LTA circular to potential EV charger owners reveals hundreds of e-mail addresses under carbon copy feature 

[SINGAPORE] More than 350 e-mail addresses of individuals were shown to all recipients of an e-mail circular from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) sent on Monday (May 4). 

The message, seen by The Business Times, was sent at around 5.50 pm by the authority’s National Electric Vehicle Centre (NEVC) to inform potential owners of private electric vehicle chargers about a new digital service on the OneMotoring platform to register EV chargers with the authority. 

It was sent with addresses under the carbon copy feature instead of blind carbon copy (bcc), meaning that all recipients could see all the other e-mail addresses in the chain. 

A follow-up e-mail was sent at 10.44 pm to apologise for inadvertently disclosing the e-mail addresses. 

Lim Yong Xian, deputy director of EV regulations at NEVC, said: “The staff involved has been counselled and advised to exercise greater care in handling such information. We have since reinforced our processes to ensure that recipients’ e-mail addresses are placed in the ‘bcc’ field in future, to prevent a recurrence.”

Public agencies are not governed by the Personal Data Protection Act, but they have to comply with Government Instruction Manuals and the Public Sector (Governance) Act (PSGA).

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PSGA can enact criminal penalties on public officers who knowingly disclose or misuse data, among other things.