Google leads Web users to personal data

Taiwan's online information security appears to have been threatened, as some Internet surfers recently learned that all their personal data can easily be found through Google (http://www.google.com/), a popular Internet search engine, the local media reported yesterday.

According to the reports, after typing in their Chinese names on Google, some Internet surfers found their names already listed there, with a link to a local business Web site, SmartNet (智富網, http://www.smartnet.com.tw/).

After they went to SmartNet, the surfers were shocked to see that all their personal data -- such as ID numbers, home and e-mail addresses, phone numbers, ages, education, occupations and marital status -- were listed on the Web site for all to see.

Hundreds of Web users' personal data had been listed on the page, all of them online customers of Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託).

Chinatrust yesterday strongly denied the reports, saying that all clients' personal data was protected since each customer needs to have a special password in order to be able to access confidential information online.

"Our system is safe," Chinatrust officials claimed yesterday. "We believe all the information available on the Internet was false."

A woman surnamed Tseng (曾), one of the victims, however, said that she was very angry yesterday morning to see all her personal data listed and freely available to the public on the Web.

Tseng said that she had made one purchase at an online bookstore with her Chinatrust credit card, but now felt insecure about shopping online.

"My privacy has been seriously invaded," Tseng said.

Meanwhile, assistant manager of SmartNet's technical section, Lee Cheng-hsing (李正行), yesterday said that there may have been some system errors which caused the victims' details to appear on the Internet, and that the company would move all its client's personal data to behind the system's "firewall," a secure part of the system, immediately.