Are any problems with the Act the result of the Act itself, or rather of the way it is understood and applied?
by Talklaw Project Coordinator 11:27am, 4 March 2010
How well is the Act working in practice?
We are investigating how real the perceived problems with the Privacy Act are. There is a syndrome known as BOTPA: “Because of the Privacy Act” where information is blocked without justification through misunderstanding or misapplication of the Privacy Act. We want to know if the Privacy Act is being wrongly used and how that can be corrected.
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Nat Comment 1
9:34am, 13 March 2010
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As an employer, an issue of enduring concern for me is that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner charges fees to educate the public about its own Act!
To attend one of its regular 3.5 hour-long hour "Introduction to the Privacy Act" workshops, the Commission charges $170 per person.
Departments like the IRD and Ministry of Economic Development never charge employers to attend seminars intended to ensure compliance with NZ laws. Why is the Privacy Commissioner, who is already funded from my taxes, allowed to charge in this way?
Because of this $170 fee I will not send any of my staff to the Privacy Commissioner's workshop. Instead I give them a copy of the Act to read at their desk.
If the Privacy Commissioner is genuine in wanting employers and employees to be as fully informed as possible about their obligations under the Privacy Act, they will end the practice of charging the public for this information.
I look forward to reading a response to my question, on this forum, from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
pystol Comment 2
1:15am, 24 April 2010
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Removed by moderator - the comment was spam
sanjeet Comment 3
11:08am, 10 May 2010
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The Privacy Commission may very well run seminars to assist employees to understand the complexity of this statue and its principles, however the Privacy Commission does not understand the Electronic Transaction Act part 3 but is prepared to attempt to interpret this enactment, this is a real danger for the public as it is a matter for the Judiciary to determine what parliament intended, I think the privacy principle that relates to "unfair procedures" is what needs to be focused on, for example a request for information from the private sector is not an issue as the answer is a simple "no" but when it comes to the government agencies making requests as they do by remitting search warrants by e-mail (illegally) then we have a literal hornets nest and non compliance with UN Covenants (ex: Political and Civil Rights).
let the Privacy Commissioner answer this question.
