Your personal details for sale

In what is being seen as an infringement of an individual's rights the Post Office has entered into a joint venture with Intimate Data to launch a National Address Database (NAD) this month. With information taken from the client databases of Telkom, Escom and the SABC the company intends to offer subscribers the ability to generate a tailored view of an individual, corporation or household for marketing purposes.

Subscribers will be able to verify physical addresses, link post box numbers to physical addresses, confirm if an individual has used an address and obtain alternative addresses. The data will also allow titles, first names, surnames, gender, ID numbers, phone and fax numbers and approximate income to be obtained.

Constitutional Law expert Cathi Albertyn of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies said the NAD could constitute an invasion of privacy, since ones consent for the use of such information is necessary and the potential for abuse exists. John Ross of Intimate Data says, "A lot of work has been done to see if it is legal or not, and it is legal."

The Argus has subsequently reported that the Post Office does not intend selling its client database to Intimate Data. Whatever the case, ones right to privacy although protected in the Constitution, continues to be eroded.

Members of the public who wish to voice their concern about NAD can phone the SA National Consumer Union on 012-341-8158.

Article in the Star