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Protecting Personal Information on Public Registers
People should be given the right to have their names deleted from direct marketing lists, Privacy Commissioner Bruce Slane said today.
"We have a lot of complaints from people saying they have asked and asked to be taken off direct marketing lists, but it has not been done. While leading companies in the field will carry out these requests, others won't unless there is a law."
Mr Slane said the report recommended that people should be able to require deletion of their names from such lists.
The report further recommended that agencies should not in future be able to force bulk release of information from public registers. Public registers include rates rolls, building consent registers and the motor vehicle register. Commercial agencies regularly purchase details of such registers for marketing purposes.
"I think public feelings about receiving unsolicited direct marketing mail originating from such sources range from sincere and well-founded privacy concerns to real fears for personal safety," said Mr Slane. People have been required to supply this information and are annoyed to find it has been used for quite different purposes.
Mr Slane said examples of personal concerns about public registers included classic car enthusiasts worried that car thieves could use the motor vehicle register to obtain information about valuable vehicles. "People feel the registers should only be used for the purposes for which they were set up - not as tracing devices."
Domestic violence victims seeking to hide from their former partners were also vulnerable.
"If a woman moves cities to hide, she could be found if she buys a home. If she applies for a building consent to alter her home her name and address could be circulated far and wide for commercial purposes."
While there was now some protection available under the Domestic Violence Act, it needs to be extended to people who are harassed, he said. A new public register privacy principle is proposed to segregate from public search details of a person's whereabouts when they or their family would be put at risk.