Identifying data
Youth care files in public chatbots in Eindhoven
In December 2025 the Dutch city of Eindhoven said its staff had uploaded many files containing personal data to public AI websites, including youth care documents. How many can no longer be established.
On 18 December 2025 the Dutch municipality of Eindhoven informed its council of a data breach. A sample check during a review of outgoing data traffic showed that staff had uploaded files with personal data of residents and colleagues to public AI websites such as ChatGPT. They included Youth Act documents, internal reports and CVs, mostly from departments dealing with care and support. Much of the data concerns vulnerable residents.
The sample covered 23 September to 23 October 2025. The city reported the breach to the Dutch Data Protection Authority on 23 October and then blocked public AI websites; staff can now use only Copilot within the municipality's secure environment. It also asked OpenAI to delete the files uploaded from Eindhoven and tightened monitoring of outgoing traffic.
According to the city, the full extent cannot be established because the AI platforms keep entered data for only 30 days, so the people affected cannot be told individually. The city's executive said the risk was smaller than with stolen data but could not be ruled out, and that it was shocked by how much sensitive data had gone out. Eindhoven had been under intensified supervision by the authority for two years from March 2023 for reporting breaches late and keeping personal data too long.
At the end of December 2025 the authority warned that breaches linked to chatbot use at work were rising: it had already received dozens of reports that year, often because staff experiment on their own initiative with free AI tools that store what is entered.
What can we learn from it?
Eindhoven's case shows that unregulated AI use is invisible: the city learned of it only through a sample check. Its response is a good example, though: rather than a bare ban, it provided an approved tool inside its own secure environment. The same works on a small scale. Decide and write down which AI tool may be used, for what and with what data; and when a care file or client record needs summarising, use the approved tool and only the part that is needed.
Sources
- Omroep Brabant: Datalek: gemeente Eindhoven deelt persoonsgegevens met openbare AI-websites
- Binnenlands Bestuur: ‘AI-gebruik leidt tot meer datalekken’
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