Source: New Zealand Privacy Commissioner – Blog
Welcome to our latest round-up of privacy news stories for the week.
New Privacy Act passes
The first major update to the Privacy Act since 1993 has been passed by Parliament with unanimous support. The changes include a requirement to notify the Privacy Commissioner of privacy breaches and stronger powers to clamp down on privacy abuse by organisations, including multinationals. Read more here.
Increasing concern about unauthorised info being released by businesses
A new survey released by the Privacy Commissioner shows 75 percent of New Zealanders are concerned about companies sharing their information without their permission and 65 percent want more privacy regulation. Parliament passed the updated Privacy Act 2020 on Friday, with reforms and greater powers for the Privacy Commissioner. Read more here.
Waikato DHB breached doctor’s privacy
A junior Waikato Hospital doctor was left “humiliated and ashamed” after colleagues accessed his medical records without good reason. The Privacy Commissioner has found that the Waikato District Health Board interfered with the doctor’s privacy by failing to safeguard his personal health information. Read more here.
ACC ordered to pay $50,000 for destroying a man’s file
A man has been awarded $50,000 by the Human Rights Review Tribunal after ACC breached his privacy. ACC failed to provide information relating to compensation paid to the man, saying his file had been destroyed, but it was later revealed the information was available at the time of the request. Read more here.
California begins enforcing data privacy law
California has begun enforcing its new privacy legislation, despite calls for a delay by tech companies due to the coronavirus pandemic. The California Consumer Privacy Act is very similar to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and is one of the most sweeping data privacy regulations in the US. Read more here.
Privacy vs. pandemic control in South Korea
South Korea has been lauded for its ability to avoid a lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic by utilising aggressive contact tracing. The country has comprehensive privacy laws to protect personal information, but the government has now admitted it will need to keep contact tracing data for longer than initially proposed. Read more here.
Privacy isn’t a right you can click away
A US senator is pushing to drastically scale back the permitted ways companies can use people’s personal information. Senator Sherrod Brown has written a bill which would force American companies to limit their use of personal information, make privacy policies easier to understand, and ban facial recognition. Read more here.
Image credit: Bewick’s Wren via John James Audubon’s Birds of America
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