Office of the Privacy Commissioner | Police firearms buyback privacy breach
We are currently working with NZ Police to ensure they are taking steps to protect the personal information they hold.
Who has been affected
The latest information our office has received from Police is that there are limited numbers of people affected by the incident. Police will be contacting those individuals directly.
If Police do not contact you, it means that your information was probably not affected.
If you think you have been affected
If you think you have been affected and wish to make a formal complaint, you need to raise that issue with Police in the first instance. You can contact them on their website or by calling 105 – Police have advised us the staff who answer that line are able to manage calls about this issue. You can also lodge a report online: https://105.police.govt.nz/
We also recommend you keep a copy of your correspondence with Police so you can come back to us if Police aren’t able to resolve your concerns. There is information about our complaints process here.
What can the Privacy Commissioner do?
The Privacy Commissioner’s Office can investigate complaints from people who have been affected.
We are receiving high numbers of enquiries and complaints from people who are concerned about this issue. We will respond to each of these, but because of the numbers we are receiving, the response may not be immediate. Please do not lodge a complaint if you have not been directly affected.
Some enquirers have asked if the Commissioner will launch an inquiry into this event. We would only make a decision to undertake such an inquiry after we had a fuller understanding of the event and the surrounding circumstances. We are not yet at that point.
Our focus at this point in time is on responding to people who have been directly affected and to ensure that those people have the assistance they require.