Privacy+Law+Customer+Rights

= What is a customer's right to privacy that companies must observe ﻿   = = under privacy principle 3 from the Privacy Act 1993 - ﻿   = = Collection of information from subject? = //By Stephanie Butler//

** Introduction **
Privacy law is a key element in the corporate world, whether that be public sector or in private sector practices. Customers need to know their standing and their legal rights are a fundamental code for companies to follow in their protocol of managing personal information from general known information which could be names, addresses and telephone numbers, or more highly sensitive information such as specific database case notes, and financial information such as payment records.

There are a wide number of industries and some have specific industry standards and laws, such as the Health Information Privacy Code 1994, Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 2003, Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2004.

The Privacy Act 1993 first came into effect on 1 July 1993. It replaced the Privacy Commissioner Act 1991 which was established to create regulations around data matching.



** Privacy principles covered in Section 6 of the Privacy Act 1993 ﻿ **
 12 privacy principles:


 * 1) Purpose of collection
 * 2) Source of the information
 * 3) **Collection of the information **
 * 4) Manner of collection
 * 5) Storage and security
 * 6) Access
 * 7) Correction
 * 8) Accuracy to be checked before use
 * 9) Information not to be kept for longer than necessary
 * 10) Limits on use of personal information
 * 11) Limits on disclosure
 * 12) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Unique identifiers

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">To put Principle 3 in context of Section 6, it is directly linked with Principles: 10: Permitted use, 4: Manner of collection, 6 and 7: Right of access to and correction of personal information.

<span style="color: #0026ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">s 6 Privacy principle 3: Collection of the information
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">To lawfully collect information:

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">1. The collector has to inform the subject that the information is being recorded <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">2. The details of by whom is collecting the information is to be disclosed <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">3. The reason of the information collection and how the information will be used <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">4. Name and address details of the collector and the agency holding the information is to be provided to the subject <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">5. The effect this will have on the subject if they refuse to provide the requested information <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">6. The regulations around the subjects rights to be able to retrieve the information they have provided, or to amend their personal information on file held by the agency.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The information gathered may be required for a legal purpose, in this case the nature and conditions must be stipulated and if the subject has the right to decline the request to provide it. A company must have an clear need for the information to be collected and it must be communicated to the customer about how it will be handled and made use of within the functions of the company.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">A company can find further information about this area of law from the Privacy Commissioner who administers the Act. Website: [|http://www.privacy.org.nz]

** Company use of customer information **
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Companies may hold a variety of information about their customers, just to name a few types: names, contact information, financial information, purchase details, payment information, medical information, general comments, personal preferences of service and contact. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">If the information is to be used for promotional mailings permission is required to be given by the customer. If it is necessary for customer information to be forwarded to another company the customer needs to be informed, e.g. retrieval of information on customer’s credit history from a consumer reporting agency.



**<span style="color: #0026ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Source of customer information that does not require direct collection from the customer **
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Exclusion to the rule of collection to be made directly and with consent from the customer include the following from Principle 2: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Source of personal information which could come under the following categories:


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Information is publicly known i.e. from the Companies Registrar or from a telephone directory, or Facebook
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Customer has given consent to their information being disclosed i.e. Referee reports and statements
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Compliance would influence the reason of collection i.e. videoing customer response to visual presentation of a store, if informed of this the customer may not behave as they would have not knowing of the video taping
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Where non-compliance vital. This could be for legal reasons by a governmental agency such as the Inland Revenue Department.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Where compliance is not logically realistic, where it may be problematical to contact the customers on a large customer database. I.e. market surveying to find out where the most considerable amount of business lies for different age groups.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Where the findings of a marketing survey does not distinguish customer identity such as purchasing patterns in product lines in relation to season of the year.

** Reasons to protect customer information **

 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">To adhere to the legal requirement of the Privacy Act 1993 under section 6
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">To prevent fraud
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">To prevent identity theft
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">To prevent poaching of your customers from other companies
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">To avoid negative publicity and reputation

**<span style="color: #0026ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Further information, pages, and articles of interest **

 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">[] **

** [|Privacy article Trade Me and firearms licence] **

** [|"Marketing Law: Risk and Reward" Simpson Grierson's sales and marketing law team] **

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">[|"Customer Information How Much to Collect?"] ** **<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; line-height: 0px; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; overflow: hidden;">﻿ **

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">References: **
**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Books ** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Hubbard, J., Thomas, C. & Varnham, S. (2010). //Principles of Law for New Zealand Business Students//. (4th Ed). Pearson NZ Ltd: Auckland <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Soanes, C. (2001) //Oxford English Dictionary.// Oxford University Press Inc.: New York  **<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Websites ** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">[]   []  <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">[] <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">[]  <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">[] <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">[]