Nick Valentine, Laura Scampion, and Rachel Taylor of DLA Piper write:
After a lengthy process (dating as far back as 1998, depending on how you measure it) the Privacy Bill, which amends the Privacy Act 1993, has finally made its way through Parliament, receiving Royal Assent on 30 June 2020.
The amendments, which come into effect on 1 December 2020, introduce some of the most significant changes to New Zealand’s privacy law since the enactment of the Privacy Act, including:
- mandatory data breach reporting;
- restrictions on offshore transfers of personal information; and
- clarifications on the extraterritorial scope of the Privacy Act.
However, Parliament has deliberately chosen not to align the Privacy Act with international precedent in terms of broader data subject rights or large fines for non-compliance. This means the Privacy Act remains a bit of a ‘toothless tiger’ relative to other global data protection laws.
Read more on Privacy Matters.