New Zealand

New Zealand's 1993 Privacy Act is based on the 1980 OECD guidelines and the information privacy principles in Australia's 1988 Privacy Act. The Act regulates the collection, use, and dissemination of personal information in both the public and private sectors. It applies to "personal information" about an identifiable individual, whether automatically or manually processed, and grants individuals the right of access to their personal information held by any agency. An agency can include a person or body of people; consequently, companies, government departments, incorporated societies, and boards of trustees are all agencies.

New Zealand's Privacy Act contains 12 Privacy Principles that include: (1) purpose of collection of personal information; (2) source of personal information; (3) collection of information from subject; (4) manner of collection of personal information; (5) storage and security of personal information; (6) access to personal information; (7) correction of personal information; (8) accuracy of personal information to be checked before use; (9) limit that the agency keep personal information no longer than necessary; (10) limits on use of personal information; (11) limits on disclosure of personal information; and (12) unique identifiers.

In addition, it provides guidelines with respect to information matching programs run by government agencies and makes special provisions for the sharing of law enforcement information among specialized agencies.

Visit the official Web site of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of New Zealand. This site is a comprehensive guide to the specific functions of the Commissioner and the practical applications of the Privacy Act in the workplace, media, and life of the individual citizen.