On 2024-09-08, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <
ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
According to this report
<https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/inland-revenue-giving-thousands-of-taxpayers-details-to-social-media-platforms-for-ad-campaigns/USUHE5MDQNHIDPNRIOJCVOVJPQ/>,
the IRD is supplying batches of taxpayers’ personal details (i.e. our personal details) to social networks like Facebook/Instagram, Google
and LinkedIn, for those networks to use for targeted advertising
purposes.
The details are supplied in hashed form, supposedly to make it
impossible for those companies to determine the actual identities of
the people involved. But other authorities have already concluded that
such anonymization techniques are inadequate for maintaining people’s privacy.
This certainly will do a great deal to the IRD poor reputation.
There is alot to dig into.
Why are the IRD sending the datato the Social media folks and why can not
one opt out?
"“The lists are of up to 500,000 customers each, with names, DOB, address, phone and email contacts.
“The data is hashed as it is being uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. We do not share any customer details directly with them."
I take it that this means that the names are not "connected" to the DOB, address, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Seems strange if IRD is sending all the rest of the info without it being able to be connected to a person.
500,000 is a 10% of the NZ poulation, and this is just one upload.
"Its (IRD) first statement said: “After hashing, the data cannot be decrypted and it’s safe for the matching process to take place.”
Later, it defaulted to relying on the companies’ integrity.
“Each social media platform has its own privacy principles in place that
it must adhere to,” it said."
Big red flag eh? It is not us, it is them.
"Inland Revenue said it was fully compliant with the Tax Administration Act
and the Privacy Act."
Hoy! Government Something is very broken, Fix it under urgency.
" Its privacy policy, available on its website, told the public it shared
their details: “We sometimes provide hashed and fully anonymised information to social media channels when placing advertisements.”
However it seems that one has not response to this, it is a given, so such
it up. Does not sound like a democractic country.
" It told RNZ: “Inland Revenue is not ‘giving up taxpayer details’. Audience
lists up to 500,000 are not the norm. But lists of that size could be used
for something like individual tax assessments when IR needs to get reminders out to many customers.”
I am a bit lost here. I looks like that the IRD are using Social media to remind people of a IRD responsibility, when thay have the "customers"
details. Oh well must be more convenient I guess.
Finally abig call out to David Buckingham who spotted these events and let
us hope that this matter can be fixed.
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