Concern grows about threats to privacy

New Zealanders are more worried about privacy than unemployment.

A UMR Research survey conducted last month for the Privacy Commissioner found that individual privacy rated sixth out of nine major issues, up one place from a similar poll in 2001.

Education, crime and violence and health remained the top issues, but privacy had risen up the rankings while unemployment had slipped in the survey of 750 people.

The survey was released on the eve of a meeting hosted by Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff to discuss topics such as workplace privacy, privacy and the consumer, and health and privacy.

Mrs Shroff said the fast pace of computer development would raise major privacy issues in the future.

"An issue will be the use of the internet to upload and make public all kinds of records about people which may currently be held in hard-copy and not available online.

"All the time the pressure is from all sorts of people who use the internet to get more and more information on to the internet. Striking the balance between that and a reasonable level of protection for people's personal information is going to be increasingly difficult.

"Every step towards making more and more personal information available has to be very carefully weighed in the balance and it's a bit of a slippery slope," said Mrs Shroff.

While the future held several privacy concerns, the survey showed that plenty of New Zealanders were already worried about preserving their personal details, she said.

The survey found that of the nine issues, privacy showed a 9 per cent increase in concern, with only environmental issues showing a greater rise (12 per cent).

The survey also reinforced New Zealanders' negative attitude to businesses misusing or passing on personal information.

On a five-point scale, 89 per cent of people were concerned if businesses used supplied information for another purpose, with 75 per cent of those people being very concerned. Similar levels of concern were registered about an unknown business getting hold of personal information, a business asking for seemingly irrelevant personal information, and a business monitoring visits to internet sites.

"I think that a business that treats personal information well will reap the benefits, and a business that treats personal information badly will reap the consequences," Mrs Shroff said.

"The survey reflects that people have a high degree of concern. It doesn't necessarily reflect that there is a lot of bad stuff going on out there.

"I think people are increasingly aware of how much personal information businesses have about them and they're signalling to us that we care about this...I would hope that business would take on board what this survey is telling us and try and make sure either they improve their act, or if they are already doing well, that they should communicate with people about how they are protecting their personal information."

Personal privacy was not just an issue for people when pollsters rang for an opinion, Mrs Shroff said.

"Our inquiries line gets up to 50 calls a day and they run at around 6600 a year... the picture is of solid and increasing concern about privacy issues."

Privacy fears

* 84 per cent were concerned about personal details on the internet
* 78 per cent concerned about confidentiality of medical records
* 72 per concerned about Government intercepting email and calls