Federal government ministerial staff have been asked to file details of their personal sexual history and drug habits as a measure to protect them from blackmail, leaving the government vulnerable to data leaks and hacking according to privacy advocates.

Credit: Office of the Prime Minister of Australia

About 315 ministerial and electorate office staff have been ordered to fill out a 25-page form and undergo an in-depth interview about their personal finances, drug habits and sexual history.

"It's a given that sensitive data, stored in large databases will inevitably leak, particularly in the case of what we might call 'salacious' information like this: people who see it spread it," said Roger Clarke, chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation (APF).

Senior Rudd staff told News Ltd that they were told that the security measures were designed to protect them from blackmail.

The APF chair said if anything, collecting this kind of data drastically increases the risk of personal blackmail and reputation damage. The database could also be under threat from the increasing number of overseas hackers targeting the Australian government.

The staffers are being asked to list their history of sexual partners, reveal extra-marital affairs and detail homosexual experiences before gaining security clearance, News Ltd reports.

"These are gross and unjustified intrusions, and the people responsible for these measures should be publicly pilloried for them," he said.

According to Clarke, there are numerous exceptions where he believes it is the responsibility of staff to disclose personal information like that requested by the government, particularly in cases involving potential conflict of interest.

"I can think of very few circumstances in which 'homosexual experiences' could possibly be relevant ... I can think of a very small number in which "extra-marital activities" could be," he said.

Clarke did note the case of the recently-departed New York State Governor, Eliot Spitzer, saying it was relevant because of his strong anti-procured-sex stance and history as a "family values" campaigner, which put Spitzer's infidelity in the realms of public interest and was a case of "gross hypocrisy and probably illegal behaviour" on behalf of the former Governor.

"However, there is no generic justification to request a blanket disclosure of this type of data from staff. It must be decided situationally, and the onus lies heavily on the would-be collectors," he said.