Brandon police database of locations, owners of private security cameras accidentally made public

The City of Brandon says a database with information on the locations of private security cameras and contact information for those who own them was accidentally made public.

In a release on Tuesday, the city said it was made aware of the privacy breach late in the afternoon on Oct. 21, and pulled the information offline within 15 minutes of discovering it.

It said the database contained the locations of business and private residence security cameras that the Brandon Police Service is aware of, in order to assist with investigations. The information is kept in strict confidence and was never intended to be publicly available, the city said.

The dataset included details such as the street address, physical location and vantage point of the cameras, as well asthe business name and contact information, such as names and phone numbers.

The city said the ability to access the database and information information was available for fivedays from the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 16, until Wednesday, Oct. 21.

It appears only the individual who brought it to the city's attentionaccessed the map information, the city said.

The city has reported this situation to the Manitoba Ombudsman.