Re: Spam

Hope I'm not too far off-topic here, but spam is a current hot issue on this 
list....

On July 1st Australians are getting a new retail value added sales tax - our 
GST - and it's all-pervading.  Every business large and small, including 
one-person businesses has to register with the Tax Office and get a business 
number if they want to claim the GST back on their business expenses.   The 
Australian Tax Office has helpfully provided a web site so people can 
register for their business number instead of having to mail in a form.

Since EVERY business in the country is registering, you can imagine there 
are a huge number of people registering using the web site.  Not just 
businesses, but also doctors, dentists, consultants, commission sales 
people, accountants, part time potters, etc etc - anyone who gets paid for 
things other than as an employee.

Well the Tax Commissioner thought it would be a good idea to sell the names 
and email addresses and private addresses of registrants for ABNs to whoever 
might have 20c a name - banks, charities, book retailers, mail order 
companies etc etc.

This came to light only after the vast majority of people had registered on 
line, and without any warning on the web site that the names might be used 
for a purpose other than that for which they were collected.

You can imagine the uproar.  People (including me) assumed that the privacy 
laws relating to confidentiality of personal tax information also applied to 
their addresses and email addresses but apparently not.  But the enormous 
political pressure and the tidal wave of public outrage on the Tax 
Commissioner gave him to believe that if he didn't back down quick smart, 
the law would be changed to prevent it, and might well prevent him doing 
other things he wanted to do as well.

Just thought you'd like to know the good guys - public opinion - are winning 
some of the time.

Cheers,
Mike Kear
AFP Web Development
Windsor, NSW, Australia.

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