A security researcher claims to have uncovered a database in China that is publicly listing the personal information of more than 1.8m women, making available sensitive data such as their phone numbers, home addresses and “BreedReady” status.

According to Victor Gevers, a Dutch researcher at non-profit organisation GDI.Foundation, the cache holding personal details of the Chinese citizens is “unprotected”.

In screenshots posted to Twitter by Mr Gevers, the open database is seen to contain extensive categories of data about the women, including their age, identity card digits, birthday, marital status and “BreedyReady” status, which is thought to refer to whether or not a woman has a child or has the potential to “breed”.

Mr Gevers found the youngest girl on the database to be aged 15 years old, with the average age of people listed on the database 32. Around 82pc of the women appear to be located in Beijing.

“In China, they have a shortage of women. So an organisation started to build a database to start registering over 1.8 million women with all kinds of details like phone numbers, addresses, education, location, ID number, marital status and a “BreedReady” status?” he said on Twitter.