Privacy matters for customers

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Building privacy into businesses not only meets obligations under the Privacy Act 2020, but also builds trust with customers — that’s the message from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s latest Insights Report.

At the end of 2022, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) and business.govt.nz ran a Small Business Privacy Awareness Survey and 386 small businesses responded.

The office also reviewed 1487 breach reports to the OPC to draw insights about small businesses and privacy.

Privacy breaches, whether caused through a malicious act, human error or system malfunction, work to erode trust in businesses, and cause the business to miss out on growth and new customers.

“While businesses showed they understood personal information and privacy issues, they didn’t always have relevant privacy policies and procedures in place,” Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster said.

“We identified four key insights from our work and explored those with the aim of helping small businesses better meet their obligations under the Privacy Act 2020.”

These insights are:

■ Understanding privacy does not necessarily translate into good privacy practices.

■ What business sector you are in can increase your privacy risk.

■ Businesses need systems for giving people their own information, promptly.

■ Whether a business is big or small, the privacy breach risk is about the same.

“The insights, coupled with our breach reporting and real-life examples, should help small businesses grow and develop their understanding of privacy within their business,” Mr Webster said.

“Ensuring good privacy practices are built into businesses from the start is vital.”

The Small Business insights report is available on the Office of the Privacy Commissioner website: www.privacy.org.nz/publications/insights-reports/may-2023-insights-report/