Landlords’ blacklist of tenants leaked online

A woman was shocked to discover her decades-old criminal record had been published online, part of a blacklist of compromising information compiled by a property investor group and sold to landlords about prospective tenants.

Jessica Cross was one of hundreds of Timaru residents to have sensitive information posted online, including a conviction for a minor offence she says she committed 15 years ago while still a teenager.

The South Canterbury Property Investors Association (SCPIA) president Kerry Beveridge said their database had been hacked and the list posted online and the list should only have been made available to members.

New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties (NZCCL) spokesman Thomas Beagle said it was their responsibility to keep the information private.

‘‘If they fail then being hacked doesn’t excuse them. They were still collecting it and sharing it irresponsibly.

Cross – who discoved the list by chance after googling her name – said could read people’s first and last names, criminal convictions, information about monies owed to landlords and cleanliness that properties had been left in, and that she’d been exasperated after contacting the association ‘‘probably 20 times to get this off the internet’’.

‘‘It is not fair. If I went to go and rent a property at the moment, there’s a possibility that I won’t be able to. That information will be passed on to a third party landlord.’’

Another ‘‘victim’’, who did not want to be named, said his crimes were committed as a youth in the early 1990s and his convictions are wiped out under the Clean Slate Bill.

‘‘I believe this is a privacy breach. I have not reoffended since and do not think it is fair this is dragged back up 25 years later.’’

New Zealand Property Investors Federation chief executive Andrew King said the group had taken legal advice and were within the law. ‘‘People added to the list are informed when contact details are known and the list should only be available to SCPIA members.’’

Civil liberties advocate

Beagle said appeared the association had appeared to have breached the Privacy Act and encouraged anyone affected by the breach to take their case to the Privacy Commissioner, saying even if it did not constitute a privacy breach, the association was not acting ‘‘within the spirit’’ of the Act.