Principles 1-4: Collecting Personal Information

Who can make a request for personal information?
When can an agency collect personal information from me?
Does the agency have to get the information from me or can they get it from someone else?
What is an Information Matching programme?
What agencies have information matching programmes?
What does an agency have to tell me when it is getting information from me?
How can an agency collect information?

Who can make a request for personal information?

Any person in New Zealand (whether a citizen or not) may make a request for personal information about themselves.

When can an agency collect personal information from me?

The agency can only get information from you if it is for a lawful use to do with an activity of the agency, and the agency needs the information for that use. For example, a sports club cannot ask you how much you earn, because that is not related to the club’s activities.

Does the agency have to get the information from me or can they get it from someone else?

When an agency wants information about you, they must ask you for it, not someone else.

However, there are exceptions to this rule. Some of these are:

• An agency does not have to ask you for information if the information comes from a public source, like the phone book or electoral roll.
• An agency can get the information from someone else if you have said they can do this.
• If asking you directly would defeat the purpose of collecting the information, the agency can ask someone else for it. For example, if a social worker wants some information about a family member who is abusing another family member, it might harm the person being abused to ask the abuser for the information. The social worker can ask someone else for information about the abuse.
• An agency also does not have to get the information directly from you if the agency is preventing, investigating or detecting an offence.
• If the Act allows an agency to get the information through an information matching programme.

What is an Information Matching programme?

Some agencies have “information matching programmes”. An information matching programme means that one agency can compare information it holds with information another agency holds about you. An agency does not have to get the information from you if the Act allows it to get the information from somewhere else, such as, from an “information matching” programme. For example, the customs department would not have to ask your permission before giving information to the department of social welfare if it wants to check if you are going overseas and getting a benefit.

What agencies have information matching programmes?

• the Accident Rehabilitation and Compensation Insurance Corporation
• the Customs Department
• the Department of Justice
• the Department of Labour
• the Department of Social Welfare
• the Inland Revenue Department (IRD)
• the Ministry of Education
• the Registrar General

As well as these, universities and technical colleges may have information matching programmes.

What does an agency have to tell me when it is getting information from me?

Principle 3 of the privacy principles requires the agency to take reasonable steps when it is getting information from you:

• that it is collecting the information
• why it wants it
• who it is going to give it to
• the name and address of who is collecting it and who will be holding it
• the law that allows the information to be collected, and whether or not you have to give the information
• what will happen if you do not give some or all the information; and
• that you have a right to see the information and correct it

The agency should tell these things before it gets the information or as soon as possible afterwards. If the agency has received similar information from you recently and already told you these things, it does not have to tell you again. The agency does not have to tell you these things in any of the situations that are exceptions under Principle 2 of the Privacy Act 1993, such as, if the information is for preventing, investigating or detecting an offence.

How can an agency collect information?

An agency cannot get information from you in any way that is illegal or unfair, for example, by telling you that you have to give the information when you do not have to. It cannot get the information in a way that is too intrusive. For example, if you were being interviewed at school, the person interviewing you would have to make sure that people who do not need to be at the interview (like other students or teachers) are not there.