ACC privacy breach: advice to ACC claimants

Media Release
14 March 2012 (updated on 20 March with new hotline number)

ACC claimants are understandably concerned about the privacy breach. People may still not know whether they have been affected, or what they should do.

Our advice to claimants who are worried is:

• It appears that the information involved claims that were within the Dispute Resolution Services Limited (DRSL) review process in 2010 and early 2011. If your claim was not under review at that time, it is likely that you are not affected
• It appears that the information did not contain medical or 'accident' details
• The information was sent to only one person, and it has now been destroyed
• ACC believes that the person did not pass the claimants' personal information on to anyone else
• ACC is telephoning every person whose information was disclosed as part of the breach within the next day or two and will follow up with a letter
• Claimants can either wait for ACC to contact them - or assume no news is good news - or they can call ACC toll free on 0800 745 254 and speak to the privacy team dealing with this privacy breach
• If claimants with sensitive claims need particular support services, they should contact ACC which will deal with requests on a case-by-case basis.

If affected claimants want to make a complaint about a breach of their privacy, it's best to complain to ACC in the first instance. If they are not satisfied with ACC's response, and they believe that the breach has caused them harm, they can contact us to make a formal complaint.

As well as dealing with any complaints in the normal way, we have also opened an investigation into this incident, and into ACC's standards for securing personal information.

ENDS

Office of the Privacy Commissioner : 0800 803 909 or email enquiries@privacy.org.nz

For more information contact Cathy Henry on 021 509 735