Complaints are valuable assets for every organisation. There is no better way to highlight and fix problems in an organisation’s systems and processes. This is what we tell the agencies we investigate, and many of them take the opportunity to learn from complaints to improve their practices. It’s also a view that was echoed in an excellent Auditor-General report about ACC’s complaint’s processes.   

Our office is proud of the work we do in the area of dispute resolution. Where it is appropriate, we try and bring complainants and respondents together, in person or by phone, to resolve privacy disputes. Last year, we closed 827 complaint files and of these, nearly half were achieved with a settlement between the parties involved.

Updated by our Guidance team in March 2025.

Last week’s decision of Clifford J in the Wellington High Court found that in the context of the Evidence Act, Nicky Hager was a journalist in relation to the publication of Dirty Politics, and was therefore entitled to assert privilege under s.68 of the Evidence Act 2006. 

So you are hiring. What do you need to do to meet your privacy obligations? Here’s an easy checklist of do’s and don’ts. They all relate back to the 12 privacy principles that guide the collection, use, storage and disposal of personal information.   

A complainant seeking $100,000 in damages for Westpac’s disclosure of a debit card statement to his employer has had his case dismissed by the Human Rights Review Tribunal.

For 37 million people, the Ashley Madison data breach is a nightmare scenario. Extremely sensitive, personal information is in the public domain to be perused and abused by anyone takes a mind to do so.

When the Ashley Madison data breach story first broke, it was quite isolated. It was a criminal matter for local authorities and a PR disaster for Ashley Madison itself, but that’s as far as it went.