Police were also aware that there were images of the alleged individual involved being circulated on social media.
"We ask that the public refrain from doing so, as in general this could potentially jeopardise a police investigation.
"Should anyone have information which could assist our enquiries, they should always contact police directly rather than take matters into their own hands and post information on social media."
In the Facebook post it was alleged the man was waiting outside Whangārei Intermediate School when the girl was approached by a man who tried to get into his car by offering her food.
She ignored the man and walked on but the man followed her and asked her to get in his car.
"Lucky she has been raised to know better," the post said.
"When she arrived home and told me I quickly asked my partner to contact Whangārei police and I jumped in my car to see if I could spot him. It had been five minutes and he was still sitting in his vehicle on Rust Ave close to the school."
While encouraging people to contact Whangārei police if the man was spotted and to let them deal with him, the man was called a "predator" in the post.
Photos of the man and other photos showing the registration plate of the vehicle and the vehicle itself accompanied the post that elicited a number of comments threatening and encouraging physical violence against the man.
Another person suggested looking up the plates and finding out where the man's home address was.
The Northern Advocate sent a message via Facebook to the person who made the post requesting some comment but they did not respond.
A spokesman for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner said if someone who was identified on a
Facebook page considered their privacy had been interfered with they could make a complaint to the office and it would be investigated.
"Whether or not there is an interference or harm would naturally depend on the specific circumstances," the spokesman said.
"The people behind the Facebook page need to be careful that the information posted and shared is accurate. They have a responsibility to get things right because if they get it wrong, it can cause people harm."
Whangārei Intermediate School principal Hayley Read said none of the students had reported such an incident and it was unclear what school the student was from.
She said in such instances her advice was always to ring police as they were in the best position to deal with such incidents rather than resorting to social media.
Last year the Privacy Commissioner said the Sensible Sentencing Trust (SST) had interfered with a man's privacy by wrongly labelling him as a convicted paedophile on its website.
The SST's Offender Database listed the man's picture with the description of a convicted paedophile with a similar name for almost two years before the man found out and complained to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
A member of the public submitted the man's photo, and a volunteer uploaded it to the database without taking any steps to verify its accuracy.
"Agencies must take reasonable steps to check that personal information is accurate before they use it. Relying on the assistance of unpaid volunteers does not excuse the SST of its legal obligations," Commissioner John Edwards said.
The office's investigation found that the SST had clearly harmed the man with its actions, as he was subjected to social media abuse and was afraid that his tarnished reputation would damage his business.
And in 2016 a father of the teenager complained about security camera photos posted on Facebook which he said unfairly branded his daughter as a shoplifter.
He said his daughter was innocent and she had not been aware that two of the others in the group had taken items from the shop without paying for them.
In his complaint to the Privacy Commissioner, the father said police spoke to each member of the group and the stolen property was recovered.
His daughter was not charged with any offence.
While two youths were charged with theft, the father said the shop's use of the security camera photos gave the impression that all of those shown in the images were shoplifters.
His concerns were that his daughter was unfairly labelled a thief and this resulted in her feeling humiliated in the small community they lived in.
The complaint from the teenager's father raised issues under principles 10 and 11 of the Privacy Act.
Principle 10 stated agencies that hold personal information must not use it for any purpose other than the purpose for which it was collected.
The Commissioner said the publication of the images on the shop's Facebook page entitled "Wall of Shame" was for the purpose of embarrassing the people in the photos, and was not consistent with collecting personal information for security reasons.
Principle 11 states an agency must not disclose personal information unless it believes on reasonable grounds that an exception in the Privacy Act applies.
The Commissioner was unable to find any proper basis for publishing the images on a public website and none of the exceptions to principles 10 and 11 applied.
Although the girl was not named, the Privacy Act also applies in situations when a person is identifiable from an image alone.
Following an investigation by the Commissioner a dispute resolution process can take place or the complainant can go to the Human Rights Review Tribunal which can award damages.
