New Zealanders care what happens to their personal information, and organisations can do better at preventing privacy breaches.

Those are the twin findings of the Privacy Commissioner’s upcoming insights report, and the driver of next week’s free annual Privacy Week events.

“If you hold personal information, you must protect the privacy and mana of those who have entrusted it to you,” says Acting Privacy Commissioner Liz MacPherson.

“As well as meeting your legal obligations, taking care of New Zealanders’ personal information helps ensure people maintain essential trust and confidence in your organization.”

The theme for Privacy Week 2022 is Privacy: The Foundation of Trust. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has brought together more than a dozen free online seminars, workshops, and panels between 9 and 14 May.

Topics include a panel discussion on Tikanga Māori and Privacy: reflections on the High Court review of decisions about Māori Covid-19 vaccination data; a workshop on cyber-incident response best practice; plus specialist privacy expertise for those working in specific industries.

The topics are aimed at engaging with everyone who has a hand in safeguarding New Zealanders’ personal information - from dedicated privacy law professionals to schoolyard staff; from people working in broad public sectors such as health to niche non-profit organisations.

“We’ve worked with others across the privacy sector to create a programme covering all aspects of privacy, from the academic to the very practical.

“We want to make it easy for all organisations to increase their engagement and understanding of privacy, and in turn, provide better protection to their clients and customers,” says Ms MacPherson.

“Trust is essential to innovation. Almost any digital initiative, such as developments within the health sector, involve personal information.

“People must be able to trust in the use of this information, and privacy is the foundation of trust.”

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s latest insights report Privacy Awareness and Engagement in Aotearoa New Zealand will be released on Monday May 9 to mark the start of Privacy Week 2022.

Visit privacy.org.nz for this year’s full Privacy Week programme.

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