Phone customers' details faxed to bar

By GREGG WYCHERLEY and CHRIS DANIELS

Private financial details of Vodafone customers have been faxed to an Auckland Viaduct Harbour bar for the past six months.

And the owner of Space Bar, Michael Bilham, is astounded that although he has told Vodafone about it, the faxes keep on coming.

He said that every day since early December up to 10 direct debit applications with details of clients applying for Vodafone mobile phone accounts have been mistakenly sent to his fax Machine.

They include names, signatures, bank account details, and sometimes credit card numbers.

Others have included official identification such as passport and driver licence numbers.

He said he had called Vodafone many times in the past five months to inform them of the mistake, speaking to at least 20 different people.

"I got sick of explaining the situation to every different person and they would all come up with different reasons why it was happening.

"I just kept getting bounced from person to person. Nobody seemed to care about it."

Vodafone spokeswoman Alison Sykora confirmed that an incorrect fax number had been circulated.

Dealers had been told twice that it was wrong and they should stop sending the information to Mr Bilham's bar.

A notice would be sent for the third time to the 600 Vodafone dealers across New Zealand.

Alison Sykora said Mr Bilham had been given a free cellphone worth $200 and $50 of free air time to compensate him for the inconvenience.

Privacy Commissioner Bruce Slane said the matter was serious and warranted an investigation to find out if Vodafone had breached the Privacy Act.

The act required people to take reasonable security safeguards with other people's information.

www.nzherald.co.nz/privacy

Privacy Commissioner (NZ)

Electronic Privacy Information Centre (USA)

ACLU Echelon Watch (USA)

Cyber Rights and Liberties (UK)