be a key potential source of phone numbers scraped by the website, but says there is no indication of any data breach having occurred on its platform.
“Our policies are clear that third-party companies taking personal data and using it in ways our members didn’t agree to is prohibited, and these companies aren’t affiliated with LinkedIn,” a spokesperson told The Guardian.
Ley’s staff said they became aware of the website after being contacted by local media. “We were made aware of this issue when the media contacted us yesterday,” a spokesperson for the opposition leader told Newswire. “This is obviously concerning, and we have reached out to LinkedIn to understand what occurred here. We are waiting for their response.”
New South Wales premier Chris Minns, whose number was also listed, quipped that no one was “prank calling” him yet, but he was concerned by the breach.
This is not the first time that the private numbers of Australian politicians have been leaked. In 2017, the private numbers of hundreds of MPs, senators and staffers were published on the Parliament House website.
