Last year the OECD did a survey* of budget changes in ‘privacy enforcement authorities’. It was revealing. I was taken aback when I saw where New Zealand sat in relation to our most commonly compared OECD economies.

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.

The OECD has just completed an important set of meetings. At its heart was the ministerial meeting on the digital economy which had as its theme innovation, growth and social prosperity. Preceding the main meeting was series of stakeholder forums.

The World Wide Web was invented in 1989 at much the same time that final drafting touches were being made to a privacy bill to be introduced to New Zealand’s Parliament. By 1993, when the Privacy Act was finally enacted, there were – wait for it – an estimated 15 million users of the Internet worldwide. That same year, according to Down to the Wire, Nat Torkington created New Zealand’s first ‘real web site’.

APEC recently moved one step closer towards the goal of updating its privacy framework in time to mark the 10th anniversary of the framework’s adoption in 2005.