This is the first in what will become a series of blog posts on the new Privacy Act, the changes, and what we’ll be doing to implement those law changes.

Nau mai, haere mai ki te Matariki. This week, our office is pleased to be marking Matariki, the appearance of a cluster of seven stars which is visible in the night sky this time of the year.

New Zealand is generally an engaged country, and most of you reading this will be part of or will have been members of a club at some point. Whether it is a swimming, softball or rugby club or a miniature horse society, you will have been involved in one or know someone who is in one.

I recently got privacy advice from a blackmailer. The email said he or she had studied my love life and created a video series about me. The first part apparently showed the X-rated video that I watched and the second part, taken with my webcam, showed me doing “inappropriate things”.

Last month, I travelled to the United States, in part to attend the Global Privacy Summit.

My second day in Washington involved more meetings and discussion of hot-button issues in the tech and privacy sectors.

On Wednesday 1 May, the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) hosted their Data Protection Authorities Day (DPA) at the White House.

We’ve all seen the ads for genetic ancestry testing - as a way for people to trace their genealogy beyond traditional family trees and historical detail. And thanks to shows like CSI, the public might think of DNA as an investigative tool for the Police; a silver bullet that can solve any high-profile case in just minutes. But DNA can be used for much more than law enforcement activities or tracing ancestry.