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Principle 4 states that personal information must be collected in a way that is lawful and seen as fair and reasonable in the circumstances.
What is fair depends a lot on the circumstances like the individual concerned (age and capacity) and the natural sensitivity of the information. Note that threatening, coercive, or misleading behaviour when collecting information from an individual could well be considered unfair.
If you break the law when collecting information, then you have collected information unlawfully.
What is fair also depends on the circumstances, such as the purpose for collection, the degree to which the collection intrudes on privacy, and the time and place it was collected.
You need to take particular care when collecting information from children and young people. It may not be fair to collect information from children in the same manner as you would from an adult. You may need to take special care with the information of young people to address any power imbalance, and to obtain their genuine consent for the collection (or the authorisation) of their family/whānau.
Further information
Case notes
Privacy Act 2020 reference
| Information privacy principle 4 | |||
| Manner of collection of personal information | |||
|
An agency may collect personal information only— (a)by a lawful means; and (b)by a means that, in the circumstances of the case (particularly in circumstances where personal information is being collected from children or young persons),— (i)is fair; and (ii)does not intrude to an unreasonable extent upon the personal affairs of the individual concerned. |
