Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Plain Language Law homepage
8: Meaning of New Zealand agency
or “Defining who counts as a New Zealand agency under privacy law”

You could also call this:

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

In this law, an overseas agency refers to a person, company, or organisation from another country. However, there are some groups that are not considered overseas agencies. These include:

You might be part of a New Zealand agency, which is not an overseas agency. The government of another country is also not an overseas agency. If an organisation is doing official work for a foreign government, it’s not an overseas agency for that work. News organisations are not overseas agencies when they are doing news-related activities.

This definition helps to clarify what the law means when it talks about overseas agencies in other parts of the Privacy Act 2020.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.


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

or “Agency responsibility for personal information held by its workers or members”

Part 1 Preliminary provisions
Interpretation and related matters

9Meaning of overseas agency

  1. In this Act, overseas agency means an overseas person, body corporate, or unincorporated body that is not—

  2. a New Zealand agency; or
    1. the Government of an overseas country; or
      1. an overseas government entity to the extent that the entity is performing any public function on behalf of the overseas Government; or
        1. a news entity, to the extent that it is carrying on news activities.