Privacy NZ

Having an effective Privacy NZ framework is essential to ensure that you can protect the personal information in your care. This means that you must have a good understanding of the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 and are able to demonstrate your compliance.

Good Privacy NZ practice includes having the following in place:

• An effective privacy culture that is led from the top of your organisation
• Managers who care about privacy and are focussed on getting it right to keep their staff and customers safe
• Staff who care about their customers and take the time to make sure their personal information is cared for
• Policies and processes that reinforce doing the right thing and caring for people’s personal information
• A robust Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) process that operates across the organisation for all key changes
• Follow up on Privacy Impact Assessments to ensure that the PIA is not forgotten and put away once it is complete – it should be a living document
• Quality training for all staff so that they can understand what Privacy means for them in their day-to-day jobs
• Clear communication on the key things that need to be done to get privacy right as well as lessons learned from past mistakes to help staff know what to avoid
• A clear and easy-to-follow process for identifying and reporting privacy breaches within the organisation
• Open and effective reporting to senior management on privacy trends and issues, including progress within the privacy programme
• Clear accountabilities for privacy across all levels of the organisation, from the Board through to frontline workers
• Understanding of the role played by vendors and suppliers in managing personal information and making sure there are their right operational and contractual safeguards in place to minimise the risk of something going wrong

While this may seem like a lot, it is not insurmountable, and all relates to good and effective management of any organisation. Privacy is about being respectful of your customers and taking care of their information in the way you would expect someone to care for yours.

If you would like to find out more, please contact us at info@infobydesign.co.nz