A woman applied for an administrative review of the child support paid by her former partner. The IRD mailed the partner's response to the woman, together with details for the review hearing. The envelope was addressed to the woman by her current name, but was addressed to the wrong street number. The envelope was delivered to neighbours, who opened it before giving it to her.

She complained that the IRD had disclosed information to her neighbours and that it had failed to take reasonable steps to protect confidential information. However, following my investigation, I formed the opinion that the IRD had not disclosed information and that it had in place reasonable security safeguards to protect personal information against an unauthorised disclosure.

Security safeguards

The woman alleged that the IRD failed to take adequate security measures to protect the information by:
1. sending it through the general postal system;
2. failing to mark the envelope 'private and confidential'; and
3. using an incorrect address.

I considered each of these in turn:

1. The IRD says it sends out approximately 18 million letters a year, almost all of which contain confidential information. They submitted that it would be unreasonable to expect all letters to be sent by courier or by a more secure method such as registered post because of the cost, and that using the general postal system was reasonable for the purposes of principle 5 in these circumstances.

The IRD also submitted that because the envelope was addressed to the woman, even though the address was wrong, the information privacy principles had not been breached because the neighbours had no right to open the envelope. I noted that section 14 of the Postal Services Act 1987 makes it an offence for a person to wilfully open mail which is not addressed to him or her. The envelope had the woman's name on it, so it was addressed to her. It was unlawful for the neighbours to have deliberately opened the letter.

I also noted that section 10 of the Postal Services Act creates an offence of failing to forward mail that is delivered to the wrong address. In view of these provisions, I considered that the IRD was entitled to rely on the postal services and did not have to take further security measures in order to comply with principle 5.

2. IRD envelopes are clearly marked as originating from the Department, which submitted that was sufficient to indicate to most people that the contents were private and confidential. I accepted that most material sent by the IRD would be confidential and that most people would understand this. In view of this, I considered that the IRD did not need also to mark its envelopes 'private and confidential' in order to comply with principle 5.

3. The IRD accepted that the envelope had been addressed incorrectly. It confirmed that its records were correct, but said the address had been transcribed onto the envelope incorrectly. The Department has policies and training to alert staff to the need for care in handling information, and I considered that one mistake by an employee did not necessarily mean the Department's security measures were inadequate.

Disclosure

The woman alleged that the IRD disclosed information to her neighbours by mailing the envelope to their address. Principle 11 limits the instances in which personal information may be disclosed.

The woman's name was clearly on the outside of the envelope. The IRD clearly intended to communicate with her and did not intend to use an incorrect address.

The neighbours opened the envelope, although it was addressed to the woman, without justification and without the IRD's knowledge or approval. In the circumstances, I considered that the IRD had not disclosed information to the neighbours, and had not breached principle 11.

I concluded that the complaint did not have substance.

Indexing terms: Disclosing personal information - Inland Revenue Department - Mail sent to wrong address - Mail opened by neighbours - Information privacy principle 11

Storage and security - Inland Revenue Department - Documents mailed without security precautions - Envelopes not marked 'private and confidential' - Address not correct - Mail opened by neighbours - Postal Services Act 1987, ss 10, 14 - Information privacy principle 5

October 1998