Release of computer files attacked

Press, 21 May 1979, Page 2

Release of computer files attacked

PA Wellington ] ! The release of computer i files on electric power board 1 subscribers to the Inland Revenue Department has < been attacked by the Compu- 1 ter Society. < This is the second time in ' less than a year that a power board has been condemn- i ed by the society for making < its files available to anyone 1 wanting to use them. < Last year, the Dunedin ' Municipal Electricity Depart- | ment made its files available ’ to the National Party for 1 election canvassing until its 1 decision was over-ruled by 1 the city council. ’

Now, the Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board has allowed the Inland Revenue Department to use its computer files to trace persons owing tax payments. The Computer Society’s vice-president, Mr I. Lauchland, said that information should not be used for anything other than what it was

provided for, unless the consent of the person giving the information was obtained first. “Unless there is some legal obligation, the Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board should decline the department’s request,” he said. “This is not to say that the society unreservedly condemns the use of computer files as an additional source of information, especially when it is in the interests of the country as a whole,” Mr Lauchland said. “What is important is that everyone knows at the time the information is supplied that such use is possible.” Mr Lauchland described the case as “yet another example of our failure to face up to the fundamental issues in the field of privacy which are surfacing because of the power of the computer.” However, the Deputy Commissioner of Inland Revenue (Mr R. T. Phillips) said the Inland Revenue Department

had a legal obligation to use all the means tljat it could to trace persons owing tax. “We use every enterprise from one end of the country to the other,” he said. The department was not asking for any information about people except their names and addresses. It used the telephone directory, newspapers, and other obvious sources, and used organisations such as power boards only if all these failed. “There are certain places we are not allowed to get information from: one is the Wanganui Computer Centre,* Mr Phillips said. “But the ordinary person in the street is obliged to give us information? 1