Privacy breach irks

A group of seniors feels their privacy has been breached and there’s a lack of respect after an overdue payment notice was sent to their neighbour.

The Takapuna Senior Citizens’ Association receives quarterly invoices from Auckland Council delivered to their mailbox.

Association president Maurice Bowman says the invoice received in April had not been paid due to ill health. So, on August 1, an Auckland Council credit controller sent an email to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau Takapuna asking when payment was expected.

Bowman says the bureau put a print-out of the email in the association’s letterbox and the association paid as soon as they could.

‘‘I feel that it’s extremely irresponsible to send the details of somebody else’s business to somebody totally unrelated to our finances,’’ Bowman says. ’’It’s beyond comprehension that somebody in Auckland Council should send our private personal business details to another organisation.’’

Auckland Council’s head of transaction services Sharmaine Naidoo says the council wants to apologise to both the bureau and the association for the error ‘‘which was due to both groups having similar sounding names’’.

‘‘We have contacted both groups to apologise for the confusion and amended our records so that future correspondence is sent to the right representatives,’’ Naidoo says.

But Bowman says the council hasn’t been in touch directly and similar sounding names is a ‘‘ludicrous’’ explanation. He says the association doesn’t have an email address, but technology is not the issue as a lot of people don’t need or have an email.

Age Concern North Shore and Auckland were contacted for comment but did not respond.

Takapuna Senior Citizen’s Association president Maurice Bowman, holds a copy of the email sent to the Citizens Advice Bureau regarding the association’s private business.