[LINK] Geoff Huston, 'All Your Packets Belong to Us'

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Alex writes, in part ..

> Oops.

Yes, indeed ..

"Privacy: Thodey thumps Telstra team over trust breach"

By  Alex Zaharov-Reutt http://www.itwire.com/business-it-
news/security/55578-privacy-thodey-thumps-telstra-team-over-trust-
breach#embed-1


Telstra’s CEO and Big T, David Thodey, has told his team that the 
customer privacy breach that occurred over the Smart Controls 
scandal “must not happen again”, with privacy “an essential requirement 
and our license to operate”..

The ticking time clock for David Thodey now rests upon his and Telstra’s 
performance on privacy, something spectacularly besmirched over the 
NetSweeper Smart Controls affair for users of oft-heralded Next G 
network, which led to Geoff Huston’s blog post “All your packets belong 
to us”.. 

Now comes news of a letter David Thodey sent to his staff, which was 
republished at Whirlpool, and which Telstra is reported to have verified, 
which places the issue of privacy breaches squarely at the centre of his 
email. 

He strongly reminded the “team” of the essential importance of privacy, 
and how the breach “must never happen again”. 

 http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1935438#r34867325

The email can be read in full at the link above, but Mr Thodey states 
that “customer privacy is not negotiable”, that “the damage to our 
reputation was already done” despite Tesltra reacting quickly to the news 
of the Netsweeper scandal, that “some of our customers may feel we have 
broken their trust” and “are entitled to feel that way”, and that “it 
will take months of hard work to win back that trust”.

Mr Thodey says the “these incidents and investigations create an 
impression that Telstra does not care enough about the privacy of our 
customers” and “undermine the great work we have done to improve customer 
satisfaction and change the way our customers talk about us”.

However, says Mr Thodey, “the truth is we care deeply about customer 
privacy”, and that he wants to “remind everyone that privacy is not an 
aspiration at Telstra – it is an essential requirement and our license to 
operate”. 

He says, Telstra has “to do better”, that staff should “raise the issue 
with your manager as a matter of urgency” if they see or suspect privacy 
breaches are happening, that customer trust is “both precious and 
fragile”, taking “months and years to build, but can be broken in one 
day”.

David Thodey concludes by stating: “That’s what happened.. It must not 
happen again”.

--
Cheers,
Stephen