The procedure started in 2011 because it was when the Civil Governments (that previously had this responsibility) were extinct by a government led by the current opposition party in order to save costs and create a leaner government.
Journalists have had this information since January and decided doing nothing anything about it.
Also relevant that candidates for local elections are lining up at the moment.
Nevertheless the procedure should have been known by the Mayor and reviewed ages ago.
Certainly there were people other than the mayor involved. Mayors aren't autocrats. And regular worker/bureaucrats had to be doing the day-to-day collection and dissemination of information.
This is the reason why mass data collection by the likes of Google and Facebook is so dangerous; not because of whether we can trust people now to do the right thing with it but because it depends upon trusting future holders of that information.
This whole situation is rather shocking to me. I feel naive. Which, as a deeply cynical and suspicious person, is not a good feeling.
- This was found out by sheer luck. The city hall did not warn that it was sharing personal/private information with any entity.
- At the moment, there is no thinkable reason for this procedure. It seems the foreign embassies did not ask for any kind of information.
- This procedure (apparently) started in 2011 and Lisbon’s mayor at that time is now the current Prime Minister, leader of the ruling party.