At Nethui, I was delighted to hear the Minister for Government Digital Services, Hon Clare Curran, bring up algorithmic transparency as a concept that needs further exploration. It was a statement that prompted the following speaker, Jillian C. York of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to express happy surprise - that a government minister would publicly acknowledge the importance of algorithmic transparency.

NetHui, the website says, brings together everybody and anybody that wants to talk about the internet. It's not a conference and speakers don't talk at you all day. Instead, Internet NZ’s gathering of technologists, humanitarians, educationalists and philosophers is designed “for the community, by the community”.

We often get asked about how much a complaint is “worth” in settlement terms, by both complainants and respondents. To be honest, very few of our complaints settle for money. The resolution is usually non-financial, like the release of information or a decent apology.

Should a business use social media to shame scam artists, shoplifters or bad debtors? When someone feels ripped off, this appears a natural course of action but it is a risky path to go down. Our advice is if you believe you have evidence that a crime has been committed, contact Police.

Blockchain is the new buzz: it can solve all our problems, fix climate change, break currency monopolies and so much more: well that was according to some of the participants at NetHui 2017. Jevon Wright and I facilitated a fascinating discussion about this new technology at NetHui .The discussion revealed that, in fact, blockchain is just technology and, as with any technology, it’s up to us to enable its many potential uses.

What’s in a trust mark? In general, a trust mark is a symbol that tells consumers that the product or service they are considering buying or subscribing to is reliable and trustworthy. Trust marks are created by industry or watchdog organisations to reassure customers about the quality or protection that comes with a product or service.

Four years ago, there was a change to the Privacy Act to reflect a change in the Government’s information sharing framework. The Government made the change in response to recommendations by the Law Commission, as part of the commission’s review of New Zealand’s privacy law.

Let’s recap. The Privacy Act gives people the right to access their information. And when a person requests their information, the organisation or business must respond to the request within 20 working days.