Computer threat to privacy?

Press, 29 January 1986, Page 1

Computer threat to privacy?

PA Auckland' An Auckland civil liberties group says the Government will have to introduce laws to control what could become a computer-generated invasion of New Zealanders’ privacy. The Auckland Civil Liberties Council’s president, Mr Bill Hodge, said yesterday the unchecked potential for computers to store a wide range of personal information from different sources comprised a new threat to privacy. "The more personal information collected and made accessible, the more chance there is for abuse,” he said. Mr Hodge was responding to reports that an Auckland company had collected detailed personal information on 750,000 New Zealanders and planned to sell the information to firms seeking to boost sales. The value of a person’s home, their age and even how much they spent on certain purchases was included in the data being compiled by the company, Team Direct.

The company’s market development manager, Mr Roger Hill, said sophisticated data-based systems would be used to pinpoint people receptive to sales campaigns of client companies.

Some firms with their own lists were pooling them with those in the new computer. Mr Hill said people who objected to being on the company’s files could have information about them removed at their own request.