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EXCLUSIVE:Despite Massive Data Breach, Catch Now Wants To Enter The Mobile Market

Catch.com.au is set to enter the telco market in partnership with Optus, this is despite the business having a questionable track record when it comes to security and the protection of customer information.

Called Catch Connect the business will offer mobile and data services despite the Companies operation in the past being subject to an investigation by The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

In the past it took the company three years to report data breaches with some observers who were working for the Company at the time, claiming that the Company deliberately tried to cover up the breach.

More alarming is the fact that in the past the Company was accused of not only trying to cover up past data breaches, they also told media Companies that they had called in the Australian Federal Police to investigate the breach.

The AFP later denied claiming “AFP records do not show that any complaint was received …from the Catch of the Day website,” an AFP spokesperson said at the time.

Daily deals website Catch of the Day has escaped any penalty for a data breach, which saw a significant amount of the financial and private details of its customers stolen.

A price list seen by ChannelNews reveals that SMS calls will be free while with a small Catch Connect package users will be charged $0.99 cents a minute.
The Company is also offering a service called CatchBack. With this offering Catch repays users every dollar with CatchBack dollars.

The only problem is that the Company is making the lost telco margin on the goods purchased by their customers.

Information on the new catchconnect.com.au site claims that users can spend their budget on over 700,000 goods. They can also acquire a 3X voucher with a minimum spend of $60.

At the time of the past breach The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) via privacy commissioner Timothy Pilgrim “expressed concern about the size of the breach”.

Mr Pilgrim recommended that Catch of the Day “improve its processes for notifying customers of data breach incidents in future”, noting concern at “the significant delay between [Catch of the Day] becoming aware of the incident and notifying affected individuals”.

In 2011, Catch of the Day was hacked and personal information and credit card numbers are stolen.

In June 2014, Catch of the Day emails customers, telling them of the data breach, and says it has reported the hack to AFP.

In July 2014, OAIC is told about the breach a month before the public. When it becomes public, OAIC requests more information.

In July 2014, AFP says nothing was reported from Catch of the Day in 2011.Catch

The ABC reported at the time that many Catch customers were highly critical of Catch of the Day’s handling of the incident back in June 2014.

In a statement issued at the time of the incident directors at the Company that are now trying to launch the Catch Connect mobile service said ‘Catch of the Day had no legal obligation or requirement to inform the privacy commissioner of the data breach.

At the time the privacy commissioner left open the door to further investigations, if requested by affected customers.

“The OAIC may conduct further enquiries if complaints are received from people who have been adversely affected by this incident,” a statement said at the time.
Catch of the Day has not commented for this story.



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