The increasing number of privacy complaints, and privacy
breach notifications, received by the Office of the Privacy
Commissioner shows New Zealanders’ increased concerns
about privacy are fast becoming reality, the Privacy
Commissioner says.
“Privacy complaints in our 2024/25
Annual Report are up 21% from 2023/24, which was also a
record year. The number of serious privacy breaches notified
by organisations rose 43% this year.
“New Zealanders
are saying they’re more concerned about their individual
privacy and personal information and it’s easy to see why.
People are right to worry, as more needs to be done to
improve New Zealander’s privacy,” Privacy Commissioner
Michael Webster says.
Our 2025 Privacy Survey showed
that:
- 66% of those surveyed agreed that
protecting personal privacy is a major concern. - 67%
are concerned about the privacy of children. - 62% are
concerned about government agencies or businesses using AI
to make decisions about them, using their personal
information. - 82% agree they want more control and
choice over the collection and use of their personal
information.
“The reputational damage and
financial costs associated with privacy breaches, and not
protecting or respecting individuals’ personal
information, should provide a spur to encouraging
organisations to do privacy well, but my Office also
understands people need help to understand how to do
that.
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This year, we’ve written guidance on a range
of subjects for different audiences, including on
children’s privacy and use of biometric technology, we
hosted a series of webinars during Privacy Week which saw
over 8,000 New Zealanders take part, and we have continued
to advocate for modernisation of New Zealand’s Privacy
Act.
“The Privacy Act currently provides insufficient
incentives for many organisations to understand or meet even
the most basic privacy requirements. For example, a growing
number of organisations do not establish policies and
practices to effectively manage the privacy impacts of their
activities. Other countries have modernised their privacy
regimes beyond our own to capture the benefits and avoid the
harm of new technologies.
“We continue to recommend
amendments to the Act that would modernise it and strengthen
privacy outcomes. Our 2025 Survey also showed strong support
for strengthening the Privacy Commissioner’s powers under
the Act.”
The amendments include:
1. Empowering
New Zealanders to better protect themselves with new rights,
such as a ‘right to erasure’, that would provide
individuals with the right to ask agencies to delete their
personal information.
2. Adding strong incentives for
agencies to take privacy seriously through establishing a
new and significantly stronger penalty regime.
3.
Requiring agencies to be able to demonstrate how they meet
their privacy requirements, in similar ways to the privacy
management programmes recommended by the OECD.
4.
Providing New Zealanders with stronger protections for
automated decision making.
Read our 2024/25
Annual Report –
https://www.privacy.org.nz/about-us/corporate-reports/annual-reports/
