Privacy Week 2023: Protecting people’s privacy in the communities we serve
This week is Privacy Week (8-14 May) and it provides us with a great opportunity to think about the personal and sensitive information we encounter in our work and consider what we need to do to protect that information.
We all deal with a wide range of personal information on a daily basis. Some of the information is sensitive, for example, the identities of victims involved in emergency incidents or people’s medical and health information.
The communities we serve trust us to keep their personal or sensitive information safe and we also have legal obligations to protect information.
Do you know how to identify what is personal information and why it’s important to protect it?
Any information that could identify a person makes it personal information – such as people’s names, contact details, photos, or their involvement in an incident as a victim or a responder.
Even if the person’s name isn’t included, it might still be personal information.
The way we use, disclose, or keep personal information is important as it has the potential to cause harm or distress to people even when the information may not seem particularly sensitive.
Carefully considering how we deal with people’s personal information shows respect for their privacy.
Key Privacy resources
- Privacy Policy – to set expectations for how we handle the personal information we collect.
- Managing privacy incidents guidelines – to help us determine what a privacy incident is, and what we should do if there is a breach or a near miss.
- Making privacy complaints guidelines – to help us in the event of a privacy incident.
- Privacy Officer – Sarah Dwen, our Chief Legal Advisor is also our Privacy Officer and is the key contact for privacy questions, advice and training.
Privacy Week events
The Privacy Commission is hosting a number of webinars and conversations during Privacy Week (8-14 May) this year.
The events focus on a wide range of topics including the responsible use of AI, biometrics, children and social media, Māori data sovereignty and the impact of website design on privacy to name a few.
They are hosting multiple online events every day next week. Visit the Privacy Commissioner’s website(external link) to find out more and register to attend.
