News from Members

Originally published on the New Zealand Herald 3 October 2024. Beware the risk within By Michael Webster, Privacy Commissioner One of the greatest risks to privacy in the workplace could be sitting next to you - or it could even be you. Employee browsing or the unauthorised access and misuse of personal information is [...]

People who have become the victim of a data breach often receive insufficient information from the organisation that had the data breach. As a result, victims are insufficiently aware of the risk of abuse of their personal data. And they do not know exactly what they can do themselves to [...]

By Michael Webster, Privacy Commissioner. This article was first published in The Post. OPINION: Should you have to disclose to your insurance company if you’ve taken a genetic test and learnt you have the gene for a medical condition? Should they be able to require you to test? Without adequate safeguards, a [...]

This summary was written by Rachel Levinson-Waldman, who served with OPC as a 2024 Ian Axford Fellow in Public Policy. Read her in-depth report. What is social media monitoring? Social media monitoring in this context means just about any use of social media that isn’t for public education or outreach. It covers [...]

As part of the Tupu Tai Pasifika Public Sector Summer Internship Programme, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) worked with an awesome intern, Sinola Falefo’ou, in our Policy team. As part of her time here, we have asked her to put some of her thoughts into words and share [...]

This article was first published in 'New Zealand Doctor' 12/10/2022 When parents split up, this can sometimes create a fraught situation for agencies involved in providing care and services to their children, and GPs are no exception. Which parent has the right to see their child’s medical records? Only the custodial [...]

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards welcomed Parliament passing the Privacy Act 2020 with unanimous support. The new Act replaces the 27-year-old Privacy Act 1993. Many of the changes are based on recommendations from the Law Commissions comprehensive 2011 review of New Zealands privacy laws. The new Privacy Act provides a modernised [...]

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards has awarded a Privacy Trust Mark to the contact tracing app Rippl. Mr Edwards says Rippl, a free contact tracing app created by the Wellington company Paperkite, has been assessed as meeting his offices Privacy Trust Mark criteria. The Privacy Trust Mark is intended to give [...]

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards has awarded a Privacy Trust Mark to TICCs Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Customer Due Diligence Online Forms and AML Online Portal. Mr Edwards says the Trust, Integrity and Compliance Company (TICC) has created a privacy and user-friendly way for its clients to comply with their anti-money laundering [...]

As part of Privacy Awareness Week 2011, the Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff today released a privacy toolkit aimed at both health consumers and health providers. Consumers will be interested in the brochures and fact sheets. For health providers there are also case notes (summaries of actual health-related privacy complaints), an [...]