Personal information is taonga (a treasure). Every day, people provide business and government with information about themselves in order to access products and services that are of value to them. This exchange happens according to tiakitanga (trust that that personal information will be respected, protected and valued).

Talking to people about how their personal information is collected, kept, used, and disclosed, and the impact it can have when something goes wrong, has put privacy in a new perspective for me – especially now that I deal with privacy matters every day.

ANZ’s privacy and data protection manager Hannah Johnston was a recent guest speaker at our last Technology and Privacy Forum for 2014 and she gave a comprehensive overview about what the bank – New Zealand’s third largest employer after its merger with the National Bank – was doing to protect customer privacy.

Privacy officers are extremely important. The Privacy Act requires every agency to have one. Most agencies do have one. But, that’s just the problem - only one. Being a privacy officer can be a lonely job, but the issues every privacy officer faces are often similar.