1 Feb 2007, 09:00

A couple were on the mailing list for a real estate company. They requested that their names be removed from this list and the company said it had done so. The couple then received a letter from the company in relation to a property it had listed.

We investigated this complaint under principle 7 of the Privacy Act. Principle 7 provides that individuals can ask for personal information about them to be corrected.

The real estate company said that it gathered information for its mailing database through another company. This company gathered information from publicly available sources such as Quotable Value Limited and newspaper advertising.

The real estate company said it had removed the couple's name from its internal database, but had failed to inform the other company of the couple's request. The real estate company gave the couple the contact details for the other company and suggested they write to it directly and ask to be removed from its database. They were willing to do this.

I was satisfied that the real estate company had removed the couple's names from its internal database as they had requested.

As an added measure, I also provided the couple with contact details for the New Zealand Marketing Association (NZMA) which operates a name removal service. The NZMA maintains a list of people who do not want to receive unsolicited communications from marketers.

The couple told me that this was sufficient to resolve their complaint and I closed the file.

June 2007

Correction of personal information – real estate agency – mailing list – name removal service – principle 7