Privacy Act 2020

About the code

The Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 202 (TIPC) applies specific rules to telecommunications agencies to better ensure the protection of individual privacy. It addresses the telecommunications information collected, held, used, and disclosed by telecommunications agencies.

We have amended the TIPC twice. In March 2026 we issued Amendment No 2 to the TIPC to reflect new Information Privacy Principle 3A (IPP3A).

In October 2025 we issued Amendment No 1 to the TIPC to better support search and rescue and ensure it worked as intended with changes to operational arrangements for emergency information.

Read the full code

Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 2020 (in force 1 May 2026; PDF, 464 KB)

Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 2020 Amendment No 2

The Privacy Amendment Act 2025 introduced IPP3A, which is in force from 1 May 2026. In March 2026, following consultation on how to reflect IPP3A in codes of practice, the Privacy Commissioner made changes to several of our codes. You can find more about those changes, including any amendments or submissions specific to this code, below:

Previous versions

Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 2020 Amendment No 1

Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 2020 (Issued 30 October 2025; in force 8 December 2025).

Amendment No 1 was issued on 30 October 2025 and in force on 8 December 2025. It makes changes to better support sharing of location information for search and rescue purposes, to address issues resulting from operational changes in the organisations managing emergency information, and to correct errors and clarify wordings.

To better support search and rescue, the amendment allows for emergency services to share information about a person’s location with people or organisations working on their behalf to locate and rescue that person, for example volunteers helping with a search and rescue operation.

Changes in the organisations managing emergency information led to technical issues with unintended effects on access to location information and logging requirements. The amendment corrects these issues, ensuring that emergency service providers affected by clause 3(3) continue to have access to location information as intended, and that operational use of device location information by New Zealand Police is still required to be recorded in the disclosure log whether or not it is a disclosure. It also changes the term for the agency responsible for the Emergency Location Information System, replacing the term “relevant government agency” with “relevant public sector agency”.

Information paper on TIPC Amendment No. 1 (May 2025) (PDF, 580KB). Note: The information paper incorrectly suggests on page 4 that use of device location information involves collecting location data directly from smartphones and similar devices. It's actually collected from mobile network operators, as explained on the NGCC website with reference to “accuracy of DLI”.
Submissions (June 2025) (PDF, 3.4MB).
Background paper on TIPC Amendment No. 1 (October 2025) (PDF, 249KB).
TIPC Amendment No. 1 (issued 30 October 2025; in force 8 December 2025) (PDF, 255KB).

Supporting information

Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 2020

In 2020 codes of practice were revoked and replaced to align with the Privacy Act 2020. You can read papers about that version of the code here:

2020 Information paper on repeal and replacement of the TIPC to align with the Privacy Act 2020.
Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 2020 (PDF, 315KB) (Issued 28 October 2020; came into force on 1 December 2020).

Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 2003 (now revoked)

Telecommunications Information Privacy Code (PDF)
Information paper on changes to notified Code.
TIPC Amendment No. 1 (Temporary) (Issued 25 September 2003; came into force on 1 November 2003 and expired on 31 October 2004).
TIPC Amendment No. 2 (Temporary) (Issued 8 October 2003; came into force on 1 November 2003 and expired on 24 September 2004).
TIPC Amendment No. 3 (Issued 3 June 2004; came into force on 1 August 2004).
- Information paper
TIPC Amendment No. 4 (Issued 9 September 2015; came into force on 15 October 2015).
- Information paper
TIPC Amendment No. 5 (Issued 26 January 2017; came into force on 2 March 2017).
- Information paper on the effect of the amendment
- Background paper on changes to the notified amendment
- Privacy Commissioner’s proposed code amendment will speed emergency responses (media release 25 November 2016)
- Privacy Commissioner updates code of practice to allow faster emergency response (media release 31 January 2017)
- Information paper on submission process (including Q&A)
  Submissions.
TIPC Amendment No. 6 (Issued 25 August 2017; came into force on 28 September 2017).
- - Information paper on the effect of the amendment
TIPC Amendment No. 7 (Issued 8 April 2020; came into force on 7 May 2020).
Information paper on the effect of the amendment
Background paper on changes to the notified amendment
Code update to allow emergency services better access to location information (media release 9 April 2020)
Information paper on proposed TIPC Amendment No. 7 – Emergency location information service
Privacy Commissioner seeks public input on allowing emergency services to access location information (media release 29 January 2020).
Submissions - On 29 July 2020 the Privacy Commissioner publicly notified his intention to repeal and replace the Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 2003 and invited public submissions.
- - Spark
  - Police
  - TCF
  - NZSIS

Consolidated version of the TIPC 2003 incorporating amendments 3-7 (as at 7 May 2020).