When Facebook Becomes a Marketplace: The Alarming Reality of Participant Data in the NDIS
Over the past few months, I’ve seen a troubling trend emerge in NDIS-related Facebook groups.
People are openly posting offers like:
“If you need NDIS participants for your business, DM me. I’m working with 200+ providers.”
Let’s be clear: this is not networking. This is not collaboration. This is the beginning of a dangerous culture that treats participants like commodities.
A Serious Breach of Trust
NDIS participants are not leads. They are people, often vulnerable, who are trying to get the right support in a system that is already difficult to navigate.
When someone publicly offers to “connect” participants with businesses, a few serious questions need to be asked:
Were those participants informed?
Did they give permission for their information to be shared?
What kind of businesses are they being passed on to?
This behaviour isn’t just unethical it mirrors the kind of conduct that led to one NDIS worker being found guilty of handing over the private information of more than 43,000 people to friends. That’s not just a breach of ethics. That’s a breach of law.
What Ethical Providers Should Be Asking Themselves
If you're a provider in the NDIS space, take a moment to reflect:
Would you be comfortable if your name, funding, or diagnosis was passed around without your consent?
Are you building trust, or just chasing targets?
Are you contributing to clarity, or just adding noise?
Participants need guidance, not a swarm of strangers offering vague promises and questionable “connections.”
Group Admins Must Do Better
To the administrators of Facebook groups: if you are allowing these kinds of posts to stay up, you are not simply “staying neutral.” You are enabling dangerous behaviour.
Moderation matters. It protects vulnerable people. It preserves the credibility of your group. And it stops unethical providers from exploiting participants through mass lead generation tactics.
What Should Ethical Providers Be Doing Instead?
Here’s how we raise the standard:
Lead with transparency. Be clear about what you offer and who it’s for.
Prioritise privacy. Never use or share a participant’s details without informed, written consent.
Offer value first. Share knowledge, not sales pitches.
If you’re looking for referrals, earn them through relationships, not shortcuts.
The Strong Foundation Support Approach
At Strong Foundation Support, I don’t trade in participant names. I don’t claim hours that aren’t earned. And I don’t use marketing tactics that exploit people’s confusion.
I offer one-on-one mentoring that’s designed to help people understand their plan, build confidence, and take real ownership of their NDIS journey. I work with both self-managed and plan-managed participants, Australia-wide.
If you want practical, ethical support without the seagull noise you can book a free 15-minute introductory call here:
https://calendly.com/strongfoundationsupport
Final Thoughts
The NDIS was designed to give people choice and control, not to create a marketplace for those chasing easy profits.
If you see this kind of behaviour in your networks or online groups, say something. Report it. Call it out.
Together, we can raise the standard and keep participant privacy and safety where it belongs.
