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The phone numbers of some of Australia’s most high-profile politicians, including the prime minister and opposition leader, have been made publicly available through an American website that uses artificial intelligence to scrape and collate contact profiles.
The publication on the website, which this masthead has chosen not to name, of individual details including phone numbers and emails has raised concern within the government. It has directed security services to investigate, as some MPs move to have their profiles taken down.
The Prime Minister’s phone number has been made available online. Credit: James Brickwood
Speaking at Parliament House on Tuesday morning, acting prime minister Richard Marles said: “We’re obviously aware of this. We’ve notified authorities, and that is being worked through, but obviously, there is concern.”
Alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, the site lists other numbers for other public figures such as former prime minister Scott Morrison, former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop and numbers for other world leaders, including US President Donald Trump’s business number.
A spokesman for Ley said: “We were made aware of this issue when media contacted us yesterday. This is obviously concerning, and we have reached out to LinkedIn to understand what occurred here. We are waiting for their response. We have asked the website to remove the information.”
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The website, based in the US, offers an opt-out form for users to remove their profile, with contact details taken down within a week of the request being made. Some numbers appeared to be wrong when checked by this masthead.
LinkedIn has been touted as a possible source of the phone numbers scraped by the website, but a spokesperson for the site said they had seen no evidence of a breach of their data. “Our policies are clear that third-party companies taking personal data and using it in ways our members did not agree to is prohibited, and these companies are not affiliated with LinkedIn,” a spokesperson said.
The website and the prime minister’s office have been contacted for comment.
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