Be afraid, be VERY afraid

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Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

Mick, OLS was not data matching. OLS was simply an accumulation of information already held on many data bases assembled in a searchable record.

Data Matching was specific projects matching the DSS & DVA files against ATO records such as Employment Declaration Forms, Income Tax Returns, PPS/RPS records, Land Title records, Customs and Immigration records to catch clients who went overseas and still claimed benefits, Financial Institutions paying interest over $100 per annum to clients. Births Deaths and Marriage records to catch those who married and didn't tell and benefits being paid to dead people. These were all highly successful at catching clients who hadn't declared income or assets or changes to circumstances.

Today Centrelink places more and more reliance on computerised data matching projects. There are no boots on the ground in Regional Offices. No fieldies with local knowledge keeping the local ne'er do wells partly honest. There are still a few mobile review teams working out of area offices but they seem to do specific projects. Local fieldies worked on referrals from other officers, informants, police, Housing Commission, employers and their own local knowledge as well as the regular of sickness allowance, 3 & 12 month reviews of unemployed, an d so on.

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Fair enough, I take your point.

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Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

When the guys in the black hats and black leather overcoats come for you they don't knock on the door just simply kick it in.

"Who are you?"

" We will ask the questions".

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'Get in the van.'

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

'Get in the van.'

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"Oh, you bumped your head on the door frame."

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Originally Posted by martnH

One day I will run a dental clinic. And I want to purchase the data show who Google "toothache" or "fix bad teeth" within 100kms of my location. And I would like their contacts so I can send them targeted ads.....And unique discount codes.

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Until people quickly realise, then google 'toothache' to get better deals. Then you find yourself competing on price, so if there is anything at all not bottom dollar about your service you cant compete.

I have generally been of the opinion regarding data gathering that unless someone is able to use it to take over my bank accounts or public profiles, i dont give a rats.

I am pretty much immune to advertising, somehow almost nothing advertised towards me is of interest anyway, so i am almost completely shut off, whilst making no effort to be so.

But i reckon this hoo ha surely has more substance to it, i just need to investigate it a bit.....

Certainly there are cases where people have done a lot of damage to others via the net.

If your credit rating is ruined because of false data, such as a fake credit card, stopping you from getting ATM or credit cards, a mortgage or a job, you might think again.
Or if your driver's licence is cancelled because you got blamed for someone else's speeding fine.
Proving you are innocent is often difficult. Ask the tens of thousands of people who received wrong robo-debt letters from Social Security and had to prove they didn't owe large sums going back a decade.
As a small example, I have just recovered a $1600 tax return from 2003 which was sent to a wrong account interstate because the ATO entered the wrong BSB.
That was easy to sort compared with some things that go wrong in data matching.

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

If your credit rating is ruined because of false data, stopping you from getting ATM or credit cards, a mortgage or a job, you might think again.

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If you are smart you’d sign up for instant alerts that anyone is looking or accessing your credit file - only costs $40 a year. [emoji106]

I get an alert within minutes of someone requesting access to it for any reason.

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

If your credit rating is ruined because of false data, such as a fake credit card, stopping you from getting ATM or credit cards, a mortgage or a job, you might think again...

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You are entitled to view your credit data collected by credit reporting agencies for free and to correct your record.

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You will find the following information in your credit report:

Personal details - Your name, date of birth, current and past addresses, employment and driver's licence number.

Joint applicant - A joint applicant's name will appear if you applied for the credit with another person and both your names appear on the credit card contract.

Credit cards - Information about the credit cards you hold.

Arrears brought up to date - Any debts that were unpaid and overdue and have now been paid or settled.

Defaults and other credit infringements - These could be utility bills or loan payments which are 60 days or more overdue and where debt collection activity has started.

Credit applications - Any credit you've applied for including loans you have been the guarantor on. (Find out how guaranteeing a loan can affect your credit report.)

Debt agreements - Any bankruptcies, court judgements, debt agreements or personal insolvency agreements in your name.

Credit liability information - For each credit product you have held in the last two years, information on the type of credit product, credit limit and opening and/or closing dates of the account will be included in your report. The identity of the credit provider is also included.

Repayment history - The date your credit payments were due, whether or not you made the payments by the due date (non payment or partial payment by the due date are both considered missed payments), and the dates you made any missed payments (but not the amounts that were missed). This information is provided for credit products held in the last 2 years.

Commercial credit applications - Any commercial or business loans you have applied for since March 2014.

Report requests - Which credit providers have requested copies of your credit report.

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True, but actually correcting the record can be a slow and difficult process.

How common is identity theft and credit fraud in Australia though? You are much more likely to be targeted by scammers/hackers.

Unauthorised use of credit and financial services is a bigger worry, but thankfully service providers provide pretty decent customer protections. Earlier this year my microsoft store account (I only had one to buy a laptop through them a few years back) was hacked and someone managed to purchase $500 worth of xbox subscriptions through my Paypal. I was instantly notified of the purchase via email, so i contacted Microsoft and Paypal and was refunded within an hour and I promptly changed all my passwords.

Last week someone was attempting to gain access to my Uber account as I kept getting SMS codes from Uber. 2 factor authentication in a good thing.

These sort of things while moderately stressful at the time, are far more costly to the service providers than to individuals. Because of this they are constantly trying to keep ahead of the cyber security curve. I'm more concerned about cyber security than privacy per se.