City of Knoxville inadvertently revealed employees' personal information last year

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) - The City of Knoxville sent notification letters to employees hired as of Feb. 1, 2018 telling them some of their personal information, such as social security numbers and more, was "inadvertently posted on a procurement website" last year.

1,470 employees were affected by the inadvertent posting of personal data. The city says it discovered that the employee information had been posted - just last week.

The city is offering employees the option of free identity theft protection, credit monitoring and restoration services. The information was immediately removed upon discovery and new policies and procedures have been set in place to prevent this from happening again, the city says.

A procurement website could mean a website seeking services from an external source. The letter also went on to state that the city was not aware of any misuse of the information.

"As someone whose personal information was also posted, I share the concern that such misuse could occur. I want you to know that the City is working hard to help everyone who is affected by this error,"

stated the city's deputy to the Mayor/COO David Brace, who authored the letter.

Social security numbers, names, addresses, genders, birth dates and "other types of employment information" of the city employees were posted. No clinical, health plan claims or financial information was disclosed.