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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Privacy Act 2020

Access to and correction of personal information - Access to personal information

56: Ways personal information in document may be made available

You could also call this:

"How you can get access to your personal information in a document"

Illustration for Privacy Act 2020

If you ask to see personal information in a document, the agency can make it available to you in several ways. They can let you look at the document, give you a copy of it, or play a recording if it has sounds or images. They can also give you a written transcript of what is on the recording, or tell you what is in the document. You can choose how you want to get the information, and the agency must do it that way unless it would cause problems for them or break the law. If the agency cannot give you the information in the way you want, they must tell you why and explain their reasons if you ask them to, but they do not have to do this if it would hurt someone's privacy, as explained in sections 49 to 53.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS23403.

Topics:
Rights and equality > Privacy
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55: Withholding personal information contained in document, or

"When you ask to see a document with your personal info, some parts might be hidden for good reasons."

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57: Responsibilities of agency before giving access to personal information, or

"Agencies must check who you are and make sure you're safe before sharing your personal info"

Part 4Access to and correction of personal information
Access to personal information

56Ways personal information in document may be made available

  1. If the personal information requested by an individual is in a document, that information may be made available in 1 or more of the following ways:

  2. by giving the requestor a reasonable opportunity to inspect the document; or
    1. by providing the requestor with a hard copy or an electronic copy of the document; or
      1. in the case of a document that is an article or a thing from which sounds or visual images are capable of being reproduced, by making arrangements for the requestor to hear or view the sounds or visual images; or
        1. in the case of a document by which words are recorded in a manner in which they are capable of being reproduced in the form of sound or in which words are contained in the form of shorthand writing or in codified form, by providing the requestor with a written transcript of the words recorded or contained in the document; or
          1. by giving, in any manner, an excerpt or a summary of the document’s contents; or
            1. by giving oral information about the document’s contents.

              1. Subject to section 55, the agency must make the information available in the way preferred by the requestor unless to do so would—

              2. impair the efficient administration of the agency; or
                1. be contrary to any legal duty of the agency in respect of the document; or
                  1. prejudice an interest protected by any of sections 49 to 53.

                    1. If the information is not provided in the way preferred by the requestor, the agency must give to the requestor—

                    2. the reason for not providing the information in that way; and
                      1. if the requestor so requests, the grounds in support of that reason.

                        1. However, subsection (3)(b) does not apply if disclosing the grounds would prejudice an interest protected by any of sections 49 to 53.

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