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Social Security Act 2018

Administration - Reciprocity agreements with other countries - Orders

381: Privacy report for orders adopting agreements with mutual assistance provisions

You could also call this:

“Report needed to check if sharing social security info between countries is safe and fair”

When the government wants to make an agreement with another country to help each other collect social security debts or share information for social security reasons, they need to follow some special rules. These rules are there to protect your privacy.

Before the government can make this kind of agreement, they need to get a report from someone called the Privacy Commissioner. This report looks at whether the agreement follows the rules for keeping your information safe and private.

The Privacy Commissioner checks if the agreement is really important and if it will save a lot of money or help society in other big ways. They also look at whether there might be better ways to do the same thing without sharing your information.

The report also checks if the agreement is fair and doesn’t share too much of your personal information. It makes sure the agreement follows special rules about matching information between different government departments.

If the agreement is about sharing information with another country, the Privacy Commissioner also checks if that country will keep your information safe and private.

The government can only go ahead with the agreement after they get this report from the Privacy Commissioner. This helps make sure your privacy is protected when countries work together on social security matters.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6783896.

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380: Orders adopting reciprocity agreements, or

"Rules for making social security agreements with other countries"

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Part 6 Administration
Reciprocity agreements with other countries: Orders

381Privacy report for orders adopting agreements with mutual assistance provisions

  1. This section applies to a reciprocity agreement, or an alteration to a reciprocity agreement, that contains a mutual assistance provision—

  2. for the Governments of New Zealand and the other country to—
    1. provide each other with assistance in the recovery of social security debts; or
      1. supply each other with information for social security purposes; and
      2. that does not relate solely to the recovery of moneys paid under the agreement in excess of that to which the recipient was entitled under that agreement.

        1. No order may be made under section 380 in respect of the agreement or alteration unless the Privacy Commissioner has first presented to the Minister and to the Minister of Justice a report on the following matters:

        2. whether the mutual assistance provision complies with the information privacy principles set out in section 22 of the Privacy Act 2020, having regard to—
          1. whether the objective of the provision relates to a matter of significant public importance:
            1. whether the use of the provision to achieve that objective will result in significant and quantifiable monetary savings, or in other comparable benefits to society:
              1. whether the use of an alternative means of achieving that objective would give either of the results referred to in paragraph (ii):
                1. whether the public interest in allowing the provision to proceed outweighs the public interest in adhering to the information privacy principles that the provision would otherwise contravene:
                  1. whether the provision involves information matching on a scale that is excessive, having regard to—
                    1. the number of agencies that will be involved; and
                      1. the amount of detail about an individual that will be matched under the provision:
                      2. whether the provision will comply with the information matching rules in Schedule 6 of the Privacy Act 2020:
                      3. if the mutual assistance provision is one for the Governments of New Zealand and the other country to supply each other with information for social security purposes, the adequacy of the privacy protection given in the other country to information about any individual that may be supplied by New Zealand under the provision.

                        Compare
                        Notes
                        • Section 381(2)(a): replaced, on , by section 217 of the Privacy Act 2020 (2020 No 31).