Indian call centres vow more checks after new sting

BANGALORE : India's business services industry vowed on Tuesday to raise privacy standards after an Australian broadcaster said an undercover reporter bought confidential customer data linked to call centres.

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) said it would need formal complaints to help law enforcement after Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) television's Four Corners programme said its journalist bought birth and ATM details of Australians.

This was the third case this year involving alleged sale of customer data by workers in the $5.2 billion back-office services industry that employs more than 350,000 people.

NASSCOM said the problem of illegal data sale was not unique to any country, and listed measures including a planned register of professionals, training of enforcement agencies and legal changes to tackle cyber crimes.

"Indian IT companies undertaking work for global companies contractually comply with all the requirements of relevant privacy and data protection laws of the home country" the association said in a statement. "But the industry is determined to raise standards even further."

NASSCOM said it would work with authorities in India and Australia to ensure law enforcement in any crime.

The ABC programme reported a loose trail leading from Australia to an Indian subcontractor through a telemarketing company and spoke of a class of brokers who sell data.

"The Australian Federal Police are assessing information provided by Four Corners at this stage. As of today it is limited to Australia," a spokesman for Justice Minister Chris Ellison said.

The ABC report followed one by Britain's "Sun" daily in June which said its reporters had bought bank details of 1,000 British customers from a call centre worker, but the firm where the man was employed said it had no British clients.

India's call centres were first hit in April by a $400,000 online credit card fraud involving workers at MphasiS BFL Ltd. who police said enticed Citibank customers to part with details. Investigations are ongoing.

India is also drafting new information technology laws to cover computer crimes including privacy issues, information protection and virus attacks.

(Additional reporting by Michael Perry in SYDNEY)