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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's mobile phone number made available online

21 points by RileyJames 1y ago

discordance 1y ago
We know Albanese is a loyal Qantas Frequent Flyer member [0], so this may be related to the recent Qantas breach - “ Hackers release Qantas customers' data on dark web. The stolen data included some customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and frequent flyer numbers.“ [1] 0: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/28/anthony-albanese-qantas-flight-upgrades-claims-chairmans-lounge https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/28/anthony-alb... 1:https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-11/hackers-release-qantas-customers-data-on-dark-web/105881266 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-11/hackers-release-qanta...
Antifa4HN 1y ago
[flagged]
defrost 1y ago
Albo Yet to Receive Single Phone Call After Number Leaked Online ~ https://theshovel.com.au/2025/10/14/albo-yet-to-receive-single-phone-call-after-number-leaked-online/ https://theshovel.com.au/2025/10/14/albo-yet-to-receive-sing... A crestfallen Anthony Albanese says he hasn’t received a single phone call, text, or even a cheeky meme, after his personal phone number was leaked online this week. “I honestly thought I’d be inundated,” the PM said at a press conference today, staring at his phone’s empty notifications screen. “Not even a scam text pretending to be Australia Post”. Albanese said he’d even logged into a website that requires two factor identification, just so he would receive at least one text message. “But they ended up sending me a code to my email address instead. My phone’s still empty”.
- Simulacra 1y ago
  That's hilarious, satire aside, would you call him? I thought it would be very interesting if the public could submit questions to the Prime Minister during PMQ, and not just rely on their elected official. Make sure they are reasonable and professional, and ask him.
  - defrost 1y ago
    I wouldn't call him, not unless he was swimming in my dam. No one deserves the out of band hassle. He was on the Australian TV Q+A which had questions submitted by the general public, and it's not all that hard to get meaningful questions put forward in Parliamentary Question Time .. which is better for all as it goes on the record via Hansard. * https://www.abc.net.au/about/media-centre/press-releases/q-a-returns-for-2025-with-prime-minister-anthony-albanese/104954886 https://www.abc.net.au/about/media-centre/press-releases/q-a... * https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard * House Question Time, 9 October 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU9mf2sMfe8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU9mf2sMfe8
    - Khaine 1y ago
      I've written to the Prime Minister and nary a response. I'd call him and complain about his government's failings, and failure to respond in a timely manner to concerns and letters directed to him. I'd call him useless, but lets be frank he is no worse than his peers, or recent prime ministers from both sides of Parliament.
      - defrost 1y ago
        TBH if you called me with general complaints et al. I doubt I'd bother replying either. If there's any actionable issue that you want to raise a better starting place is with whatever minister has the portfolio that's relevant. Also write (and cc the minister) to whatever national reporters are covering that domain. It's about finding the leverage to raise awareness and response to whatever policing, agricultural, medical, defense, et al. questions or concerns you have.
- tdeck 1y ago
  TIL there is an Australian version of The Onion.
mrkeen 1y ago
Australia still requires metadata collection and storage for all telcos and ISPs. Remember the phrase "metadata isn't data"? If it's your metadata, collection and storage is mandated. If it's their metadata, they send in the police to put a stop to it.
- Simulacra 1y ago
  I think this is sort of a broad-spectrum feeling among many of the elite, government, etc. They want to know everything about you, but how dare you question anything about them. I'm not talking about flight tracking, I think that's a different subject, but the lead attitude around information is a serious problem.
zokier 1y ago
I feel the fundamental problem is the idea of phone number being secret or private in the first place. It is just very weak form of access control, I believe we can do much better these days.
- jstummbillig 1y ago
  How so?
  - CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
    Besides being trivial to enumerate, every service and their mother is asking for a phone number, from physical stores/rentals/hotels who sometimes reject you if you say no, to the countless online services either asking for it or requiring it. I must have given away my phone number to hundreds if not thousands of entities after having it for more than 20 years.
    - jstummbillig 1y ago
      I was interested in how we could do much better, but I should have been more specific.
      - zokier 1y ago
        Incoming calls should be subject to acls and default-deny policy should be practical. This means that - caller identity should not be spoofable - identities should form hierarchies and groups so you can allow whole organizations instead of individuals - organizations should use predictable identities for egress calls - most likely managing multiple identities per device is needed (e.g. personal and work identites) etc None of this is particularly difficult technically. Even simply slapping x509 certs on calls and having some basic filtering would achieve a lot.
        CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
        > None of this is particularly difficult technically. Even simply slapping x509 certs on calls and having some basic filtering would achieve a lot. Slapping x509 certs on probably some of the oldest telecommunications infrastructure in the world (both in terms of devices using it, and devices enabling it) wouldn't be "technically difficult"? But I've never worked in telecommunications, maybe I'm overestimating how large piece of work this would be.
kyahwill 1y ago
This reminds me of that simpson meme where basically you can just call upon Australia's prime minister
tjpnz 1y ago
>The mobile phone numbers of Anthony Albanese, Sussan Ley and other prominent Australians have been made public on a free website. >The Australian Federal Police is formally seeking to get the prime minister's number removed. How about getting the Prime Minister a new phone number instead?
Ekaros 1y ago
Exactly why should not every elected person's full details including phone number and address be publicly available? If they are doing nothing bad they have nothing to fear from electorate. Honest man has nothing to fear as proverb say. And allowing direct communication would increase transparency and improve how well democracy can work.
- watwut 1y ago
  > If they are doing nothing bad they have nothing to fear from electorate. This is not true. There are quite a few people who love to harassed whoever they see as opposition. That includes harassment of loved ones of the politicians. So, that is why. > Honest man has nothing to fear as proverb say. Nonsense. That is true in happy times and completely false in ... times like today.
- nutjob2 1y ago
  It's not practical, they'd just stop answering it and all you'd get is form responses. At least if we're talking heads of government or the like. Local representatives is a different matter and I think some reps in Australia do give out their mobile numbers.
- scott_w 1y ago
  > If they are doing nothing bad they have nothing to fear from electorate. Some possible reasons: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Donald_Trump_in_Pennsylvania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Don... - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_shootings_of_Minnesota_legislators https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_shootings_of_Minnesota_le... - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jo_Cox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jo_Cox - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Amess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Amess - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Paul_Pelosi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Paul_Pelosi I tried to choose a range of politicians to make my point.
- tjpnz 1y ago
  Too many nutcases. You could be elected two seconds ago and there will already be a small line of people waiting to do you harm.
ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago
Oh dear... Ms. Streisand, is that you?
cam_l 1y ago
>The story was first reported by Ette Media, whose co-founder Antoinette Lattouf also had her number published on the site. I wondered if the ABC would acknowledge who broke this story. (Latouffe sued the ABC earlier this year for wrongful dismissal and won.) They didn't link to her new media company though or the original story (other news sites did). https://www.ettemedia.com/exclusive-personal-phone-number-of-pm-high-profile-aussies-published-online-in-massive-privacy-breach/ https://www.ettemedia.com/exclusive-personal-phone-number-of...
cadamsdotcom 1y ago
> The Australian Federal Police is formally seeking to get the prime minister's number removed. As an Australian living in Australia, this reads as: “We became so enraged that we formed a committee. We will be asking the government to let us nicely ask the criminals to nicely take down his number.” The innocence is charming :)

21 points by RileyJames 1y ago

We know Albanese is a loyal Qantas Frequent Flyer member [0], so this may be related to the recent Qantas breach - “ Hackers release Qantas customers' data on dark web. The stolen data included some customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and frequent flyer numbers.“ [1] 0: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/28/anthony-albanese-qantas-flight-upgrades-claims-chairmans-lounge https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/28/anthony-alb... 1:https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-11/hackers-release-qantas-customers-data-on-dark-web/105881266 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-11/hackers-release-qanta...

Antifa4HN 1y ago

[flagged]

defrost 1y ago

Albo Yet to Receive Single Phone Call After Number Leaked Online ~ https://theshovel.com.au/2025/10/14/albo-yet-to-receive-single-phone-call-after-number-leaked-online/ https://theshovel.com.au/2025/10/14/albo-yet-to-receive-sing... A crestfallen Anthony Albanese says he hasn’t received a single phone call, text, or even a cheeky meme, after his personal phone number was leaked online this week. “I honestly thought I’d be inundated,” the PM said at a press conference today, staring at his phone’s empty notifications screen. “Not even a scam text pretending to be Australia Post”. Albanese said he’d even logged into a website that requires two factor identification, just so he would receive at least one text message. “But they ended up sending me a code to my email address instead. My phone’s still empty”.

Simulacra 1y ago
That's hilarious, satire aside, would you call him? I thought it would be very interesting if the public could submit questions to the Prime Minister during PMQ, and not just rely on their elected official. Make sure they are reasonable and professional, and ask him.
- defrost 1y ago
  I wouldn't call him, not unless he was swimming in my dam. No one deserves the out of band hassle. He was on the Australian TV Q+A which had questions submitted by the general public, and it's not all that hard to get meaningful questions put forward in Parliamentary Question Time .. which is better for all as it goes on the record via Hansard. * https://www.abc.net.au/about/media-centre/press-releases/q-a-returns-for-2025-with-prime-minister-anthony-albanese/104954886 https://www.abc.net.au/about/media-centre/press-releases/q-a... * https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard * House Question Time, 9 October 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU9mf2sMfe8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU9mf2sMfe8
  - Khaine 1y ago
    I've written to the Prime Minister and nary a response. I'd call him and complain about his government's failings, and failure to respond in a timely manner to concerns and letters directed to him. I'd call him useless, but lets be frank he is no worse than his peers, or recent prime ministers from both sides of Parliament.
    - defrost 1y ago
      TBH if you called me with general complaints et al. I doubt I'd bother replying either. If there's any actionable issue that you want to raise a better starting place is with whatever minister has the portfolio that's relevant. Also write (and cc the minister) to whatever national reporters are covering that domain. It's about finding the leverage to raise awareness and response to whatever policing, agricultural, medical, defense, et al. questions or concerns you have.
tdeck 1y ago
TIL there is an Australian version of The Onion.

mrkeen 1y ago

Australia still requires metadata collection and storage for all telcos and ISPs. Remember the phrase "metadata isn't data"? If it's your metadata, collection and storage is mandated. If it's their metadata, they send in the police to put a stop to it.

Simulacra 1y ago
I think this is sort of a broad-spectrum feeling among many of the elite, government, etc. They want to know everything about you, but how dare you question anything about them. I'm not talking about flight tracking, I think that's a different subject, but the lead attitude around information is a serious problem.

zokier 1y ago

I feel the fundamental problem is the idea of phone number being secret or private in the first place. It is just very weak form of access control, I believe we can do much better these days.

jstummbillig 1y ago
How so?
- CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
  Besides being trivial to enumerate, every service and their mother is asking for a phone number, from physical stores/rentals/hotels who sometimes reject you if you say no, to the countless online services either asking for it or requiring it. I must have given away my phone number to hundreds if not thousands of entities after having it for more than 20 years.
  - jstummbillig 1y ago
    I was interested in how we could do much better, but I should have been more specific.
    - zokier 1y ago
      Incoming calls should be subject to acls and default-deny policy should be practical. This means that - caller identity should not be spoofable - identities should form hierarchies and groups so you can allow whole organizations instead of individuals - organizations should use predictable identities for egress calls - most likely managing multiple identities per device is needed (e.g. personal and work identites) etc None of this is particularly difficult technically. Even simply slapping x509 certs on calls and having some basic filtering would achieve a lot.
      - CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
        > None of this is particularly difficult technically. Even simply slapping x509 certs on calls and having some basic filtering would achieve a lot. Slapping x509 certs on probably some of the oldest telecommunications infrastructure in the world (both in terms of devices using it, and devices enabling it) wouldn't be "technically difficult"? But I've never worked in telecommunications, maybe I'm overestimating how large piece of work this would be.

kyahwill 1y ago

This reminds me of that simpson meme where basically you can just call upon Australia's prime minister

tjpnz 1y ago

>The mobile phone numbers of Anthony Albanese, Sussan Ley and other prominent Australians have been made public on a free website. >The Australian Federal Police is formally seeking to get the prime minister's number removed. How about getting the Prime Minister a new phone number instead?

Ekaros 1y ago

Exactly why should not every elected person's full details including phone number and address be publicly available? If they are doing nothing bad they have nothing to fear from electorate. Honest man has nothing to fear as proverb say. And allowing direct communication would increase transparency and improve how well democracy can work.

watwut 1y ago
> If they are doing nothing bad they have nothing to fear from electorate. This is not true. There are quite a few people who love to harassed whoever they see as opposition. That includes harassment of loved ones of the politicians. So, that is why. > Honest man has nothing to fear as proverb say. Nonsense. That is true in happy times and completely false in ... times like today.
nutjob2 1y ago
It's not practical, they'd just stop answering it and all you'd get is form responses. At least if we're talking heads of government or the like. Local representatives is a different matter and I think some reps in Australia do give out their mobile numbers.
scott_w 1y ago
> If they are doing nothing bad they have nothing to fear from electorate. Some possible reasons: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Donald_Trump_in_Pennsylvania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Don... - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_shootings_of_Minnesota_legislators https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_shootings_of_Minnesota_le... - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jo_Cox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jo_Cox - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Amess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Amess - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Paul_Pelosi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Paul_Pelosi I tried to choose a range of politicians to make my point.
tjpnz 1y ago
Too many nutcases. You could be elected two seconds ago and there will already be a small line of people waiting to do you harm.

ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago

Oh dear... Ms. Streisand, is that you?

cam_l 1y ago

>The story was first reported by Ette Media, whose co-founder Antoinette Lattouf also had her number published on the site. I wondered if the ABC would acknowledge who broke this story. (Latouffe sued the ABC earlier this year for wrongful dismissal and won.) They didn't link to her new media company though or the original story (other news sites did). https://www.ettemedia.com/exclusive-personal-phone-number-of-pm-high-profile-aussies-published-online-in-massive-privacy-breach/ https://www.ettemedia.com/exclusive-personal-phone-number-of...

cadamsdotcom 1y ago

> The Australian Federal Police is formally seeking to get the prime minister's number removed. As an Australian living in Australia, this reads as: “We became so enraged that we formed a committee. We will be asking the government to let us nicely ask the criminals to nicely take down his number.” The innocence is charming :)