JEDDAH, 18 January 2005 — For many a resourceful investigator, criminal or nosey, wanting to gain insight onto your life, information is just a phone call away. With the advancements in technology, and in a race to be at the forefront of their particular industry, some public service providers such as a large bank, the traffic police, and Saudi Telecom amongst others, are providing anyone who asks, with some personal information about their clients.
During a recent visit to a Tahlia Street ATM that accepts cash deposits, it was discovered that anyone, even non-account holders, can enter an account number belonging to a customer of the bank, and be provided with the account owner’s name. This was discovered recently when this journalist went to make a cash deposit to a relative’s account. Arriving at this bank’s in-branch ATM without an ATM card, the machine requested that the account number for the account to be credited be entered. As soon as the account number was input, the machine conveniently provided the account holder’s name for the depositor to check that the account indeed belongs to the intended beneficiary of the deposit. Though a convenience to customers, in the wrong hands such information can easily be used to commit fraud. Arab News contacted the public relations department of this bank by fax, and by telephone, but received no reply.
The telephone company also provides anyone who calls with billing information for any landline telephone number even if the caller is not affiliated with the number in any way. By calling 907, it was recently discovered that anyone can find out your outstanding balance amount, the amount of the last payment as well as the date, by asking the caller — any caller — to enter the telephone number they are inquiring about, without a password. This journalist took the telephone numbers of three friends and found out that one of them doesn’t pay his bills on time and has a large amount outstanding. When I jokingly told him that I would refrain from doing any business with him in the future because of what I discovered through his “credit report”, he was shocked and outraged.
In an effort to provide automated information to drivers regarding their outstanding traffic fines, the traffic police have established a number in Riyadh that can be used to discover the total amount of outstanding traffic fines. All one needs to access this information is the driver’s iqama or Saudi identification card number. If one has the identification number of the person he or she wants to conduct a driver’s record check on, he can do so.
Perhaps the most worrisome practice involves home delivery. By calling and ordering home delivery consumers are automatically linking their telephone numbers to a physical address in a computer database whose security is questionable. Arab News contacted a popular pizza restaurant and gave the person taking the order the mobile number of a person who had previously ordered from them. Simply by playing dumb, this journalist was able to get a physical address that matched the phone number from the order taker. When Arab News contacted the restaurant’s manager, he said: “We train our people to not give out any information. They are only supposed to ask for your number and have you confirm the address. Most employees are not aware of this ... but from now on, we will tell them to be more careful.”
There is no arguing that by offering these services, businesses and government entities have the consumer’s best interests in mind by bringing the services to the consumer rather than making the consumer perhaps come in and stand in line. However, there needs to be an awareness among consumers that certain conveniences may come at a certain price; and that price might be their privacy.
