1 Feb 2006, 09:00

A man requested access to information held by Telecom relating to an interception warrant. The warrant allowed Police to intercept calls made to and from the man's private telephone.

Telecom refused him access on the grounds that the information was more closely connected to Police than to Telecom itself, and his request should therefore be transferred to Police for a response. Telecom also advised that section 216F(1)(b)(ii) of the Crimes Act 1961 prevented it from providing the information requested.

Section 216F(1)(b)(ii) is in Part 9A of the Crimes Act which deals with crimes against personal privacy. It provides, among other things, that disclosing information gained when assisting with the execution of an interception warrant, other than to the agency executing the warrant, is unlawful.

The man asked me to review Telecom's decision to refuse the information.

I considered whether section 7 of the Privacy Act had any application to the complaint. Section 7(2)(a) says that other statutes, which prohibit or restrict the availability of personal information, take precedence over the information privacy principles.

I considered that if Telecom gave the man access to the information concerned it would amount to an intentional and unauthorised disclosure of that information under section 216F(1)(b)(ii) of the Crimes Act. It was my view that Telecom could only provide the information requested to the Police, not to the requester, because section 216F(1)(b)(ii) overrides principle 6 of the Privacy Act.

I informed the man of my opinion and closed my file.

September 2006

Indexing Terms: Access to personal information – Telecom – Police interception warrant – Crimes Act 1961, s 216F(1)(b)(ii) – Privacy Act 1993, s 7(2)(a) – Telecommunications Information Privacy Code rule 6