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Your rights

If you have a privacy issue, the first step is to contact the business or organisation directly to try and work it out. Most businesses and organisations will want to help you resolve your issue quickly, before it comes to our office. You need to make reasonable efforts to resolve your issue before you can make a complaint to our office. 

If you have concerns about privacy issues at your workplace or another agency, click here for more information about how to do that in a protected way.  

Contact the agency first

Before you can complain to the Privacy Commissioner, you first have to raise the issue directly with the business or organisation.

You can contact them directly, or use one of our tools:

• Use AboutMe (Request My Info) to request the information a business or organisation holds about you
• Use this form to report a privacy issue to a business or organisation

Allow 20 working days for access / correction requests

If you have made a request to access or correct your information, the business or organisation has 20 working days to respond. Use the Response Date Calculator on this page to work out when you should expect a response. 

If the business or organisation hasn't responded after 20 working days, please contact them directly to ask about the status of your request. You can get in touch with our office for help if you are not happy with their response. 

• Learn more about your right to access and correct your information
  
  

Complaining to the Privacy Commissioner

If an agency does not respond to your request within the time frame or you are not happy with their response, you may be able to make a complaint to our office. 

Learn about the complaints process