Individuals’ names and medical information may have been exposed in a Chicago Department of Public Health incident, the department said in a notice issued Tuesday.
The department was told in October of an “inadvertent potential disclosure of sensitive information used to generate statistics related to public health and safety,” the department said in the notice, which was published on its website Tuesday. The department investigated and found that certain personal information could be found, when visiting a dashboard showing statistical information, if the visitor took certain steps when viewing the dashboard.
The sensitive information that was exposed may have included a combination of names and medical information.
The department said in the notice it is not aware of any actual or potential misuse of the information.
The notice did not say how many people or which types of individuals were potentially affected, or if the dashboard was on the department’s public-facing website. The department did not immediately respond to questions from the Tribune Tuesday evening about the situation.
The department has reviewed its policies and procedures related to the use of its dashboards “to reduce the risk of a similar event from occurring in the future,” according to the notice, and public access to the data has been disabled.
People with further questions about the incident or who want to enroll in complimentary credit monitoring services being offered to affected individuals may call 877-741-1109.
