NZ Privacy Commission Warns Goverment Agencies to Raise Their Data Protection Game
Agencies must get better at privacy, New Zealand Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster said Tuesday as his office published reports on how government agencies protected personal information for the 2023 census and COVID-19 vaccination program, as well as an independent investigation of allegations of misuse of 2023 census information.
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Several issues the reports raised were referred to the privacy watchdog, the commissioner said. These include whether systems and controls were appropriate for personal data after its transmission by the Ministry of Health and Stats NZ to service providers; and whether there were appropriate means for those public agencies to be confident their service providers were meeting contractual requirements. A further matter was referred to the office by the Stats NZ report about the collection and management of personal information and confidential census data.