31 May 2013, 09:15

A recent scan of school websites and some popular children’s game sites showed there is often no information given to users about how their personal information collected via the site will be used and shared.

The scan was part of an international “internet sweep” day, involving the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner and other overseas data protection offices in the Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN).

“Each participating office selected a range of websites to scan. The first step was to see if the site showed any sort of privacy policy at all.

“We found that in a selection of the larger New Zealand schools’ websites we looked at, very few had any sort of policy at all.

“Among the schools we looked at that had a policy of any sort included: Auckland Grammar, Rosehill College, Macleans College, Saint Kentigern College, Westlake Girls High, Hamilton Girls High, Wanganui High School, Kristin School, Papanui High School.

“I commend those schools in being proactive and having an online privacy policy”, said Marie Shroff.

“In those sites that had some sort of privacy policy, we looked to see whether the explanations were easy to understand and put in simple language.

“We looked at whether a new user coming to the site could read the policy and have some fair idea about whether personal information was being collected about them, what it would be used for, and whether it would be shared with third parties. And there were some very simple things that we checked for, like whether there were contact details given for the privacy officer. There was a lot of room for improvement!” said Ms Shroff.

The children’s game sites by contrast often had privacy policies. Many of them are operated by overseas companies.

“We found that the privacy policies were usually extremely detailed and lengthy, and the references were often to U.S. or European law.

“Many of the game sites are free, and we were struck by the amount of information that was going to be shared with 3rd party advertisers. It would be a tall order for most adults to understand that – let alone a child who is focused on playing an attractive new computer game”, Ms Shroff said.

The amalgamated international results from the GPEN internet sweep will be available in coming months. Further international and domestic action to encourage improved information for website users will be considered once final results of the sweep are known.

ENDS

Note for Editors:

This statement is issued in support of Cyber Security Awareness Week.

For further information contact: Annabel Fordham 021 509 735 or 04 474 7598