InternetNZ submission calls for additional reforms in Privacy Bill

InternetNZ has today released its submission to Parliament Justice Committee responding to a new Privacy Bill. The Government introduced the Privacy Bill in April this year to modernise our 25-year-old Privacy Act and make it fit for the Internet age.

InternetNZ Chief Executive Jordan Carter says, "The Privacy Bill is a good start, but further improvements are needed to keep privacy law up to date.

"Privacy is an essential human right and the online world has brought many changes and challenges to how privacy works in the Internet age."

The new Privacy Bill regulates the collection, use, and disclosure of information about individuals and has retained the Act’s 12 information privacy principles.

The Bill’s changes include; new data breach disclosure requirements, and strengthens the role of the Privacy Commissioner.

Carter says, "We support the changes in the Bill but have also suggested some adjustments to make them more effective.

"Our submission introduces several new initiatives, that are in part aimed at tackling developments since the Law Commission’s 2011 report, on which this Bill is based."

Further changes InternetNZ are calling for include:

Adapting ideas from the Europe’s GDPR and incorporating these where they make sense

Aligning Data breach notification rules to those of the EU and Australia

Giving New Zealanders a new right to know the purpose for which information is being held, as well as existing rights to the information itself (the ‘why’ as well as the ‘what’).

"With Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in effect, and changing privacy standards around the world, now is the right time for New Zealand to update our own privacy protections." says Carter.

"We would like to see Parliament get our Privacy Law fit for purpose and to see Select Committee take additional submissions on further reforms.

"We would support a later report-back of this Bill, and an additional consultation period, to support that outcome.

"Privacy matters more than ever in this era of big data and ubiquitous Internet. This much-needed upgrade to our privacy law will help make our law fit for this decade and beyond," says InternetNZ CE Jordan Carter.

Read InternetNZs submission on the Privacy Bill.
The GDPR and the .nz domain name space.
Learn more about the work InternetNZ has developed around Privacy.
ENDS

© Scoop Media