Commercial Passenger Vehicles Victoria (CPVV) is demanding mass data from Booking Service Providers (BSPs) in the commercial passenger vehicle industry. Rod Barton believes this wholesale collection of data sparks severe privacy concerns for passengers and the industry alike.
BSPs are vehicles that take pre-booked services, as opposed to trips that initiate from a rank or are hailed.
Under the current regulations, all BSPs must keep and submit records at regular intervals that include data such as kilometres travelled, the fee charged and the date, time and GPS coordinates or addresses of where the trip started and ended.
Despite the names of passengers being omitted from these data requirements, it is obvious that this data could easily be linked to an individual, thus monitoring their address and movements.
There is now widespread anxiety in the industry over the matter of client consent, the driver and passengers right to privacy, and who is accountable.
As the regulator, the CPVV has an obligation to inform the industry and passengers of what they intend to do with the personal information they collect and when the data is being used.
At present, the justification for these invasive and significant data demands has only gone as far as to say that this data is necessary for the 'safety' of the industry.
This could be plausible if not for the fact that over a quarter of vehicles registered within the industry operate outside of any BSP. Not to mention, owners with up to two vehicles are not required to register as a BSP even if they are accepting bookings.
If these data requirements were in the name of safety, would it not be critical to collect information from all industry participants and every trip conducted within the market?
What makes these privacy concerns all the more serious, is the threat of significant fines if operators do not report the data within the due date and in the required format. These fines are up to $99 132 for body corporates and $19 826 for individuals.
Many small industry operators do not have the technology, know-how or capacity to record, keep and submit this data within the stringent formatting requirements, let alone within an unreasonably short time frame.
Barton is seeking answers. That is why Mr Barton recently met with the Information Commissioner and the Privacy and Data Protection Deputy Commissioner, who agreed that these data obligations had red flags that warrant further investigation.
The lack of clarity surrounding these data requirements warrants that the CPVV immediately ceases all threats to operators for fines attributed to non-compliance.
This is a matter of deep concern. The privacy of all taxi, hire-car and ride-share passengers is at risk.
We deserve a valid explanation for this wholesale collection of personal data.
Quotes attributed to Rod Barton MP
"There has been a complete lack of clarity regarding why the CPVV is collecting this data, who will protect it and how it will be used."
"The taxi and hire car industry continue to suffer. Where do we draw the line between mass data requests and threatening to cripple small operators who simply cannot afford the technology required to comply?"
