Dear Ministry of Social Development,

In a previous OIA request I asked about you sharing
personal information with other agencies.

You confirmed that you send personal information to
finance companies, debt collection agencies and so on, but you couldn't tell me any details, as the number of these requests was not centrally recorded and would require extensive research to obtain.

I was very surprised to hear this to say the least.

It implies that there is no management, tracking, or auditing of the release of personal information.

It would seem personal information is released on an ad-hoc basis,without any mechanism for senior management to even be aware that personal information is being released.

I am currently interested in release of information to
non-government agencies only.

My questions are :

(1) At what level is a request for the supply of personal
information approved ?

(2) Is an audit process used to ensure personal information is not supplied when it should have been withheld ?

(3) If there is such a process, what is it ?

(4) Is the customers consent required before information is released ?

(5) If any information is released on the basis that the requester assures you that they hold the customers consent, how often is this audited and what is the audit process ?

(6) Does your management require any kind of reporting on the release of personal information to private agencies ? and if so what data is provided to management ?

Thank you very much,

Yours faithfully,

David Burgess