Apps used to track garbage and recycling days affected by data breach

Data theft prompts warning for Manitobans Gabrielle Marchand shows you what was stolen in breach of data from apps use to track garbage and recycling days in Manitoba.

Two apps that are used as trackers for garbage and recycling days have been affected by data theft.

On Tuesday, users of the Recycle Coach and My Waste apps, which are both owned by Municipal Media Inc., were notified a subscriber database was accessed by unauthorized parties and some users’ email addresses could have been compromised.

Greg Braun told CTV News he’s been using the app for years, and relies on it for handy reminders beyond taking the bins out to the curb.

“It also tells you in the spring time to bring out the recyclable trash, like the tree trunks and all that other stuff,” said Braun.

Braun said like many users, he learned of the breach Tuesday upon opening up his email and seeing a message from the My Waste Recycle Coach team.

He said he was informed his “email addressed may have been exposed” to outside people.

“And I went ‘this is not good,’” said Braun.

Speaking with CTV News by phone, Municipal Media Inc. president Creighton Hooper said the company had used an external email service to send out notices to people who subscribed through the apps.

The account for that email service contained 55,000 email addresses from users around the world and was hacked on Monday.

Hooper went on to say that while email addresses were stolen, no other information was taken.

“There were no names associated with them, no locations, and of course no passwords or any other personal information,” said Hooper.

Within the warning email to users, Municipal Media Inc. advises to stay alert for any suspicious emails posing as Recycle Coach and My Waste, and to not click links that customers don’t recognize

A spokesperson for the City of Winnipeg said that it is aware of the breach, and that it’s working to determine how many Winnipeg customers have been affected.

With files from CTV Winnipeg