From: torda@igc.ethz.ch (Andrew Torda)
Subject: ICAC report on personal data leakage
Summary: Critical report on information trading
Organization: Computational Chemistry, ETH, Zuerich
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 22:01:27 GMT

The following is excerpted from
<1992Aug27.031555.13417@chinacat.unicom.com> in
comp.society.cu-digest. I imagine it will be of interest to this
group.

Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 09:32:08 EDT
From: Roger Clarke <clarcomm@FAC.ANU.EDU.AU>
Subject: File 3--N.S.W. (Australia) anti-Corruption Report Released

A long-running 'Independent Commission Against Corruption' enquiry in
N.S.W. has finally reported on an investigation into leakage of
personal data to private enquiry agents, and the leading Sydney daily
had over 2 large pages devoted to the matter.  Here's the lead
article.

Roger Clarke

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
August 13 1992

HUGE TRADE IN PERSONAL FILES
By MALCOLM BROWN

Westpac, National Australia Bank, NRMA Insurance Ltd, Custom Credit
and Citicorp are some of the big names in a damning report by the ICAC
Assistant Commissioner, Mr Adrian Roden, QC, on the unauthorised
release of confidential government information.

Mr Roden found that there was a multi-million-dollar trade in such
information which involved public servants, including police, and
private inquiry agents.

"Information, from a variety of State and Commonwealth government
sources and the private sector has been freely and regularly sold and
exchanged for many years," he said. "NSW public officials have been
heavily involved."

Mr Roden heard 446 witnesses in public and private hearings over 168
days before compiling his 1,300-page report.

Even so, he said, it was necessary to be selective; thousands of
private and commercial inquiry agents had not examined.

Mr Roden found that more than 250 people had participated in the
illicit trade or had contributed to it.

Of these, 155 had engaged in corrupt conduct. A further 101 had
engaged in conduct which allowed, encouraged or caused the occurrence
of corrupt conduct.

Many are NSW and Commonwealth public servants who sold information
collected by the agencies where they work, including the Roads and
Traffic Authority (RTA), police force, Telecom and Sydney County
Council.

The Attorney-General, Mr Hannaford, announced that the Director of
Public Prosecutions had set up a task force to consider laying charges
against more than 100 people named in the report.

He said many of the public servants named could expect to lose their
jobs and that the heads of all the government departments involved had
been told to examine the report and take action against those
involved.

The Assistant Police Commissioner, Mr Col Cole, confirmed yesterday
that five police officers had been suspended and announced that three
task forces had been set up and computer security upgraded.

Mr Hannaford foreshadowed the introduction of privacy legislation to
make the unauthorised use of confidential information a criminal
offence.

The major banks said that they could not condone what their staff had
done but said the staff had believed that they were acting in the best
interests of their employers and the community.

None of the banks was planning to sack staff found to be corrupt
although several said the staff had been counselled or "educated".

Mr Roden said the trade involved banks, insurance companies and other
financial institutions which had provided "a ready market".

The link was provided by private and commercial inquiry agents. With
some banks, codes had been used to conceal the nature of the
transactions.

"As they have gone about their corrupt trade, commercial interest has
prevailed over commercial ethics, greed ha~ prevailed over public
duty; laws and regulations designed to protect confidentiality have
been ignored," Mr Roden said.

"Frequently the client, generally an insurance company, bank or other
financial institution, ordered the information from the agent with a
full appreciation of how it was to be obtained.

"The evidence disclosed that in the collection and recovery
departments of a number of those institutions, it has long been
standard practice to use confidential government information . . . as
a means of locating debtors."

Some finance and insurance companies had directed agents to keep all
references to the trade off invoices and reports.

"Some even directed that the agents falsely state the source of the
information in their reports," Mr Roden said.

"Some solicitors in private practice have sought and purchased
confidential government information in circumstances in which they
must have known that it could not have been properly obtained."

Mr Kevin Rindfleish, an unlicensed private inquiry agent, had sold
Department of Motor Transport/Roads and Traffic Authority and social
security information "on a large scale". His principal client had been
the ANZ Bank.

A private investigator, Mr Terence John Hancock, and his company, All
Cities Investigations Pty Ltd, had sold confidential government
information to the National Australia Bank and Westpac on a regular
basis.

 Two employees of the NAB had used prior contacts to provide the bank
with access to RTA, social security, Australia Post and immigration
information.  Between them, the employees also provided silent numbers
and information on electricity consumers.

The Advance Bank had "over a period of years" obtained information
improperly released from the RTA, the Department of Social Security
and the Department of Immigration. The practice was "known and
approved at least to senior management level".

New Zealand Insurance and Manufacturers Mutual had bought confidential
government information from private investigators.

NRMA Insurance Ltd and the Government Insurance Office were "found to
have participated as freely in the illicit trade in confidential
government information as their more commercially oriented
competitors".

"Evidence relating to NRMA Insurance Ltd established not only that it
purchased confidential government information through private
investigators, but also that investigators were required to obtain
relevant government information by unauthorised means if they were to
retain the company's work."

Esanda Finance Corporation Ltd had bought confidential information
over at least 23 years. Custom Credit Corporation Ltd which had
engaged in the illicit trade over "many years", had maintained false
records to conceal how it obtained information.

Alston de Zilwa, former underwriter and operations manager of Citicorp
Ltd and later, Toyota Finance Australia Limited's credit operations
manager, had established for each of the two companies a system for
obtaining confidential information.

The companies would seek information directly from employees of the
DMA and RTA and pay a private inquiry agent, Mr Kevin Robinson, who
would "launder" it, then invoice the companies for the corresponding
sum.

Mr Roden said that hundreds of thousands of dollars had changed hands
in the trade uncovered. One agent had estimated that he had paid
$40,000 to $50,000 a year for Social Security information alone.

Another had said he received $100,000 over two years for government
information.

Yet another had, according to records, charged a bank $186,000 for
"inquiry services" over a period of 18 months.
-- 

Andrew Torda, Computational Chemistry, ETH, Zurich, torda@igc.ethz.ch
Newsgroups: soc.culture.australian