1 Feb 2010, 09:00

A man complained that when he placed a bid on an auction for a firearm on the Trade Me website he was required to enter his firearms licence number. He considered that it was unnecessary to provide this personal information to Trade Me and he was concerned about what would be done with it.

Collection of personal information

Principle 1 of the Privacy Act provides that an agency must not collect personal information unless it is collected for a lawful purpose connected with a function or activity of the agency and the collection is necessary for that purpose.

The Arms Act 1983 requires sellers of firearms to sight the buyer's firearms licence before they sell the firearm. When selling by mail order, the seller must sight an endorsement signed by a member of the Police.

Trade Me's Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions stated that Trade Me needed to collect the firearms licence number.

It was not immediately obvious that Trade Me needed to collect the information. It does not act as an agent for the seller of the firearm and does not itself have legal obligations to check that the purchaser has a current firearms licence.

However, Trade Me submitted that its professional reputation relies on it providing a site that has integrity and ensuring that customers within the site are not subject to fraudulent practices or deception. In order for it to provide some integrity to the sale of firearms, Trade Me stated that an open and transparent process is warranted, part of which is ensuring that vendors can have some confidence that a purchaser is legally able to purchase a firearm.

In addition, access to Trade Me is not a right. It is open to it to place any legal terms and conditions that it wishes on access to the site. There are other avenues to buy and sell firearms including other on-line options if vendors and sellers find those terms too restrictive.

We were persuaded by these arguments. It was therefore our view that Trade Me was permitted to ask for the information under principle 1.

Trade Me further explained that it does not sell or rent this licence information and it is only disclosed in the circumstances outlined in their Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions, which are consistent with the Privacy Act. Trade Me reassured the man that the number is not able to be viewed by the public, and it is not passed on to the seller.


June 2010

Collection of personal information - Trade Me - collection of firearms licence number - collection necessary for purpose connected with function or activity of agency - Privacy Act 1993, principle 1