News from Members

Privacy Commissioner recommends Ministry of Health and Police review their use and disclosure of Covid-19 patient information Privacy Commissioner John Edwards has released the results of an inquiry into the Ministry of Healths disclosure of Covid-19 patient information to emergency services. The Inquiry recommends government agencies review the way they handle [...]

An Office of the Privacy Commissioner inquiry has found the credit reporter illion (formerly known as Dun & Bradstreet) in breach of the Credit Reporting Privacy Code (the Code) because of the activities its related company Credit Simple performs through its arrangement with the credit reporter. The Code places obligations [...]

Employees of a company were required to have their fingerprints scanned for time and attendance registration. Following an investigation the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) concluded that the company was not authorised to process its employees’ fingerprint data. The company was not entitled to invoke an exemption for processing sensitive [...]

The Benefits Office of the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration should not have processed the (dual) nationality of childcare benefit applicants in the way it did for many years. According to the results of the Data Protection Authority’s investigation, this practice was unlawful and discriminatory, and a serious and improper [...]

The privacy of users of the Dutch ‘CoronaMelder’ contact tracing app is still not sufficiently guaranteed. The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) believes that the health minister should make agreements with Google and Apple about the app’s software, that legislation should be put in place to properly regulate the use [...]

In 2019 the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Dutch DPA) stepped up its focus on enforcing privacy legislation. Where in 2018 its main priority was to provide information about the new EU General Data Protection Regulation, in 2019 this grace period ended. The enforcement measures imposed by the Dutch DPA included [...]

The National Credit Register (BKR) in the Netherlands can no longer charge people who wish to access the personal data it holds on them. In addition, if data subjects wish to receive a copy of their data by post, the procedure must be simple, and they must be able to [...]

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 [...]