Updated on 01/02/2023: to include further information on the High Court’s second decision regarding the disclosure of Māori vaccination information”. 

If you’re reading this on your phone, you may have unlocked your device using your face or fingerprint. If so, you’re one of a growing number of people who regularly interact with biometric technologies.

Technology developments can be challenging to privacy laws. We all know our phones are powerhouses of data collection, and that our data is the key asset for big tech. But we don’t always know what data is being collected, nor how it is being used.

Today John Edwards, New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner, has been announced as the preferred candidate for the role of the UK’s Information Commissioner.

Under the Privacy Act, the Human Rights Review Tribunal (“the Tribunal”) can award damages for emotional harm caused by a privacy breach. Damages are compensatory rather than punitive; the goal is to compensate individuals for specific harm rather than punish a defendant’s bad behaviour.

The Government has announced new legislation outlining workplace vaccination requirements, taking the next step in stopping the spread of COVID-19. This legislation will change the circumstances when workplaces can ask about a person’s vaccination status. Please visit Employment.govt.nz for the latest information. (Updated November 3)

In 2013, UK Prime Minister David Cameron tried to instigate the sharing of UK National Health Service (“NHS”) patient data to private organisations for a small fee. Despite plans to anonymise the data, the move was sufficiently controversial that the Government had to drop the plan – there were major concerns over transparency and privacy. Eight years later, a similar plan has emerged, this time during the pandemic response of Boris Johnson’s Government.

In recent weeks, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner has been contacting individual organisations about specific privacy breaches that have been raised with us. We’re taking a more proactive approach to remind and warn individual organisations of their statutory responsibilities under the Privacy Act 2020.