A data leak at the recently formed German political party Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) has given unauthorized people access to information on thousands of donors and subscribers to a newsletter.
A party spokeswoman confirmed a corresponding report by Der Spiegel news magazine on Thursday.
According to the report, up to 35,000 people are affected, including 5,000 donors with email addresses and amounts and 30,000 newsletter subscribers with their email addresses.
The spokeswoman said that these are contact people of the BSW, which was founded in October as an alliance by Sahra Wagenknecht, former doyenne of the hard left in Germany.
According to the current state of knowledge, the donor data of the BSW, which officially became a political party in January, are not affected.
The public prosecutor’s office and the responsible data protection authority were informed immediately, the spokeswoman said.
The organization has also contacted its service providers and had security measures reviewed, she added.
Der Spiegel referred to a list that the magazine itself obtained. It records payments from donors to the BSW that were entered on a form on the BSW website up to January 13. It includes names, email addresses and details of whether the donation was more or less than €500 ($547). In the case of donations below this limit, exact amounts were also usually noted.
The party spokeswoman clarified that no further personal data were noted on the file available to Der Spiegel, including bank account details.
(Pic courtesy: IntisTele)
