Japanese officials, confused about Google Groups privacy settings, aired emails on global treaty negotiations

Officials at four government bodies unwittingly leaked their sensitive emails by failing to understand how Google Groups works.

“The careless use” of privacy options made public messages exchanged among government and private sector individuals.

The Environment Ministry sent out information on negotiations for an international treaty that ended January, including the contents of meetings with officials from other nations. Within that ministry, “66 e-mails sent from Jan. 10 to Jan. 21, the span of time corresponding to the preparation, conducting, and follow-up of negotiations at the Minamata Convention on Mercury, could be viewed by anyone on the Internet.”

A message sent on Jan. 15 contained the draft of a statement to be made the following day by Ryutaro Yatsu, then vice minister for global environmental affairs, who served as chief negotiator for the convention. Details on meetings held with Swiss and Norwegian delegations on Jan. 13 were also included in the thread.

“Our security awareness was weak,” a ministry official said.

Here’s how the goof happened: Google Groups registrants can participate in discussion threads through either e-mail or the Internet. Because the default settings allow public access to all discussions, likely, many government users unintentionally shared the contents of their group threads with all Google Groups members.

Other government entities involved include the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry; Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry; Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry; and Reconstruction Agency.

According to reports, “seven medical institutions and nursing care facilities had no privacy restrictions on their discussions, which included medical information on more than 300 patients.”

Personal information, including health checkup records of high school students, data on the home environments of middle school students, a list of names of supporters of a political party and persons registered in an alumni directory were also aired publicly.

There were 25 officials there involved in the Environment Ministry gaffe. The aim of the convention they were discussing was to regulate the export and import of mercury.

The ministry's “messages vanished from public view after The Yomiuri Shimbun told the ministry about the disclosure,” according to the publication.