Privacy Week 13-17 May
9 May 2024
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) is holding Privacy Week, next week between 13-17 May.
Privacy is a big topic for any business. The Privacy Act sets out the principles that you and your staff must comply with when:
- collecting personal information;
- using personal information;
- storing and destroying personal information;
- disclosing personal information; and
- correcting personal information.
“Personal information” is any information about an individual, and includes information about your practice’s employees and former employees. If your practice collects or holds ‘personal information’, the information privacy principles in the Privacy Act apply.
The OPC has released a new learning module Privacy Myths Busted - Simply Privacy - Your Privacy Partners
And during Privacy Week there are many topical free webinars for you to join and you can read more about them at this link. Office of the Privacy Commissioner | Privacy Week 2024
HealthyPractice includes information and resources to help you comply with the Privacy Act Privacy (healthypractice.co.nz)
Privacy breaches are more common than you might think. It’s important to know your what your obligations are to report to the OPC and when you need to contact the people whose privacy may have been breached. Data breach reporting (healthypractice.co.nz)
The website for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner has many resources to help you with Privacy and includes online modules to use for your own learning or to share with your team
Other recent articles
10 June 2026
Privacy updates and training
Due to recent changes, this month we wish to remind you of the update to the Privacy Act 2020 with a new principle called the Information Privacy Principle 3A (IPP3A). For practices’, the new principle means there are additional notification obligations when receiving personal information about a patient from a third party. Under IPP3A, if your practice receives patient information from another provider (such as a lab, hospital, specialist, pharmacy or ACC), you must take reasonable steps to let the patient know their information has been collected. This change applies to any information collected on or after 1st May 2026.
15 May 2026
Welcome Winter!
Winter is on the way, and with it usually comes the usual run of coughs, colds, and other bugs. Most practices will already have their usual measures in place but now is a good time to reinforce the basics and lead by example, particularly when it comes to staying home if you’re unwell. It is also a good time to check that expectations around leave, sick leave and wellbeing are clear heading into winter.
16 April 2026
Easing fuel and living-cost pressures, in practice
While we cannot control the wider economic environment, making clear, practical decisions in response to the current economic pressures can ease the load on our practice and our staff. Rising fuel prices and the broader cost-of-living pressure are not only having financial implications, they are also impacting how we feel about normal day-to-day ‘necessities’, which may be affecting stress levels and causing rising anxiety for some. It is important to focus on what we can change – how we can make small adjustments to support staff, reduce avoidable stress and keep the practice functioning well. own.
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