City of Joburg selling email addresses?

The City of Joburg has been accused of either giving away or selling the e-mail addresses of its users, or not adequately protecting the personal information of its residents.

MyBroadband has been provided with information to substantiate this claim. A unique e-mail address, which was only used for City of Joburg communications, received unsolicited messages from the State Theatre.

“I use an individual e-mail address for every business I deal with. City of Joburg is one of them and I’ve received an e-mail from the State Theatre,” the user explained.

“This is an address that only the City of Joburg has (I have no facility to use it as a send from address), suggesting they’ve either been compromised or, more likely, the municipality has been giving away or selling my details,” he said.

The State Theatre stated in the e-mail that it is “intended for opt in communication only. If you feel this e-mail is unsolicited please report it to us”. However, the report goes to Everlytic – a bulk mailing solution.

Everlytic was contacted for information, but they said that they cannot share the information required to establish if spam was sent from their system.

The City of Joburg was also contacted regarding this issue, but they did not respond by the time of publication.

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