Privacy Act 2020

Preliminary provisions - Interpretation and related matters

10: Personal information held by agency if held by officer, employee, or member of agency

You could also call this:

"Info you hold at work is your agency's responsibility"

If you work for an agency, any personal information you hold as part of your job is considered to be held by the agency. You hold this information because of your role as an officer, employee, or member of the agency. This means the agency is responsible for the information you hold.

However, there are some exceptions to this rule. If you hold personal information because of a connection to another agency, and this connection is not part of your job, then the information is not considered to be held by your agency. This can happen if you work for a public sector agency and hold information because of a connection to a private sector agency, or if you work for a private sector agency and hold information because of a connection to another agency.

If you are an employee of a department and you hold information as part of your job, then the information is considered to be held by the departmental agency, not just by you or the department. You can find more information about this by looking at the Public Service Act.

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This page was last updated on 6 October 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS23315.

Topics:

Rights and equality > Privacy

9: Meaning of overseas agency, or

"Definition of an overseas agency and who isn't considered one"

11: Personal information treated as being held by another agency in certain circumstances, or

"When one agency holds your personal info for another, it's like the second agency has it."

Part 1Preliminary provisions
Interpretation and related matters

10Personal information held by agency if held by officer, employee, or member of agency

For the purposes of this Act, personal information held by a person in the person’s capacity as an officer, an employee, or a member of an agency is to be treated as being held by the agency.
However, subsection (1) does not apply to—
personal information held by an officer, an employee, or a member of a public sector agency (A) if—
1. the information is held only because of the person’s connection with a private sector agency; and
2. that connection is not in the person’s capacity as an officer, an employee, or a member of A; or
personal information held by an officer, an employee, or a member of a private sector agency (B) if—
1. the information is held only because of the person’s connection with another agency (whether a public sector agency or private sector agency); and
2. that connection is not in the person’s capacity as an officer, an employee, or a member of B.

Despite subsection (1), information that is held by an employee of a department carrying out the functions of a departmental agency must be treated for the purposes of this Act as held by the departmental agency.

Compare

1993 No 28 s 3(1)–(3)

Notes

Section 10(3): inserted, on 7 August 2020, by section 126 of the Public Service Act 2020 (2020 No 40).