The complainant received a telephone call from a political party. She inquired as to how they had obtained her "confidential" telephone number and was told that party had an agreement with a telephone company whereby they obtained a directory of numbers.

The complainant asked me to investigate this disclosure by the telephone company. However, as this had occurred prior to the 1 July 1993 I had no jurisdiction to investigate this complaint.

I did make an informal approach to the telephone company about this matter. I was advised that an error had occurred in the loading of the complainant's number on to the company's database. A computer operator had to enter the complainant's details manually as, for some reason, they had been rejected by the computer. The operator had failed to indicate that the complainant's telephone number was a "restricted listing". The error was detected and corrected the following day. However, prior to this a directory of unrestricted listings was sold to the party which included the complainant's telephone number.

Following discussions with this office the telephone company offered a phone card and one month's free line rental to compensate the complainant. This was accepted by the complainant in settlement.

Disclosure of restricted listing by telephone company - disclosure prior to 1 July 1993 - no jurisdiction under Privacy Act 1993

Disclosure of personal information - Telephone company - Telephone directory disclosed to political party - Confidential listing accidentally disclosed - Disclosure prior to 1 July 1993 - Jurisdiction - Information privacy principles 5 and 11