Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, Repubblika file judicial protest over data leak

The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation as well as civil society group Repubblika have filed a judicial protest over a data leak that includes personal details and political preferences of 337,384 individuals. 

The judicial protest, filed by Matthew Caruana Galizia and his father Peter as representatives of the foundation, and several members of Repubblika, said that their personal data was in an online database administrated by C-Planet (IT Solutions) Limited, owned by Philip Farrugia, a former Labour Party media employee.

The Labour Party had previously distanced itself from the leak and said the breach is being investigated by the Data Protection Commissioner.

"For a time, this database was accessible to anyone on the internet, without restrictions, and permitted anyone to search for a particular person's sensitive data," the judicial protest read.

The protest was filed on Wednesday and said that the database included the perceived political preferences of the people listed; such information, the plaintiffs said, was sensitive according to data protection laws.

Such a leak, they said, resulted in material and moral damages to the people involved.

"Such information was collected and processed illegally and in an abusive manner, intended to threaten or ruin the privacy and democratic rights of the people," the protest read.

Repubblika said that the Labour Party had also been informed of the judicial protest. The NGO has invited anyone who feels he has been wronged by the data leak to join their cause and sign an application.

It involves all people who were eligible to vote in the 2013 general election.