Amount of complaints made to the OPC under the Privacy Act 2020
William T Francis made this Official Information request to Privacy Commissioner
The request was partially successful.
From: William T Francis
Dear Privacy Commissioner,
Please provide a response detailing the amount of complaints submitted by members of the public to the OPC under the terms of the Privacy Act 2020, as at the date of this request.
Yours faithfully,
William T Francis
From: OIA
Privacy Commissioner
Tēnā koe Mr William
This is to acknowledge receipt of your official information request
received today.
Could we ask you to clarify your request? The Privacy Act 2020 only came
into force today, the 1^st of December 2020 and you appear to be
requesting the number of complaints submitted as of today.
Regards
Sharyn
Office of the Privacy Commissioner Te Mana Mātāpono Matatapu
PO Box 10094, The Terrace, Wellington 6143
privacy.org.nz
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From: William T Francis
Dear OIA,
Thank you for your response. I am not sure what is confusing you.
I am requesting the number of complaints submitted as of today.
Yours sincerely,
William T Francis
William T Francis left an annotation ()
Kia ora Mark,
I am fully aware of when it came into effect.
I was seeking the amount of complaints, not an evasion or a dispute on wording.
It isn't a trick question. If the amount is zero, then the amount is zero.
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
Sure, but the OPC has a responsibility under section 13 of the OIA to give reasonable assistance to requesters. In this context it seems entirely reasonable to me for them to want to confirm that you didn't mean something else instead.
From: OIA
Privacy Commissioner
Tēnā koe
We have received your Official Information Act request of 1 December
asking for the following information:
“Please provide a response detailing the amount of complaints submitted by
members of the public to the OPC under the terms of the PA 2020, as at the
date of this request.”
We are not able to provide you with the information requested as it does
not exist. To explain, OPC has a number of different channels by which
complaints can be received, including our enquiries email box and
complaints email box. The channel by which a communication is received is
not determinative of whether or not it is a complaint.
These communications from the public are therefore assessed by our team as
to whether each is a matter that meets the statutory requirements for a
complaint or whether the matter is simply a request for advice, or is a
matter outside of OPC’s jurisdiction. Some require further information to
be submitted before a matter is treated as a complaint.
From our records, as at today’s date, we received 32 communications from
members of the public via our enquiries and complaints inboxes on 1
December. These are currently being assessed for response from OPC.
Your request is otherwise declined under s 18(e) of the Official
Information Act on the basis that the information does not exist and/or
despite reasonable efforts cannot be found. You have the right to complain
to the Office of the Ombudsman if you are not satisfied with this
decision.
I hope that the explanation provided is helpful in understanding my
response to your request.
Regards
Joanna Hayward
General Counsel
Office of the Privacy Commissioner Te Mana Mātāpono Matatapu
PO Box 10094, The Terrace, Wellington 6143
privacy.org.nz
Privacy is about protecting personal information, yours and others. To
find out how, and to stay informed, [1]subscribe to our newsletter
or follow us online. [2]Description: Description: Description: Small
facebook icon [3]Description: twitter-bird-blue-on-whiteHave a privacy
question? [4]AskUs
Caution: If you have received this message in error please notify the
sender immediately and delete this message along with any attachments.
Please treat the contents of this message as private and confidential.
Thank you.
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Kent left an annotation ()
You have me curious.
Given the Act came into force after the date of your request, the answer was necessarily 'none'. Unless you were asking 'how many people have mistakenly made a complaint citing the 2020 legislation'?
But was their something behind this, that you were looking for, that you would be happy to share?
AS Van Wey (Account suspended) left an annotation ()
Are you going to modify your request so that it just reads something like "privacy act which was in effect" to avoid any misinterpretation by the OPC.
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
I think I understand the confusion. As the Office of the Privacy Commissioner pointed out, the Privacy Act 2020 only came into force today, 1 December. However, your request asked for complaints made under the Privacy Act 2020 as at 30 November.
On the day you have asked about, the Privacy Act 2020 was not yet in effect, so I'm not sure how you expect people to have complained under it already on that date.
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