Personal data goldmine for celebrity stalkers and hitmen leaks top secret info ... trends now
EXCLUSIVE
A Victorian government website that reveals home addresses of TV and movie stars, stalker victims and hitman targets, as well as random strangers, has been slammed.
Daily Mail Australia has been able to access the home addresses of everyone from acting judges and multimillionaire businessmen to protected witnesses, news reporters and celebrities.
The site, which Daily Mail Australia has chosen not to reveal, has been created to help people establish if they are owed money by the government.
However, an easy exploit allows anyone to look up the names and addresses of these people simply by punching in a surname and the suburb where the intended target lives.
While people using the website do need to have some knowledge of where a person might reside, there is no limit to the number of times users can try to hit the correct suburb.
It is understood young Australians have been alerted to the 'hack' by a TikTok video, which instructs them how to manipulate the search function for nefarious outcomes.
Daily Mail Australia spoke to several shocked Australians that were oblivious to their home details being published online by the Victorian government.
Celeste Manno was murdered after stalker Luay Sako managed to track down her address online
One high profile Victorian who has endured repeated death threats said he was outraged at the ease of which his personal details could be accessed.
'What's the point of taking your name off the electoral roll if someone can just pull up your address by punching in your surname on a government website?' he blasted.
Addresses of protected people are often displayed due to their partner, parents or children appearing in the search results.
'I'm kind of surprised it is so easy,' a Victorian government insider told Daily Mail Australia.
The Australian Electoral Commission lets eligible people remove their name from the electoral roll, but the Victorian search engine appears to bypass those restrictions.
Di McDonald, who made nationwide headlines over her horror experience with a stalker, told Daily Mail Australia she was disgusted by the government website.
Ms McDonald had previously gone to war with former Victorian Premier Dan Andrews over his introduction of the health information sharing bill, which came into effect in February.
'It’s against our human rights to have our most private information at any medical persons beck and call. They could then pass it on to someone like my stalker,' she said.
'To now find out another government department is allowing people’s most private information to be accessed is insane.
'There are a few others I’m aware of - some have fees to find out information but most don’t. This age of technology we live in makes it very easy for stalkers to locate you. It’s horrific.'
Di McDonald was ruthlessly stalked by a man she met while working in a Big W shop
Aggie Di Mauro - the mother of murdered woman Celeste Manno - slammed the Victorian government for the privacy breach.
'I'm perplexed and outraged at realising just how easily available our information is on so many of these government websites,' she said.
Luay Sako used the internet to find Celeste Manno's home. The Victorian Government is operating a similar service free of charge
'They're irresponsible, incompetent and more to the point actually breaking our clearly ridiculous privacy laws.'
Ms Di Mauro's daughter was cruelly murdered in her own home by stalker Luay Sako after he found her address online.
'Our information on any website, government or otherwise, should only ever be an opt in,' she added.
'You shouldn't have to know to opt out. That's actually deceiving the public because most won't know our information is readily available on any government website.
'It would never occur to us, especially given we're under the impression that the Privacy Act protects us from something so intrusive.'
