New Zealanders made a record 1003 privacy complaints to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner last financial year. That could signal that New Zealanders are more aware of their privacy rights, but more likely it’s poor privacy practices across the motu, given agencies (business and organisations) also reported 864 privacy breaches.

"No one should be happy we received over 1000 privacy complaints. That demonstrates to me that people are concerned that their privacy has been harmed in some way, and it’s often in quite significant ways," says Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster.

OPC dealt with 724 complaints as "fast resolve" files, which means we acted swiftly to help people resolve their privacy concerns or provided agencies with information about how to comply with their obligations.

We investigated 279 complaints, where the harm threshold was reached, or an agency hadn’t provided access to personal information. Of those investigation files, 6.5% resulted in financial compensation.

"Thousands of times each day New Zealanders provide their personal information in exchange for goods and services. That could be face-to-face with a small business or online with a large government department. All these exchanges involve privacy," says Mr Webster.

OPC’s investigations team are highly trained lawyers who take a dispute resolution approach where possible, which often means being the moderator or conciliator between the person who has made a privacy complaint and the business or organisation who has breached their privacy.

"People are complaining to my Office, often in times of great distress, and it’s my team’s job to listen, investigate, and respond with clarity and compassion.

Two thirds (66%) of complaints in the last financial year related to access to personal information.

Under the Privacy Act people have a right to ask whether an agency holds information about them and to request access to their own personal information. If an agency fails to provide it, the Privacy Commissioner can issue an access direction requiring its release.

"Having access to your own information is an important privacy right and it’s disappointing agencies are often unwilling or unable to provide this."

"Of course, part of addressing, and reducing, privacy harm is ensuring that New Zealand businesses and are organisations are doing privacy well. Right now, not everyone is," said Mr Webster.

Over the last financial year, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner received 864 privacy breach notifications and 414 of these were serious.

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