A customer of Telecom New Zealand complained that it had sent him a brochure marketing another company's goods without his authorisation. Although the brochure mostly referred to Telecom's goods and services, it included a deal on a computer and a subscription on special terms to Telecom's Internet service.

The terms and conditions of Telecom's subscriber contract state it will use customers' information to inform them of new services. Telecom maintained that it was promoting the computer as a means to offer new services to customers. It appeared that Telecom wanted to increase its Internet service subscriber basis, so it made this offer to its existing telecommunications customers. I accepted that this was one of Telecom's business aims.

Principle 10 provides that personal information obtained in connection with one purpose may be used for that purpose. I accepted that Telecom had obtained customer details for a number of purposes, including making them aware of new services. I considered that the offer of the computer, in conjunction with the deal on Internet access, came within this purpose. One of the factors limiting Telecom's subscriber base to the Internet was that not every home had a personal computer. The offer was clearly aimed at reducing that limitation, so the connection between the computer and the Internet service was very close. For this reason, I formed the opinion that principle 10 had not been breached.

I cautioned Telecom that when it marketed another company's products, those products had to be very closely connected with the services it offered. If the link was not as close as it was in this case, and a reasonable customer might not expect to be contacted about the product, I would not necessarily be able to conclude that marketing the product was provided for by the subscriber contract.

Part of the customer's complaint was that Telecom had not sought his authorisation to send marketing material about other companies' products. The information privacy principles do not require agencies to obtain an authorisation for all their proposed uses of customers' information. However, they do have a responsibility to inform customers of the proposed uses when the information is collected (principle 3). I accepted that Telecom had done so in this case If an agency collected personal information for one purpose and later decided to use it for a different purpose, authorisations from customers might be needed.

The customer was satisfied with this response and I discontinued my investigation.

February 1998

Indexing terms: Using personal information - Telecom New Zealand Ltd - Marketing another company's goods to customers - Customer's authorisation not sought - Purpose for collecting information - Information privacy principles 3 and 10