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Japanese officials bungle Google privacy settings, revealing senstive documents including treaty negotiations, hospital records

Japan’s bureaucrats used the wrong privacy settings for Google Groups online discussions, allowing anyone to see internal memos including one on negotiating positions for an international treaty, the government says.

Environment ministry mandarins were among those who used the default settings on Google Groups, which allow public access to discussion threads, instead of limiting them to members only.

The mass-selling Yomiuri Shimbun said it found more than 6000 cases where information from public or private organisations, including hospital records, was publicly available.

The Yomiuri, the world’s biggest-selling newspaper, also admitted its journalists had been using the wrong settings on Google Groups, and may have revealed draft stories and interview transcripts to anyone who wanted to see them.

Google Groups allows users to establish or join discussions on any subject, which can be accessed either by email or through the web.

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