Privacy Commissioner - Te Mana Matapono Matatapu

The Privacy Act and Codes

The Privacy Act was passed in April 1993. The Act applies to almost every person, business or organisation in New Zealand. It sets out 12 information privacy principles, which guide how personal information can be collected, used, stored and disclosed.

To find out more about the Privacy Act, what it covers and how it affects you, see Privacy Act summary.

To read a copy of the Act, see The Privacy Act. See also Exemptions from the Privacy Act.

The Privacy Act gives the Privacy Commissioner the power to issue codes of practice that become part of the law. These codes are designed to suit specific industries, sectors, activities or types of personal information.

There are codes covering some key sectors. For example, there is a code of practice covering health information (see Health Information Privacy Code 1994), a code that covers telecommunications information (see Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 2003) and another that covers information held by credit reporters (see Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2004).

To find out more about codes of practice and how they work, see Codes of practice.

Before the Privacy Commissioner can issue a code of practice, there must be a process of public consultation. To find out more about the public consultation process and any current consultations, see Codes consultation.