Besieged Octopus is caught up in a row between one of its cardholders and the MTR Corp. The young man who became involved in a fare dispute with MTR staff and claimed the travel records on his smartcard were erased on the sly. The cardholder, a young man who was identified only as 'John', and his family threatened to take their complaint to Privacy Commissioner Roderick Woo Bun, who has attacked Octopus for selling cardholders' personal data. The MTR Corp denied it had deleted any data from the man's card but admitted its staff had mistaken him for another passenger, which gave rise to the dispute. Octopus did not directly comment on the case but said the card only recorded 10 of its holder's most recent transactions. According to the complainant's mother, 'Jenny', the fare dispute began when three MTR staff who wore badges but were not in uniform apprehended John on suspicion of using a discounted Octopus card on a Tung Chung-bound train at Hong Kong Station at 11.40pm on July 21. 'I used to brag about our Octopus system to my mainland relatives and friends, saying it is one of our most intelligent inventions in Hong Kong,' she said at a press conference arranged by lawmaker Pan Pey-chyou. Her son did not attend. 'I can't believe we are now living in fear, being wrongly caught and accused by those big companies like MTR and Octopus who have control over our [cards]'. Jenny said John took the MTR from Wan Chai to Central, and then boarded a train from Hong Kong Station to Tung Chung, where the family lives. According to her version of events the three MTR employees said they saw John on close-circuit television using a discounted Octopus card at Hong Kong Station and wanted to inspect it, along with his identity card. John told them he used a normal Octopus card to board the train in Wan Chai and did not have a second one. He allowed them to check travel records on his Octopus card but refused to give them his identity card. The MTR staff checked the Octopus card with a reading device and said John had used another card to board the train, but they refused to show him supporting data on the card reader. John then called the police and his family. Police said the matter was a misunderstanding and wanted it settled. After the officers left, John's mother and his younger brother arrived at the station and argued with the three MTR staff. John later went to an MTR ticketing booth to check his records, which showed his trip from Wan Chai station, and took a snapshot of the machine's data On July 22, the family lodged a complaint at MTR headquarters in Kowloon Bay. Two days later, John discovered that the details of his travel on the night of July 21 were missing. He believed this data had been deleted from the card without his knowledge and his family sought Pan's help. The MTR Corp said it would apologise to John for the mix-up in identities.
