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Privacy Act 2020

Complaints, investigations, and proceedings - Complaints

77: Exploring possibility of settlement and assurance without investigating complaint

You could also call this:

"The Commissioner tries to fix a privacy problem without a big investigation, by getting people to agree on a solution."

Illustration for Privacy Act 2020

The Commissioner gets a complaint and can try to sort it out without investigating. You can think of the Commissioner like a helper who makes sure people's privacy is protected. The Commissioner will try to get the people involved to agree on a solution and make sure the problem does not happen again. The Commissioner might not be able to sort it out, so they will decide what to do next. They can choose not to investigate if they are satisfied with what they know, or if they think it is not necessary. The Commissioner can also decide to investigate the complaint, and they must tell you what they decide to do as soon as they can, if you are the one who made the complaint, and they will look at things like what is said in section 74 or subpart 2 to help them make a decision.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS23451.

Topics:
Rights and equality > Privacy
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76: Referral of complaint to overseas privacy enforcement authority, or

"Sending your privacy complaint to another country to be sorted out"

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78: Referral of complaint to Director without conducting investigation, or

"The Commissioner can pass on your complaint to the Director without investigating first."

Part 5Complaints, investigations, and proceedings
Complaints

77Exploring possibility of settlement and assurance without investigating complaint

  1. At any time after receiving a complaint and without commencing an investigation, the Commissioner may decide to use best endeavours to—

  2. secure a settlement of the complaint; and
    1. if appropriate, secure a satisfactory assurance from the agency whose action is the subject of the complaint that there will not be a repetition of the action that gave rise to the complaint, or of any similar kind of action.

      1. If the Commissioner is unable to secure a settlement or a satisfactory assurance, the Commissioner may—

      2. decide not to investigate the complaint if the Commissioner—
        1. is satisfied of any of the matters set out in section 74; or
          1. considers that any further action is unnecessary or inappropriate; or
          2. decide to investigate the complaint under subpart 2.

            1. As soon as practicable after making a decision under subsection (2), the Commissioner must notify the complainant of the decision.

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