Oz watchdog slams telecom firm Telstra for breaching 734,000 customers' privacy

Sydney - Australian telecommunications and media company Telstra has been slammed by communications watchdog for publishing personal details of more than 700,000 customers online last year.

According to telegraph.com.au, Telstra had published names, addresses, and in some cases, driver's license details and dates of birth of almost 734,000 customers between March and December 2011.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said Telstra did not respond quickly enough to protect its customers and breached the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code.

"We are most concerned about the length of time - more than eight months - during which a significant number of customers' personal information was publicly available," ACMA acting chairman Richard Bean said.

The user names and passwords of almost 41,000 people were also accessible via the company's flawed web-based management system Visibility Tool, which was used to track orders for its bundled services.
 
Telstra said it notified ACMA on December 9, 2011, when they discovered through media reports they had unintentionally given access to the sensitive information via a link.
 
The telco also said it had immediately contacted the affected customers.
 
"We deeply regret the incident," its executive director of customer service, Peter Jamieson, said.

However, national privacy commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has slammed Telstra's monitoring and accountability systems.

Both ACMA and the Privacy Commission are in talks with the telco about its remediation plans.