Privacy « Australian Technology and IP Business

August 19, 2005

Identity theft and privacy

This week’s ABC Four Corners program Your Money and Your Life on cyber-fraud has raised public consciousness on the issue.

In particular, allegations that personal and financial details of some customers of Switch Mobile were being sold from a call centre in India have resulted in an announcement by the Privacy Commissioner that she will investigate allegations Switch Mobile and One Touch Solutions (Switch’s telemarketer) breached the Privacy Act through the misuse of personal details obtained from their customers.

On the topic of identity theft the Commissioner said:

"Generally, people who are concerned about how to protect their
personal information when conducting business over the phone or on the
internet can consider taking the following steps:

deal with businesses that have a clear Australian connection, and be sure you can contact them if you have any concerns;
only give out personal information that is relevant to the transaction;
if you’re not sure why some personal information is being requested, ask the business to explain why it is necessary;
if you think your personal information has been mis-used, contact the business;
If that doesn’t produce satisfactory results, you can then complain to her Office.

More information about identity theft, how to avoid being a victim,
and what to do if you think you are a victim of identity theft, is
available in the Attorney-General’s Department ID theft prevention kit."

Speaking recently at a conference on a national identity security strategy the Commissioner said

Identity theft has significant costs to the economy (estimated at $1.1B per year). It also has large personal cost for the victims of identity theft.
US researchers estimate that the victims of identity theft will spend anaverage of 600 hours (that is 25 days) clearing up their credit problems and checking the accuracy of their personal information.

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Posted 19th August 2005 by David Jacobson in Legal, Privacy, Web/Tech

March 23, 2005

No misuse of data in 2004 election

The Australian Communications Authority (ACA) has found no evidence of misuse of data from the Integrated Public Number Database (IPND) during
the 2004 federal election campaign.

The ACA has been investigating a complaint by the Australian Labor Party about telemarketing activities by the Liberal Party of Australia during the campaign.
The ACA’s investigation focused on whether the Liberal Party’s telemarketing activities improperly used data from the IPND.

“Our investigation found that the phone numbers were obtained from publicly available databases,” ACA Acting Chairman Dr Bob Horton said.

“These databases can include numbers that in the past were listed numbers, but have since become unlisted, as well as information from other sources.

“However, the ACA has asked the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner to review the complaint because there may be other matters within its jurisdiction.”

UPDATE: 30 March
The Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, has advised that she will
not be investigating the complaint about the telemarketing activities
of the Liberal Party of Australia, which was referred to her by the
Australian Communications Authority (ACA) on 21 March 2005.

“I have examined the information provided to me by the ACA following its investigation of this matter,” Ms Curtis said.

“On the basis of that information, I am satisfied that the matters
raised would fall outside the jurisdiction of the Privacy Act, as it
provides an exemption for the acts and practices of political
organisations and those organisations contracted to them,” said Ms
Curtis.

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Posted 23rd March 2005 by David Jacobson in Privacy

March 1, 2005

Databases

Further to my post on the Choicepoint database identity fraud, comes this Vanity Fair article on the author of the MATRIX data mining system (via Ernie the Attorney).

It’s a great read about a self-taught programmer who wrote a program to identify the 9/11 terrorists:

"MATRIX, for Multi-state Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange. The list was forwarded through Asher’s law-enforcement contacts to Brian Stafford, head of the U.S. Secret Service, and to a senior F.B.I. agent. The feds were stunned.

According to Asher, five of the names on his list were under investigation by the F.B.I., and
one was on those passenger manifests—Marwan al-Shehhi, pilot of the second jet that hit the World Trade Center. Asher had current and prior addresses for al-Shehhi and the rest of those 419 names. He had bank records, motor-vehicle records, and driver’s licenses, complete with digital photographs. He had aviation licenses. He had credit histories. He had the names of neighbors and landlords, along with their digital pictures."

Is he a hero or a villain?

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Posted 1st March 2005 by David Jacobson in Privacy, Web/Tech