In a significant privacy breach, an unnamed major private hospital in Thailand has been fined Bt 1.2 million after patient paper records were found to be used as snack packets.
Document disposal was outsourced to a third party which failed to properly dispose of the documents. They were "leaked" from the small business owner's home and used as packets for a popular street food crispy crepe known as khanom Tokyo. It was reported that over 1,000 files were leaked. The disposal company also received a small fine.
The privacy breach is reminiscent of my early days in Bangkok where a similar breach occurred with a major international law firm.
Their draft documents, which presumably should have been shredded or otherwise destroyed, turned up wrapped around takeaway chicken and rice dishes from a small restaurant behind my office building. It was only a page at a time so not particularly revealing but a significant breach of client confidentiality nonetheless.
Hospital fined after patient files used as snack bags
August 2025
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