A fortnight ago, Europe’s top court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that Google will not be required to apply the ‘right to be forgotten’ globally. This means that search results suppressed within Europe at the request of the individual, will still be available to searches outside Europe.

A man complained to us last year after staff took a copy of his driver’s licence as he checked in to a hotel. The complainant was surprised that staff copied his licence and they couldn’t tell him why they needed the copy or how long they would keep it for.

The biggest thing in the privacy world just now seems to have exploded into the collective consciousness out of nowhere. For those of you with TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read) syndrome, here’s the spoiler. The issue is not as clear cut as you might think. I’d like to hear a range of views about how we should approach this in New Zealand.

Would you stuff your wheelie bin with letters from your GP, bank statements, your latest pay review notice? Surely not. Who knows where it would end up, if indeed it made it off the street.