northland chamber

Why Good Privacy is Good Business?


Next month New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner Marie Schroff will be explaining to Northland Businesses and HR people how to ensure that they are complying with NZs Privacy regulations.
Businesses that take privacy seriously have a competitive edge according to the Privacy Commissioner.

Information and technology are increasingly the key to business success in the 21st century. Marie Shroff will talk about how to handle personal information well to give you a competitive edge. She will explain how good privacy practice can help you gain and retain customer and employee trust, and will give commonsense tips on how to improve your information handling.

Marie Shroff was appointed to the independent statutory position of Privacy Commissioner in late 2003. Her responsibilities include independent comment on significant personal information policies and issues, providing opinions on privacy complaints made against government and business, monitoring government data matching and promoting good personal information handling practices in New Zealand.

The Privacy Commission has published a simple 6 step guide that should just about keep most businesses within the law. These are;

1 Tell people what you are doing and why.If you’re collecting information about someone, tell them what you’re doing.
Tell them why you need it, and what you plan to use it for. Tell them if you intend to send the information to another business or person.

2 Keep information safe.Many people, including your customers and suppliers, worry about the security of their personal details.
The more sensitive the information is, the more careful you need to be. Make sure your staff know how information should be handled – this will avoid many mistakes.

3 Obtain only the personal information that you need to do your business.

4 Only use personal information if you’re reasonably sure it’s accurate and up to date.

5 If someone tells you that the information you hold about them is wrong, correct it if you can. If there’s a difference of opinion about whether the information is right, make a note on the file of the person’s view.

6 If someone asks for a copy of their information, you usually have to give it to them – and do so as promptly as you can.

Collecting and using information about people – even if it’s just a phone number and address for invoicing – is an everyday part of doing business. Keeping that information safe and secure should be too. But mistakes happen – and they can have a major effect on a business. For example:

- Oscar owns a panel and paint firm. One day he answers a phone call from a friend about a mutual customer. The friend is concerned about the customer’s credit-worthiness, so Oscar tells him about a large unpaid bill. As a result, Oscar’s friend refuses to give the customer credit. Oscar then gets an angry call from the customer who had actually paid the bill early, though the payment went into the wrong account. The customer says he will tell everyone he can that Oscar’s firm is lousy.

- Anna works at a beauty salon. A man rings asking for a client’s new address so he can “send flowers”. She provides the information. A week later the client threatens legal action. Anna had not been aware the man was her client’s abusive former partner.

Any business or organisation that is interested in attending the presentation by the privacy commissioner on November 15th can contact Janette at Northland Chamber to reserve a place on 438-4771.


The Northland Chamber of Commerce is the networking, education, advocacy and marketing group for Northland business, and is part of a nationwide network of 30 and a world-wide movement of 21,000 chambers. Subscription to the free fortnightly chamber e-news can be arranged on info@northchamber.co.nz. Enquiries to 09-4384771 or www.northchamber.co.nz, www.kaiparachamber.co.nz and www.farnorthchamber.co.nz
You can have a say on this by going to the Northland Chamber of Commerce Feedback website on www.northchamber.blogspot.com