Source: Privacy Commissioner
Deputy Privacy Commissioner Liz MacPherson says she is very disappointed to learn that in at least two instances, identifiable personal information was shared by Inland Revenue with social media platforms. IR is the custodian of highly sensitive tax information about most New Zealanders. Given the nature of their work and the fact all New Zealand taxpayers must interact with them its important IR upholds the very highest privacy and confidentiality standards.
What is particularly concerning in this case is that IR apparently had no idea that these incidents, including the intentional sharing by IR staff of identifiable personal details of 268,000 New Zealand taxpayers with social media platforms had occurred. It is unlikely based on the information available to us that the breaches are notifiable under the Privacy Act.
