The Archdiocese of Chicago is offering free credit monitoring to current and former workers after accidentally sharing employees’ personal information with parish business administrators.
The “inadvertent data disclosure” occurred in a March 14 email to administrators that contained a spreadsheet with the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of all current employees, as well as “a substantial number” of former priests and lay employees, the archdiocese announced on Saturday.
Senior leaders at Chicago’s arm of the Catholic Church learned about the snafu on Tuesday and launched an investigation. They’re now offering credit monitoring services “out of an abundance of caution.
“While the Archdiocese of Chicago has no evidence that this data has been shared beyond its parish business administrators, the protection and safeguarding of its employees’ personal information is of the utmost importance,” a statement from the archdiocese read. “The Archdiocese of Chicago takes this matter very seriously and regrets any concern this situation has caused.”
Anyone who was employed by the Archdiocese of Chicago during or after 2007 could be affected, the archdiocese said. A spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment on how many people that might include.
Information as to how to obtain the free credit monitoring services can be found at archchicago.org.