Website Privacy Falling Short
About the Author:
Jess Collett
Solicitor at Norris Ward McKinnon
Based in Hamilton, Jess is a member of the firm’s corporate and commercial law team, with a special interest in charities, privacy, intellectual property and equine law.
Your business website is a powerful tool for engaging potential and existing customers, and for collecting useful data.
Where information collected is personal information, however, you have obligations under the Privacy Act 1993. The legislation contains 12 Privacy Principles which regulate how you collect, use, disclose and store personal information. If you are collecting information from European Union residents then you will need to ensure you are complying with your obligations under new international privacy laws.
Your website privacy policy or notice should record how you will comply with the Privacy Act. It should inform site visitors why their information is being collected, how it will be stored, who it will be disclosed to and how they can access it or request that it’s destroyed.
A recent worldwide study on websites revealed that website privacy policies or notices are too vague and inadequate. In New Zealand, website privacy notices generally failed to explain how personal information was stored, whether that information would be shared with third parties, and the means for requesting the deletion of personal information collected. If you are collecting, or intend to collect, personal information through your website (or otherwise), you must decide how to comply with the Privacy Principles.
The Privacy Commissioner’s website has a free online tool which can generate a simple privacy statement. Google ‘Priv-o-matic’ and le voila!
Solicitor
Norris Ward McKinnon
07 828 7433
Sourced with permission from https://nzlaw.co.nz/news/website-privacy
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