Privacy Act
Bed & Breakfast Association
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New Zealand’s Privacy Act 2020 has come into force. The new law affords New Zealanders better privacy protections, and organisations and businesses greater obligations when handling personal information.
A recap of the major changes is discussed below, plus some examples of how these changes could particularly impact members of our industry.
Notifiable data breach reporting:
Under the new law, any organisation that suffers a data breach that has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to affected individuals will be required to notify the Privacy Commissioner and the relevant individuals as soon as possible. Not all privacy breaches will need to be reported. The threshold for a notifiable breach is ‘the likelihood of serious harm’. Guidelines for assessing serious harm are available. Non-compliance can result in a fine of up to $10,000.
Compliance notices:
The Commissioner will have new powers to publish notices for privacy breaches, requiring businesses to do something or to desist from doing something.
Binding access directions:
The Commissioner will be able to issue binding directions against agencies, to allow individuals to access their information.
Disclosing information overseas:
If a business wants to send personal information that hold about people overseas, they will need to:
Transferring personal information to an offshore data processor (e.g. a cloud storage provider) will (usually) not constitute an overseas disclosure, because the offshore data processor will be deemed to be the NZ businesses’ agent. However, if the offshore data processor breaches the privacy of the individuals who the information is about, the NZ business could be liable for that.
Extraterritorial effect:
The Privacy Act now expressly states that it will apply to any actions taken by an overseas organisation in the course of carrying on business in New Zealand.
Complaints by groups and class action:
A complaint will now be able to be made on behalf of a group aggrieved individuals, and groups of individuals who have been affected by privacy breaches will be able to bring class actions.
Updated Privacy Principles:
Privacy Principle 1 has been updated, to say that you can only hold people’s person information if it is necessary. If you don’t need to keep people’s details, then you shouldn’t.
Privacy Principle 4 requires organisations collection personal information from children or young people to make sure the way they collect it is fair.
Privacy Principle 12 is new. It will regulate the way personal information can be sent overseas (as discussed above).
Privacy Principle 13 says that organisations will need to take reasonable steps to stop unique identifies being misused (e.g. preventing identifying information they collect then being used for identify theft).
New offences and penalties:
New offences are created by the Act, including:
The new maximum fine for these offences (and for other non-compliance) will be $10,000.
Further Information to help you:
A useful YouTube video discussing these changes can be found by clicking here or you can view Privacy Information Sheets about these changes, available on the Privacy Commission’s website.
If you want more detailed knowledge about the new act (especially if you are the Privacy Officer for an organisation), it can be obtained by doing the E-Learning course Privacy 2.0 on the Privacy Commission website.
These new Privacy Rules have the most obvious relevance for businesses that keep their customer’s/guest’s details. This will include bed and breakfast operators (and other accommodation providers) but it could also include other hospitality businesses. For example, various businesses sometimes retain details that customers provide when making a booking, and various businesses of all types often keep personal information about ex-employees. Businesses should reflect on the personal information they retain.
Questions to ask yourself could include:
Whether you conduct business online or offline, and regardless of how you collect the information, you have access to personal information about your guests. The law makes it clear that it’s your responsibility as a business owner to make sure the information you collect is managed with respect.
General Data Protection Rules may also apply to you and you can see further information on this here
The existing Act covers government agencies, local councils, businesses, and individuals. The privacy law doesn’t just apply to clients and customers – all personal information is covered, including information about employees. All organisations are required to have a privacy officer to deal with privacy issues.
Every business is different and we each collect information and store and use that information in different ways. You should have a privacy policy which should be published on your website and in your room compendium. However, it is not simply enough to have a privacy policy – you should also ensure all information you collect is stored safely and securely.
Your privacy policy should also cover all methods you collect information via, such as your website (including cookies), reservation system and any guest registration processes. It should also cover how long any identifying information will be held.
New Zealand has different legislation to that of the European Union and you should also familiarise yourself with applicable General Data Protection Rules.
For a free template which you can modify to suit your business go to - https://www.shopify.co.nz/tools/policy-generator
The Privacy Commissioner provides advice and education on privacy, investigates complaints, evaluates new legislation that may impinge on an individual’s rights, reviews data-matching programs, and issues codes of practice.
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Whether you conduct business online or offline, and regardless of how you collect the information, you have access to personal information about your guests. The law makes it clear that it’s your responsibility as a business owner to make sure the information you collect is managed with respect. The Act is currently being reformed and is sitting before Parliament and this page shall be updated again once the reforms are confirmed. Further information about the reforms can be found:
https://www.privacy.org.nz/blog/welcoming-the-privacy-bill/
https://www.justice.govt.nz/justice-sector-policy/key-initiatives/privacy/
General Data Protection Rules may also apply to you and you can see further information on this here
The existing Act covers government agencies, local councils, businesses, and individuals. The privacy law doesn’t just apply to clients and customers – all personal information is covered, including information about employees. All organisations are required to have a privacy officer to deal with privacy issues.
As the Privacy Act is a principle-based system, it is not enforceable in court. An aggrieved individual must make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner alleging an “interference with privacy”. The Commissioner has no powers to fine or prosecute anyone or order an organisation to pay compensation.
The exception is Principle 6 (Access to personal information) which is enforceable in court if it relates to personal information held by a public sector agency.
Every business is different and we each collect information and store and use that information in different ways. You should have a privacy policy which should be published on your website and in your room compendium. However, it is not simply enough to have a privacy policy – you should also ensure all information you collect is stored safely and securely.
Your privacy policy should also cover all methods you collect information via, such as your website (including cookies), reservation system and any guest registration processes. It should also cover how long any identifying information will be held.
New Zealand has different legislation to that of the European Union and you should also familiarise yourself with applicable General Data Protection Rules.
For a free template which you can modify to suit your business go to - https://www.shopify.co.nz/tools/policy-generator
The Privacy Commissioner provides advice and education on privacy, investigates complaints, evaluates new legislation that may impinge on an individual’s rights, reviews data-matching programs, and issues codes of practice.
The Act deals with the collection and disclosure of personal information. It’s more about information privacy than other aspects of privacy. The Act controls how “agencies” collect, use, disclose, store and give access to personal information. Personal Information is defined as information about identifiable, living people. Almost every person or organisation that holds personal information is an “agency”.
The Act has 12 principles that stipulate how information can be collected and used, and people’s rights to gain access to that information and ask for it to be corrected. Not all of these principles will be relevant to bed and breakfasts but a good many are:
It’s important to note that information such as a telephone number, physical address or an email address is not necessarily “personal information” unless it’s linked to other information which enables an individual to become identifiable.
The Act will not directly apply if information is publicly available or it was collected for marketing purposes.
https://www.shopify.co.nz/guides/new-zealand/privacy-data-protection
https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/privacy-law