An infectious disease research institute under the Danish health ministry inadvertently sent a letter containing health information on nearly the entire Danish population to a Chinese visa office in Copenhagen, reports Reuters.
The Serum Institute is a public enterprise within the Danish health ministry. The institute sent two unencrypted CDs with "very comprehensive" data on 5.3 million Danes to the country's statistics office. However, the CDs ended up at the ChineseVisaApplicationServiceCenter in Copenhagen, which is close to the statistics office, according to the report.
The CDs and the letter contained information on cancer, diabetes and psychiatric diagnoses, in addition to some demographic information of individuals living in Denmark between 2010 and 2012, Reuters reports.
The mistake was reportedly realized when an employee at the Chinese Visa office, which contracts work to a private firm, opened the package, and upon realizing she was not the intended recipient, gave the package to the statistics office, reports CSO.
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