Asia Times: Packer aims to file data on all Australians



	December 1, 1999	atimes.com

Oceania

Packer aims to file data on all Australians

Privacy and consumer advocates have criticized plans by media magnate Kerry Packer to establish a giant data storage facility containing files on almost all Australians.

The warehouse will hold information on around 15 million people, gained from sources such as credit card companies, car sales records, retail stores, post office listings and even electoral rolls.

The facility, which will have extensive cross-referencing ability, is a joint venture between the Packer-owned Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) and the world's largest information provider, Acxiom. PBL will also contribute information from Packer-owned sources such as Channel Nine, Crown Casino, Ticketek and Internet site ninemsm.

Australian Consumers Assocation senior policy officer Charles Britton said the warehouse was a frightening innovation. ''It's got the potential to be very intrusive if you like, because it's recording information from all sorts of different transactions that you've made and that are attributable to you personally,'' he told ABC Radio.

''I think people don't realize how much information they leave behind and I think the other thing is they don't realize how valuable that information is, particularly once it's aggregated with other information and starts to form profiles of people.''

Acxiom already holds files on 95 percent of American households, or around 330 million people. Access to the Australaian warehouse operation, called InfoBase, will be available to companies seeking to improve their marketing efforts or uncover more information about their consumers.

(Aisa Pulse)