There are quite a few other posts in these fora discussing legislative over-reach, for instance regarding metadata retention. While personal privacy is definitely relevant to this particular thread, I think most of us recognise that in certain circumstances there is a need to absolutely, definitely, positively confirm that the person is who they say they are and that they have the capacity to meet their contractual obligations.
Going through the OP’s details of what Telstra demanded:
- full name - definitely needed to prove who you are.
- address - also assists in proving who you are (how many John Smiths use Telstra?).
- full date of birth - another point of identity checking.
- mobile phone numbers - so far, all the listed items can be looked up by someone looking to steal your accounts. Mobile phone numbers are included in this.
- drivers licence number - a little harder for a n’e’r-do-well to get.
- land line number - easy for a hacker to find out.
- email address - easy for a hacker to find.
- whether we own our home or not - credit check.
- whether I have a job, or if I’m on the pension or live off superannuation - credit check.
So the last two items on this list are probably over-reach. The others could be simplified, but I would prefer to hand over this much data than have my mobile phone account - and subsequently a dozen other accounts that rely upon little else but a text message to reset a password - hacked.
Obviously, Telstra was trying to up-sell @yoda1 and some of the listed information should not have been necessary. Probably the email address and the land line number, for instance - and definitely the ‘credit check’ items.
It is possible to get Telstra to set a password on your account so nothing happens to it without them checking that you know the password - but most of their staff don’t know about this feature so it’s pretty much useless (their systems don’t require that the password be entered in order to access/change your account details).
