It’s Māori Language Week and Matariki, and long past time for a post about Māori and privacy.

At the conclusion of a high level OECD Conference in Cancun, Mexico, last week, 41 countries adopted a Declaration on the Digital Economy: Innovation, Growth and Social Prosperity. This included 33 of the 34 OECD member countries, plus eight other countries.

Cast your mind back to the mid 1990s. Assume you wanted to go to the rugby. To get your tickets, you would have physically gone to a ticket office, or phoned the office and given them your credit card number.

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.

When are you eligible for a legal remedy when an agency breaches your privacy? The answer, as with most things in the legal realm, is “it depends”.

Mrs Patel was outraged. She’d visited her GP for a follow-up check after her hand surgery, and he’d asked her about her history of depression. She didn’t think she’d had anything of the sort, and decided to ask the receptionist for a copy of all her medical notes to see what else was in there. The young receptionist assured her that the doctor owned the notes so she couldn’t have them. 

There are three main credit reporting agencies in New Zealand: Centrix, Veda and Dun & Bradstreet. According to Veda, a thousand people a year challenge the information held in their credit files. This is a right people have under the Privacy Act – to see information agencies hold about them, and request a correction if it’s wrong.

In 1996, the Customs Act was passed. This Act gave front line officers their powers to protect our borders, including powers to search people when they cross the border.