The Privacy Act empowers the Privacy Commissioner to receive complaints about breaches of the Privacy Act. The Act compels the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) to focus on settling complaints and preventing any issues they give rise to from re-occurring.

A recent decision by the Human Rights Review Tribunal (HRRT) illustrates how other legislation can interact with and override the Privacy Act.

When caught out by her employer shopping online during working hours, a woman’s attempt to claim reparations for humiliation and distress was thrown out by the Human Right’s Review Tribunal when a series of light-hearted, emoji-filled messages between the woman and her employer revealed that there was no evidence of harm.

We published a case note in March 2019 about a law firm that demanded $19,000 from a former client for the cost of providing the client with his information. After investigating the complaint, the Privacy Commissioner concluded the cost of a USB stick was a reasonable cost, not the $19,000 charge. We wrote about that case here.

When is information your personal information? Does it include references to other people that just happen to be on a file with your name on it? These are the questions that the Human Rights Review Tribunal, and High Court of New Zealand have considered in the recent decisions in Taylor v Chief Executive of the Department of Corrections ([2018] NZHRRT 35 and Taylor v Chief Executive of the Department of Corrections [2020] NZHC 383.

The Human Rights Review Tribunal [2020 HRRT 16] awarded $50,000 to an ACC claimant after it was found to have breached the Privacy Act by destroying his file.

Cameron Slater, a well-known blogger, published a number of posts about business consultant Matthew Blomfield on the Whale Oil site. The posts were released between May–October 2012. There were additional publications containing personal information about Mr Blomfield on other blog sites.

The Human Rights Review Tribunal recently found that the Parole Board breached the Privacy Act when it disclosed an offender’s parole address, with tragic consequences.