Public Servants around the State may have unknowingly copied website links from Ministerial media releases onto Agency websites according to the SA Ombudsman.
In a statement, Ombudsman, Wayne Lines (pictured) said his enquiries followed an ABC article which redirected users through a data-harvesting platform that redirected web users through stateliberalleader.nationbuilder.com.
“NationBuilder is known to be a data-harvesting platform used by political parties around the world to collect data for campaign purposes,” Mr Lines said.
The Ombudsman said his enquiries found that that Ministerial media releases had been distributed by the former Office of the Premier to Agencies via a distribution list managed through stateliberalleader.nationbuilder.com.
“It appeared that the practice had been inadvertently carried over when the former Government was elected and the practice ceased in March 2021,” he said.
“It appeared possible that employees of a range of Agencies had cut hyperlinks from the media releases and pasted them on to Agency resources without understanding the potential implications.
“I engaged an expert in cyber security, privacy and the protection of Government data to provide expert advice after studying the functions of several of the hyperlinks in question.”
Mr Lines said that although it appeared that clicking on the relevant hyperlinks produced some form of data which was then sent to the NationBuilder platform, the data itself was a mixture from separate users.
“The data was effectively ‘muddled’ and most likely could not be used in any meaningful way,” he said.
Mr Lines said it was highly plausible that hyperlinks were copied and pasted by public officers who had no knowledge or understanding of the data implications and it would be very difficult to assess whether the data had been used.
“I determined, in my discretion, that it is not in the public interest to take further action in relation to the matter,” the Ombudsman said.
“Even so, the use of stateliberalleader.nationbuilder.com for the management of media distribution lists by the former Government as a carryover from being in opposition is regrettable and created the perception of public information being used for party-political purposes,” he said.
“I have released this statement to raise awareness and as a necessary reminder to all political parties of the importance of Government resources not being used, or having the appearance of being used, for party-political purposes,” Mr Lines said.
The Ombudsman’s two-page statement on his enquires can be accessed at this PS News link.
