Swale council has been forced to apologise and may face investigation after the email addresses of about 2,500 residents were sent out to the public.

A blunder meant they were inadvertently shared on a message promoting an e-billing system.

The emails were sent out in batches of 10, containing about 250 contact details on each.

It led to uproar among residents with many venting their anger about breaches of the Data Protection Act (DPA) via Facebook.

"Your email address is the starting point for most hackers; In the wrong hands it can lead to spam, phishing, virus etc that can get into your system and retrieve info" - victim

One victim wrote: “Your email address is the starting point for most hackers.

“In the wrong hands it can lead to spam, phishing, virus etc that can get into your system and retrieve info.

“Before you know it, they’re in your banking and retail accounts so potentially serious.”

Another said: “Completely unacceptable – such ‘errors’ should NEVER occur.”

Simon Mastin said: “I do feel lessons need to be learnt from this and we should be told what they are going to do to put it right.

"It is a serious breach of the DPA and it does make you concerned as to what other information could be shared by mistake.

“Perhaps they could compensate us for this gross error?”

But Amanda Kent, of Lynsted Lane, Lynsted, was forgiving.

The 41-year-old married mum-of-two said: “I just think mistakes happen. It was a total of 247 email addresses I was privy to.

“I’m quite IT literate but what the hell am I going to do with them? They were all my neighbours.

“I’m sure if anyone challenged me to find their email addresses I could do it by searching on the internet anyway.”

The Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s independent public authority set up to uphold information rights, is considering taking action against Swale council.

A spokesman said: “We’re aware of this incident and will decide what further action, if any, is required.

“This case highlights the importance of organisations making sure they use blind carbon copy, not carbon copy when sending emails to multiple recipients who do not need to know the other people’s email addresses.”

It can prosecute people or organisations who break the law and can also issue fines.

A Swale council spokesman said: “As soon as the human error was realised no further emails were sent but a sincere apology was issued to all of those concerned.

“The matter is being looked into and we can reassure residents that no other personal information has been shared.”

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