After 25 years’ service to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner Blair Stewart is retiring. For anyone with an interest in privacy law, this is significant and sad news. Blair’s contributions to the promotion of privacy within New Zealand and internationally are substantial and enduring.

At Nethui, I was delighted to hear the Minister for Government Digital Services, Hon Clare Curran, bring up algorithmic transparency as a concept that needs further exploration. It was a statement that prompted the following speaker, Jillian C. York of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to express happy surprise - that a government minister would publicly acknowledge the importance of algorithmic transparency.

Privacy authorities typically perform regulatory and enforcement functions on their own - or occasionally with another public body - within their domestic jurisdiction. They know the domestic law they enforce. The law will clearly lay out the authority’s role and provide a clear pathway to the intended outcomes.

Should consumers have a right to demand the transfer of their personal information from one online provider to another of their choice? The Privacy Commissioner this week released survey results that showed a majority (56 percent) of New Zealanders consider the ability to transfer personal information between social network or cloud services as important or very important.