Want to get Albo and the Don on the phone? Now you can

“Amanda who?” would ask a confused Donald Trump or Anthony Albanese.

And you know the rest.

Well, if you are so inclined, it is now possible for those with the onions to do so.

Ette Media on Tuesday morning revealed that a list of world leaders, including the US President and our Prime Minister, had their personal phone numbers scraped by a US-based website’s artificial intelligence to create a “digital phonebook” the UN would be jealous of.

Sussan Ley also had her phone number leaked (but if the over/under on calls the Opposition Leader received is at 1.5, I may be taking the unders).

Ette Media even shared a video of staff calling up the Prime Minister and getting his voicemail – wild stuff that citizens simply shouldn’t be able to do.

The personal phone numbers were reportedly scraped from proffessional networking sites, including LinkedIn.

Yes, LinkedIn, the Microsoft-owned congregation of professionals, social climbers and networkers that has become so big that professionals simply must use it if they want to network, look for jobs or read people go on about their 10 reasons why (insert random boring topic of your choice here).

In response to an earlier version of this story, a LinkedIn spokesperson said: “We have seen no evidence that LinkedIn’s systems were breached. Our policies are clear that third party companies taking personal data and using it in ways our members did not agree to is prohibited, and these companies are not affiliated with LinkedIn.”

So, what happened?

At the very least, we know it is a data breach so calamitous, but funny, in an age of increasing worry about personal data, cyber attacks and AI-fuelled scams that it is hard to know where to stand on it.

I have long been a proponent of the idea we lost the battle for personal data long ago.

Your phones and computers have been listening for years, ingesting every vector of input you’ve willingly given it, so who cares if anyone is listening now? – those targeted ads are inevitable.

On the one hand, it’s fun to see our world leaders suffer a data breach like we do every other month – think Qantas, Optus, et cetera – but a stark reminder of what can and will happen when the true power of basic AI and the sloppiness of even the smartest humans interact.

What happened to Albanese, Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron will happen to you – if it hasn’t already – unless you move your social profile very off-grid.

After learning of the breach, I googled “LinkedIn phone numbers” and the first thing I got was a sponsored ad for a website promising “free contacts every month”.

At the end of the day, as dangerous a security precedent as it sets, it is undoubtedly hilarious that this happened, and you can prank call The Don to give him a piece of your mind.

Yet, as with almost all pranks, it’s very much funnier when you’re not on the receiving end.

This article first appeared in The Australian as AI scrapes networking sites to reveal world leaders’ personal phone details