8,000 Students' Details Leaked

More than 8,000 students' email addresses were accidentally revealed by Student Finance England last night after an administrative error. In a mass email sent out to students due to start university this autumn, the staff inadvertently included an attachment with the email addresses of everyone on their distribution list.

Student Finance England is part of the Student Loans Company- the public body responsible for awarding loans and grants to students starting university. After the blunder, they were quick to apologise, releasing a statement:

"The information was sent in error and only included email addresses, no other personal student data was shared. We have contacted all customers affected to let them know about this issue. The integrity and security of student accounts and the protection of personal information is vital to us and we apologise to all of the students involved."

However, this is not the first time the agency has come in for criticism, as in both 2009 and 2010 thousands of students were forced to start university with little money after their grants and loans were delayed.

Privacy Concerns

The Telegraph newspaper spoke to Nick Pickles, the director of privacy and civil liberties group, Big Brother Watch, who was concerned by this most recent mistake:

"Just because this information didn't contain bank details, it doesn't mean it isn't useful to people. The fact is that email addresses are increasingly the primary mode of communication for most people. Who knows where it could end up once it is in the public domain? If you were to go to a credit reference agency and say, ‘I have the email addresses of 8,000 people in receipt of student finance, would you find it interesting?'. Of course they would."

Whether or not there will be any repercussions to this mistake, yesterday was certainly a bad day at the office for one member of staff.

Share with friends