Privacy is sometimes wrongly seen as antithetical to information sharing. It is not. Privacy and information sharing are different sides of the same coin. Our Privacy Act could just have easily and just as accurately been called the Information Sharing Act. Rather than arbitrarily limit what information can be shared, with whom, and for what purposes, the Privacy Act provides a framework for safe information sharing.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term used to describe a broad basket of self-learning technologies. It is not only for self-driving cars, making shopping easier or for businesses to make better decisions in allocating their resources - but can reveal new insights into health issues and provide solutions to enable people to live a healthy life.

Cast your mind back to 2013. Same-sex marriage was legalised in NZ, we learnt more about the activities of the NSA than we ever cared to know, Prince George was born, Margaret Thatcher died and our long Marmite (marmageddon) nightmare finally ended.

Privacy authorities in our region rounded off the year in Vancouver with the 48th Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA) Forum on 16-17 November. The meeting was hosted by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC-Canada) and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia (OIPC-BC). Our office was represented by the Commissioner, John Edwards, and myself.

Rumours of the demise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have proved premature. It has been given new life - with some important changes – as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). What has happened and does this mean anything for privacy?

A recent project of Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Dr Andrew Butler proposes “a modern constitution that is easy to understand, reflects New Zealand’s identity and nationhood, protects rights and liberties, and prevents governments from abusing power”.

Me ōpanga rawa e aro ai te tangata, Ki te tai tama Māori e ((Must he be an All Black before you notice, This young Māori man) - Corin Merrick, Te Hunga Roia Maori o Aotearoa Hui-a-Tau 2017.

A recent data breach incident gave us an example of how trying to be careful in one respect can lead to unintended bad consequences in other ways.