Australian Gov't Asks eBay To Name Big Sellers 215
beaverdownunder writes "In an effort to combat fraudulent claims lodged within its Centrelink welfare-payment agency, the Australian Government has asked auction-site eBay to name all Aussies who sold more than $20,000 worth of goods in the last year. Should someone be found to have been doing such a high-volume of business on eBay while claiming Centrelink benefits but not declaring that income, they could potentially face prosecution. However, the president of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, Terry O'Gorman, says this action is a gross invasion of privacy. 'What we say should happen is that if police have probable cause for investigating someone, they go to a magistrate, they get a warrant and they access that person's eBay records that way,' he said."
Seems like a PayPal problem... (Score:2, Interesting)
The problem I think is more with PayPal than eBay, the Australian Taxation Office can look into an Australian bank account at will because it is tied to the Australian Tax File Number (TFN). This is a legal requirement of operating as a bank in Australia. PayPal as far as I am aware does not have an Australian banking license, and hence is not required to bind the TFN to the PayPal account. The .au government just needs to force PayPal to acquire a banking license to operate in Australia. I think that would also give Australian users of PayPal the much needed legal protections that they have with their regular bank accounts.