Gauteng e-Panic Button faces scrutiny over alleged personal-data exposure

The Gauteng e-Panic Button, a R269 million platform aimed at providing emergency services to citizens, is currently under scrutiny due to allegations of a personal-data breach. The Department of e-Government has stated that the incident has been contained without compromising citizens' personal information, but the Gauteng Legislature is demanding independent forensic evidence to verify this claim.

Additionally, the Information Regulator has not received any formal notification regarding the breach. The platform's database is said to have exposed users' identities, locations, crime reports, ID numbers, vehicle registration numbers, and medical aid information. Gauteng Legislature's Chairperson, Mbali Hlophe, has called for an independent examination of the access logs to substantiate the department's claim of safety.

Hlophe also questioned why location data dating back to 2024 remained in an open database, suggesting that the platform should only retain necessary information for a limited time. Gauteng Provincial Government spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga has maintained that the platform is safe, stating that identified issues were resolved before personal information was compromised.

However, Mhlanga has not provided detailed information about the vulnerabilities, the attempted breach, the duration of data exposure, or whether anyone accessed or copied the data.

Brief written by urgent.news from IOL's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.