How did renting in Australia turn into a full-blown personal audit?

Applying for a rental property in Australia is completely cooked. I’ve had to hand over my bank records, wage slips, passport, driving licence, utility bills, multiple references — professional and personal — all in order to secure a rental.

But in the regions it’s even worse. Because there are often no open inspections, tenants have to supply all this information just to view a property.

The thing is, I don’t really want randoms to know how many Sundays I’m feeling a little dusty and a chicken burger is being delivered to my door or what else I’m spending my money on.

I get that tenancy contracts are worth a lot of money, tens of thousands of dollars a year, so it makes sense someone wants to know if I can follow through with payment.

But are landlords and agents asking for a reasonable amount of information?

Tenants’ Union NSW CEO Leo Patterson Ross said Australia’s competitive rental market has led to companies building tenancy apps that collect extraordinary amounts of personal information, which is then made available to real estate agents and private landlords.

“The information that is being asked for is not reasonable. It’s far too invasive, and it keeps growing.”

He said the reason that we’re in this position is that, “there hasn’t been any regulation of the kinds of thinking and thought processes that go into making the decision of who to rent to”.

Extra information is supposed to streamline the application process, which it does, but at what cost to the applicant’s privacy?

“We’ve seen apps suggest things like your social media usage and how many friends you have, how many people wish you Happy Birthday, might be an indication of trust, for instance,” Patterson Ross said. “So there’s an incentive for people to gather more and more information.”

Clearly this is getting out of hand.

Once you’ve handed this information to companies, apps, private landlords, real estate agents — it’s gone.

Let’s say you don’t get the property — doesn’t matter, landlords can keep your info, maybe to try and fill the same rental a year or two later.

Agencies might hold onto your data so they can market more properties to you.

The Tenants’ Union is concerned about how the private information collected is stored, shared and potentially sold.

“They could sell on to third parties or fourth parties to run advertising marketing campaigns, to gather information about how a sector is performing,” Patterson Ross said.

He added that “your usage data, even if it’s not your personal data, is being used for all sorts of purposes, to set up new businesses, to think about new ways to make a buck out of renting”.

Not to mention if any of these databases get hacked. If hackers can break into telcos and banks then what’s to stop them gaining access to this staggering amount of our personal information?

So is there any hope? Maybe. The New South Wales Government is set to introduce new laws to parliament in coming weeks that will set a standard and regulate the application process.

The devil will be in the detail — and if the government manages to get it right, it could set a roadmap for other states and territories to follow.