WE live in an age when “identity theft” has become all too easy – and where the consequences can be costly and very painful.

Our personal privacy is under threat as never before. Internet shopping sites often seem to know what we want to buy before we do.

Public organisations that hold confidential information about us have a duty to guard it very carefully. It’s very unfortunate, therefore, that staff at City of York Council have apparently been less than careful about the way they safeguard the personal data they hold on ordinary people.

There were no fewer than 27 “data security incidents” at the council in the nine months up to December 2014. These ranged from posting or emailing personal information to the wrong people to storing confidential data in unlocked cupboards or bookcases and even losing a mobile containing private information.

Fortunately, none of these lapses seem to have had serious consequences. And despite the security breaches, inspectors have rated the council’s record on data protection as ‘reasonable’.

But the council must do better. It holds privileged information about many people in York. It has a duty to make sure this information is kept secure.