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Privacy Act 2020

Miscellaneous provisions - General

206: Commissioner and staff to maintain secrecy

You could also call this:

"People who work with the Privacy Commissioner must keep secrets about the information they learn."

Illustration for Privacy Act 2020

The Commissioner and their staff must keep secrets about things they learn when doing their job under this Act. This includes the Commissioner, anyone who used to be the Commissioner, and anyone who works or used to work for the Commissioner. You can think of the Commissioner like a boss who makes sure people's private information is protected.

The Commissioner can share information if they think it's necessary to make this Act work. But there are some exceptions to this rule. The Commissioner cannot share information that could hurt New Zealand's security, defence, or relationships with other countries. They also cannot share information that could stop crimes from being investigated or detected.

The Commissioner cannot share information that is protected by section 7 of the Official Information Act 1982, or information that the Cabinet discusses in private. They also cannot share information that they only know because someone was forced to tell them under section 88(1).

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS23688.

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Part 9Miscellaneous provisions
General

206Commissioner and staff to maintain secrecy

  1. The following persons must maintain secrecy in respect of all matters that come to their knowledge in the exercise of their functions under this Act:

  2. the Commissioner, or any person who has held the appointment of Commissioner:
    1. a person who is employed or engaged, or who has been employed or engaged, by the Commissioner.

      1. Despite subsection (1), the Commissioner may disclose any matters that in the Commissioner's opinion ought to be disclosed for the purposes of giving effect to this Act.

      2. Except where necessary for the purposes of referring a complaint or matter to the Director, the power conferred by subsection (2) does not extend to—

      3. any matter that might prejudice—
        1. the security, defence, or international relations of New Zealand (including New Zealand's relations with the Government of any other country or with any international organisation); or
          1. any interest protected by section 7 of the Official Information Act 1982; or
            1. the prevention, investigation, or detection of offences; or
            2. any matter that might involve the disclosure of the deliberations of Cabinet; or
              1. any information, answer, document, or thing obtained by the Commissioner by reason only of compliance with a requirement made under section 88(1).

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