Compensation is being sought on behalf of nearly six million Aussies caught up in the massive Qantas data breach.
Australia’s leading plaintiff law firm, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, lodged a representative complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) late yesterday.
The breach, which occurred on June 30, involved unauthorised access to a third-party customer servicing platform used by a Qantas contact centre. This compromised the personal information of 5.7 million of the airline’s customers.
Information compromised includes customers’ name, address, email address, phone number, date of birth, Qantas Frequent Flyer numbers, tier, points balance, status credits, gender and meal preference.
“Maurice Blackburn has now taken action against Qantas over its mass customer data breach that has reportedly affected 5.7million people,” said Ms Elizabeth O’Shea, Maurice Blackburn Principal lawyer.
“We’ve filed an official complaint with the Office of the Information Commissioner, which is the authority charged with taking action over breaches of the Privacy Act.”
The complaint alleges that Qantas failed to take reasonable steps to protect personal information, constituting a interference with privacy under the Privacy Act 1988.
The OAIC has acknowledged receipt of Qantas’s notification under the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme and is monitoring the airline’s compliance.
“While we await a response and potential action from the OAIC in relation to Qantas failing to adequately protect the personal information of its customers, we would encourage Qantas customers who were impacted by the breach to register with us to receive updates about the representative complaint and compensation which may be sought on your behalf. Registration is free and non-binding,” added Ms O’Shea.
“It is early days in what we are learning about the mass data breach, but if you’re one of the millions of people that have had your personal information compromised, you’re eligible to register with us and we will keep you informed as the matter progresses.”
