Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne has issued an apology after identities of Australians who are stranded overseas were accidentally exposed in an email.
"I am very sorry these events have occurred," Payne said, speaking to ABC Radio[1] on Friday morning.
This latest incident is the third privacy breach in three months.
This time around, according to initial reports by Guardian Australia[2], the incident occurred when the Australian embassy in Paris sent an email to Australians who had registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to return home. In the email, the contact details of at least 15 Australian citizens were reportedly included in the "Cc" section.
"It is not an ideal situation at all," Payne continued.
"I've spoken with the secretary of my department about this. We know this is an issue that needs to be addressed. We understand the secretary is taking it up with officials to endeavour to ensure it doesn't happen again.
"It's not something I like to see. I know we try to be very careful with people's personal information, as we should be, and observe our privacy obligations."
ZDNet has contacted DFAT for further comment.
Earlier this month, DFAT issued a similar apology for accidentally revealing the email addresses of nearly 3,000 stranded Australians by including them in the "To" field in an email, instead of the "Bcc" field, according to Guardian Australia.
More than 32,000 Australians remain stranded overseas. There is currently a weekly cap of 6,000 international arrivals.
Repatriation flights have been organised by the Australian government. The first flight from London will arrive on Friday in Darwin where passengers will spend two weeks in quarantine.
Last year, the personal data of 300 Australian visa applicants was