Labor's social services spokesperson Linda Burney has criticised the Coalition for its "mismanagement" of a remote community employment program after Centrelink clients had their details published to a public Facebook page.
Dozens of names of those required to attend client meetings were uploaded by a Northern Territory work-for-the-dole provider in March, according to the ABC.
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, responsible for the Community Development Program, said it was "satisfied" privacy responsibilities had been met by the Commonwealth-funded Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation.
But Ms Burney called it "a horrendous breach of privacy" that "has serious implications for participants".
"The reality is that the government's cruel and chaotic mismanagement of this broken and discriminatory program has made incidences such as this inevitable."
"The government needs to urgently verify whether anyone had been placed at risk," she said in a statement.
Chair of the Electronic frontiers Australia, Lyndsey Jackson said the situation was "extraordinary".
"Extraordinary on two levels - that the organisation thought this was acceptable and that the department doubled down in their response," she told AAP.
She said there was a disregard about how putting information in the public domain could have a lasting effect and asked why it was not a breach of the privacy act.
