Due to a mistake made by the Heijmans construction company, 1100 interested parties in a new construction project received privacy-sensitive information from the other candidates for the homes. Among other things, the income and equity of the potential home buyers were in an Excel file that the construction company accidentally sent on Monday, a spokesperson confirms after a message from the AD.
It went wrong with an e-mail in which Heijmans informed the 1,100 candidates that they had been drawn out for the new Koningskwartier construction project in Zevenhuizen. According to the company, due to human error, the file with addresses, dates of birth and the financial details of all interested parties was attached. Because the database also contains information about 700 partners, this concerns a total of 1800 persons.
According to the spokesperson, the error was quickly discovered and attempts have been made to withdraw the mail. But that was no longer possible with the recipients who had already opened the mail. It is not clear how many people now have the mail in their possession.
Authority Personal Data
Heijmans has reported the data breach to the Dutch Data Protection Authority and apologized to the victims. The company says that house hunters normally do not have to report their income, but now it was necessary because it partly concerns housing in the social sector.
One of the candidates for the new construction project says in the AD that the data breach leads to jealousy among colleagues. “My sector works with performance pay. The more you earn, the higher your status is in your job and vice versa. A friend of mine was able to borrow a lot more for his new-build house. And someone else turned out to be below average.”
The victim is afraid that the data will end up with criminals. “It also states how much you could contribute for the purchase of your house. What you have in your own money is literally on the street. It gives me a downright unsafe feeling that someone can see your address and assets.” stop by ‘. “
