Student Finance England, the government quango that helps deal with student loans across the country, has apologised after sending out a mailshot that contained the email address of thousands of students.
The organisation has apologised for what it calls an "administrative error" and has contact all the affected students.
According to The Telegraph an email was sent out to over 8,000 students due to start university this autumn. Unfortunately the email contained an attachment that included the email addresses of every student on the distribution list.
The Student Loans Company issued a statement apologising for the security blunder. "We are sorry that a number of student email addresses have been included in an email which has been sent to other customers."
"The information was sent in error and only included email addresses, no other personal student data was shared," the statement added. "We have contacted all customers affected to let them know about this issue. The integrity and security of student accounts and the protection of personal information is vital to us and we apologise to all of the students involved."
Student Finance England is part of the Student Loans Company, a Government-owned organisation set up to provide grants and loans to UK students.
Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, told the Telegraph: "Just because this information didn’t contain bank details, it doesn’t mean it isn’t useful to people. The fact is that email addresses are increasingly the primary mode of communication for most people. Who knows where it could end up once it is in the public domain?"
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