The personal information of a number of renters in Melbourne has been allegedly stolen from a Northcote real estate agency during a break-in, raising concerns about potential identity theft.
The ABC has reported that five boxes of documents, containing former renter information including names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and potentially ID documents, were allegedly stolen during a break-in at the Nelson Alexander agency in Northcote in October.
Victoria police confirmed an alleged burglary was under investigation.
“Darebin crime investigation unit detectives are investigating a burglary that occurred at a real estate agency in Northcote on 26 October,” a spokesperson alleged. “It is believed unknown offenders forced entry to the business on High Street about 10.30pm and stole documents before fleeing the scene in a vehicle.”
The spokesperson said some of the documents had since been recovered, and a 40-year-old Fitzroy North man had been charged with handling stolen goods. He was due appear at the Heidelberg magistrates court on 3 February.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) confirmed the alleged breach was reported to the privacy commissioner.
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Guardian Australia did not receive a response to requests for comment from Nelson Alexander Northcote. The agency had told the ABC that it took data storage seriously and had self-reported the matter to the OAIC, and that all current rental data was held securely.
It has been reported that the documents that were allegedly stolen included 89 historical rental files that the agency had been preparing to scan.
Real estate agencies in Victoria are required to keep documents for seven years but are not required to destroy such data after that time under an exemption for small businesses in the Privacy Act.
The federal government announced last year that it intended to phase in a removal the small business exemption from the Privacy Act, but the change was not included in a tranche of privacy legislation that passed the parliament last week.
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said in September that targeted consultations with small business, among others, would continue to strike the right balance with the legislation.
Before those changes were announced, the Real Estate Institute of Australia argued against the exemption being removed, saying it would affect about 65% of real estate businesses.
