Naming South Australia's worst individual fine evaders online is an invasion of privacy, according to the SA Council for Civil Liberties.

The State Government yesterday published the five worst individual offenders and the three worst companies in an effort to embarrass them into paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid fines.

Attorney-General John Rau said the Government had some success in the past by "naming and shaming" those with outstanding debts.

But the council's spokesperson, George Mancini, said the Government needed to recognise peoples' right to privacy.

He said he was concerned because the information would not normally be available to the public, despite legislation enabling the Government's fines recovery unit to publish the names of anyone who has not paid a fine.

"One of the reasons it's not available is because it's confidential, or it's private information, even just your name and the fact that you have a fine, your date of birth and the amount of the fine," Mr Mancini said.

"Their identity is all information that is not ordinarily available to anybody."

The Government's fine recovery website revealed the names and birth dates of five individuals, who owe a total of $427,402 in unpaid fines.

It also disclosed the names and Australian Business Numbers of three limited companies, which owe a total of $57,837.

Mr Rau said the Government is owed a total of $260 million in unpaid fines.

"More than 50 per cent of it at any given time is actually money that is either not yet overdue, or, in other words, the fines have been issued but they're not yet beyond their pay-by date," he said.

"Or they're fines where the person has entered into some agreement with the fines payment unit, and they're paying them off over time."