Privacy Commissioner - Te Mana Matapono Matatapu

Privacy Issues Forum: Speakers' Bios and Presentation Summaries

Sir Geoffrey Palmer

Sir Geoffrey was appointed as President of the Law Commission on 1 December 2005 for a term of five years. Sir Geoffrey has had a long career in the law, as an academic lawyer, a politician, and a law practitioner.  During his years in practice, Geoffrey Palmer appeared in the superior courts including the Privy Council in a number of important cases and has sat as a Judge ad hoc on the International Court of Justice.

Sir Geoffrey is an author, and has been recognised for his work on environmental issues. These included reforming resource management law.

 

Professor John Burrows QC

Professor John Burrows was appointed as a Law Commissioner for a term of 5 years from February 2007.  Professor Burrows has had a long association with the University of Canterbury where he held various positions prior to his appointment to the Law Commission.

Professor Burrows is an author and has contributed on Statute Law, Media Law and Contract Law in New Zealand, Tort Law and Commercial Law.

He has chaired, and been a member of, various committees on tertiary education and is a current member of the NZ Legislation Advisory Committee, a Trustee for the NZ Law Foundation, and a former member of the Contracts and Commercial Law Reform Committee.He has been a Barrister of the High Court of New Zealand specialising in opinion work, and appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2005.

Richman Wee

Richman Wee is the project manager and a researcher for the Law Foundation-sponsored Human Genome Research Project ‘Law, Ethics and Policy for the Future’ that is led by the Law Faculty, University of Otago. The project has published ‘Choosing Genes for Future Children’ and ‘Genes, Society and the Future: Volumes I and II’ in the past two years and will be launching another report that includes issues on the use of gene patents in NZ, genetics and insurance, and pharmacogenetics.

Richman Wee is currently the legal member on the Multi-Region Ethics Committee which reviews health and disability research studies.

Rethinking privacy safeguards for emerging technologies and research in genomics
Anonymisation, in the sense of irreversible de-identification of personally identifying information, has been regarded as giving maximum protection for the privacy of research participants by preventing them from being re-identified. However, anonymisation in genomic research might not be sufficient or in keeping with participants’ interests or wishes, and indeed might not be truly achievable in the near future.

Barbara Robson

Barbara Robson lives in Feilding and has been involved in consumer and community health advocacy for more than 20 years. She is Co-convenor of the Federation of Women’s Health Councils and her involvement with committees at a national level has included Screening Programme Advisory Committees, Health and Disability Commissioner’s Consumer Advisory Group, NHI Upgrade Programme Steering Committee. Barbara has been an elected member of MidCentral DHB Board since 2001.

It's all in the genes - cautionary "tails" from consumer perspectives
Consumers have valid privacy and ethical concerns about screening and the use of new genetic technologies. Consumers have responded in a variety of ways to these concerns.

The importance of involving consumers as key stakeholders in discussions and the shaping of decisions around the introduction and subsequent use of any new genetic technologies cannot be over-emphasised. This includes ensuring robust and enduring legal frameworks are in place to protect the existing and future ‘DNA banks’ from powerful/unscrupulous/unethical interests and the status of existing choices is preserved. Anything less risks Orwellian overtones that would be justly deserved.

 

Professor Donald Evans

Professor Donald Evans taught at the University of Wales for 29 years. He developed the first European Masters degree programme in Medical Ethics, served as a member of the Governing Body of the Institute of Medical Ethics and is an author. He was elected a member of the Academy of Humanitarian Research, Moscow. He has conducted and led research projects for the UK Department of Health and the European Commission, the Health Funding Authority and the Health Research Council, and completed two research reports on health care systems in the Third World.

Professor Evans has served as a member on various committees and is currently a member of the UNESCO International Ethics Committee and the UNESCO Commission on Ethics as well as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Stem Cell Oversight Committee.

Professor Evans was appointed Director of the Bioethics Centre, University of Otago in 1997

The Challenges of Genetic Data to Privacy

Genetic information poses unique challenges to privacy because of its shared nature. The presentation considers three distinct challenges. The first concerns the tension between the right to know and the right to privacy. The second concerns the adequateness of the Code for divulging genetic information. The third concerns a possible role for the Commissioner’s office in protecting privacy in the context of maximising the usefulness of genetic data.

Kathryn Dalziel

Kathryn Dalziel is a civil and criminal litigation lawyer employed by Raymond Donnelly & Co (Crown Solicitor’s Office) in Christchurch specialising in privacy, employment, and parole matters. She also teaches legal ethics at the University of Canterbury. She has been presenting privacy seminars on behalf of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner since 1996 and has co-written the chapter on Health Information in Health Care and the Law – the New Zealand edition.

Should we name and shame?  Disclosing personal information of child sex offenders
Managing the release of convicted child sex offenders into the community is not easy.  The community needs to be protected from the risk such offenders pose by the adoption of principled protocols.  This paper considers whether or not disclosing the identity of a convicted sex offender to the community into which he or she wishes to live is the best way to manage the offender’s risk to the community.

 

Dr Jill Vintiner

Dr Jill Vintiner was appointed the Forensic Programme Manager at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) earlier this year.  Dr Vintiner has been employed with ESR since 1999 and has previously held positions as Forensic Research Manager, DNA Databank Manager as well as a Senior Scientist in the Forensic Biology Casework Group.

Prior to joining ESR, Dr Vintiner held positions as a research scientist specialising in the area of molecular genetics and inherited genetic disorders.  She holds a Doctorate in Molecular Genetics from the University of London, England and a First Class Honours Degree in Biochemistry from the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Inspector John Walker

Inspector John D S Walker is the National Forensic Services Adviser, Police National Headquarters in Wellington, with involvement in Police forensic sciences for over 20 years. Inspector Walker has responsibility for the oversight, maintenance, and development of NZ Police forensic capability in areas such as fingerprints, document examination, armoury, crime scene examination, photography, DNA, and forensic medical service. His role also involves identifying developing forensic science technologies with a view to later use of these by Police in criminal investigations.

 

Trevor Morley

Trevor W A Morley (“TWAM” to friend and foe alike,) was a member of the NZ Police for 16½ years in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  Since leaving the NZPD he has been extensively involved in the private investigating and security industry both here in New Zealand and overseas.  He is currently the President of the NZ Institute of Professional Investigators, Inc. (NZIPI.)

The Role of the Private Investigator in modern criminal investigations

Private investigators are regulated by the Private Investigators & Security Guards Act 1974, an Act which the NZ Institute of Professional Investigators, Inc. (NZIPI) – and other security-industry organisations – believes is woefully out-of-date.  Whilst Government has signalled that it wishes to introduce a Bill to revise the Act, given the impending elections there is no possibility that the Bill will become law in the near future.  Licensed private investigators are particularly concerned that the continuing presence of parts of the 1974 Act hinders their ability to produce “the best evidence” for their clients in Court.

 

Maarten Kleintjes

Maarten trained in New Zealand, Australia and the Netherlands in Electronic Engineering, Signal Processing and Computer Forensics. In his career with the NZ Police he has been involved in a large number of high profile investigations and he gives evidence in District and High Court on a regular basis as an expert witness.

Marten commenced his career in the NZ Police in 1984 as Officer in Charge of the National Tape Laboratory specialising in covert evidence gathering and recovery in through advanced signal processing. In 1993, he advanced into the position of Chief Technical Investigator and pioneered Computer Forensics in New Zealand. In 1999 he was appointed National Manager after successfully establishing the Electronic Crime Laboratory.

Project EVE: A solution for dealing with the exponential increase in the volume of electronic evidence.

Laurie Gabites

Laurie is Manager, City Safety at Wellington City Council (WCC). WCC is a member of the WHO Safe Community Network and the only country capital to hold that accolade. Prior to this, Laurie was with the NZ Police.

Laurie took up a role with WCC to manage their safety initiatives. His experience in areas associated with community, family violence, reducing alcohol related harm and child abuse was valuable in identifying the need to take a wider view of community safety. He found a model in the six criteria required in order to be designated as a Safe Community within the WHO Safe Community Network.

Laurie runs a small business unit that focuses solely on community safety issues. He also represents Local Government on the Inter Agency Committee on Drugs (IACD), and is a Trustee of the Safe Communities Foundation of New Zealand.

Community safety initiative – CCTV

Like all local authorities Wellington City Council has as one responsibility under the Local Government Act to promote the social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of communities. Social well being includes safety, a vital component of any successful city for both residents and visitors. It impacts on quality of life and perceptions of the city as a whole. That's why we have made safety a priority and keep safety issues at the forefront of people's minds.

 

This approach includes preventative measures that contribute to crime reduction and tackle anti-social behaviour and reduce injury. We have a number of initiatives in place and the CCTV is just one part of our approach. This presentation will explore how CCTV has been incorporated into the whole community safety initiative.

 

Barbara Craig

Barbara Craig teaches courses on ICT policy in the School of Education Studies at Victoria University. Current research includes educational uses of social software across networks. Barbara is a Trustee of the National 2020 Communications Trust set up to raise awareness of the issues that may confront New Zealanders in their day to day use of ICTs. Her major involvement has been projects that support families in low socio-economic communities in their use of the internet.

 

Barbara has a BA from Canterbury University and an M Ed from Harvard University. She is currently completing a PhD at the Centre for Community Networking Research, Monash University, Melbourne.

The practice of social networking: sharing personal details online

Social networking sites feature profiles, “Friends’, comments and messaging and primarily maintain offline friendships. Over 60% of New Zealanders under 30 visit Facebook, Bebo or MySpace at least weekly. I explore young people’s understanding of privacy in these sites based on family interviews and on students’ preferences for online communication (Web 2.0 social software vs. academic environments such as Blackboard).

 

Cynthia Laberge

Cynthia Laberge is the Internet NZ Senior Research Fellow in CyberLaw (2008) and a Senior Lecturer.

Prior to joining the University of Victoria as the 2008 Cyberlaw Fellow, Cynthia was Senior Counsel at a law firm in San Francisco, California. In her practice she primarily represented business clients in litigation and brand protection (trademark enforcement) matters. She has co-chaired and second-chaired two trials and been back-up counsel in a number of arbitrations.

In her capacity as a trademark lawyer, Cynthia has represented clients on trademark, as well as cyberlaw, matters, including investigating potential cybersquatters and filing online complaints under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution policy with the World Intellectual Property Organization. She served as Moderator for the American Bar Association, Intellectual Property Section panel, and participated in many San Francisco Bay Area Intellectual Property American Inn of Court meetings.

How Is New Technology Affecting Government Access to Private Information?

What impact are technologies like Deep Packet Inspection and Data Matching having on access by governments, both foreign and domestic, to personal information?  Is privacy law keeping pace, or are there gaps in the law that need filling to keep personal data private?  What price are private citizens prepared to pay for keeping their personal data private?  This presentation explores these questions.

Tom Glover

Tom Glover is an independent Technology Consultant specialising in the area of innovative and emerging technologies. His particular areas of interests are in the fields of Digital Identity, RFID and Location Based Technologies.

Tom provides technology consulting to organisations on the advantages and implications of integrating new technologies into their business. Such technology areas include Web 2.0, Open Source, Knowledge Management (blogs, wikis et al.) and Productivity. Tom has been working predominantly in the area of Location Based Technologies for the last three years, dealing specifically with Real Time Location Tracking and RFID and is currently consulting to Telecom and Gen-i.

   

Finding Tom - Location Based Technologies & Privacy: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

A discussion on the fast-moving technology area of Location Based Technologies, together with the not-so-fast moving area of Geoprivacy. Starting with a potted history of Location through the ages, we provide a high-level overview of the current trends, together with the lucrative benefits and avoidable potholes. Finally we suggest an opinion on the shape of things to come, concluding with some recommended measures to provide safeguards in this exciting technology space.

Martin Cocker - Netsafe

Martin Cocker has been the Executive Director at NetSafe since March 2006. Prior to that he held various roles in the IT industry, including five years as the General Manager of an ICT services business in the education sector.

Understanding Privacy and Data Security – A four point strategy

Collection and smart analysis of client data is good business but customers won’t tolerate that information being passed to others – whether deliberately or accidently. In a world of mobile technologies, remote access, blogs, and tickers – private information can easily be made public. In this presentation we’ll look at a four point strategy to protect information - and the privacy of staff and clients.

Sandra Kelman

Sandra has overall responsibility for privacy strategy and compliance at BP, and manages the global Data Privacy team.

She has specific regional responsibility for privacy compliance in the Asia-Pacific, Caspian and Middle East areas.  This includes ensuring that BP complies with local data protection and related legislation (where it exists) and/or BP's own global Privacy & Data Protection Policy/Agreements.  As well as the core central team of four, this is supported by a team of privacy coordinators (one in each country in which BP has a presence) who champion data privacy in their own locality.  Sandra’s regional role includes the co-ordination of their activities and provision of support/advice, as well as conducting privacy compliance audits on a region/business unit basis.

A lawyer by profession, Sandra has worked for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in NZ, a small privacy consultancy in London and the Ministry of Social Development.

Is good privacy good for business, and if so, how do we get there?

Privacy notices are the foundation of good privacy.  This will explain how BP does this, and about how BP provides information to employees, to customers, via the web and what's in the pipeline.

Mike O’Donnell

Mike “MOD” O’Donnell is head of commercial and regulatory for Trade Me, New Zealand’s most visited website and largest eCommerce venture.  In this role he manages the three specialist subsites operated by Trade Me – namely Trade Me Motors, Trade Me Property and Trade Me Jobs – as well as investigating new ventures.  MOD is also responsible for overseeing regulatory and government relations for Trade Me. Previously Mike held various senior management roles at Fonterra, Henderson Global Investors, AMP, Forestry Corporation and within government.

Trade Me

Trade Me is New Zealand’s largest eCommerce venture and most visited website with over 2 million members.  The privacy issues they face are complex and broad, from the effective regulation of a safe online trading environment, to the protection of offline identities, and the challenges of working with a diverse set of government agencies. Mike will provide an overview of the privacy challenges and Trade Me’s approach.”

Professor Paul Roth

Dr Paul Roth is Professor of Law at the University of Otago. He specializes in privacy law and employment law. He is the author of the LexisNexis looseleaf Privacy Law and Practice, which is updated quarterly, as well as a range of other legal publications.

 

Privacy in the workplace

The interplay between privacy and employment interests raises some interesting and often challenging issues. These issues will arise more frequently as we go into the future. A basic question to ask is to what extent there are any rights to privacy in the workplace context? On balance, employers generally enjoy the upper hand in this area, but as with many legal issues, the tricky part is determining where to draw the line in individual cases.

 

Barbara Buckett

Barbara is a senior law practitioner, with over 25 years of experience in employment law.  She has appeared before most New Zealand courts, various tribunals, commissions of inquiry, parliamentary select committees and professional bodies.  She has acted for a wide range of clients, including private and public sector, employers and employees, professional associations and unions, private individuals, beneficiaries and mental health consumers.

Barbara established Barbara Buckett & Associates in 1998.  BBA focuses on flexible, practical, and preemptive solutions to employment issues.

Exposure: How Private Are Your Private Parts?

Advances in information gathering and communication technologies have enabled if not encouraged greater intrusion into the private lives of employees.  Equipment such as video cameras, voice recording, cell phones, laptops, keyloggers, email and internet logs and cheap surveillance technology have given employers and organisations greater access to private information than before.  More and more, as the ownership and use of these devices becomes less and less distinct, as more employees work more from the home office, the distinction between private and workplace is becoming increasingly murky. 

Dr Andrew Jack

Andrew is currently Group Manager, Legal and Advisory Services for the NZ Customs Service. He leads a team of 25 lawyers, prosecutors and technical experts on matters of tariff classification, valuation and origin. He is responsible for the provision of in-house legal and technical advice to the Customs Service throughout the country on a full range of legal issues, including privacy.

Andrew has worked for the Wanganui Computer Centre Privacy Commissioner, an Officer of Parliament responsible for overseeing the operation of New Zealand’s national law enforcement computer system. In 1993 when New Zealand’s Privacy Act 1993 came into force Andrew was appointed Privacy Officer for the New Zealand Police. At that time he was the only full time Privacy Officer in New Zealand. He was responsible for all aspects of the New Zealand Police’s response to the Privacy Act 1993, from training to systems development, legislative and policy development to complaints management.

 

Ursula Cheer

Ursula Cheer is an Associate Professor, University of Canterbury, specialising in media law. Ursula undertook the Degree of Master of Law at Cambridge University, UK and has been a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.  She has practised as a lawyer and held several advisory roles in the Justice area, in Wellington, and for the Prime Minister’s Advisory Group. Following a year’s post-graduate study at Cambridge University, UK, Ursula was a Grade 7 Lawyer in the Lord Chancellor’s Department, United Kingdom Law Commission.

Ursula is a member of an advisory committee assisting the Law Commission in its current comprehensive review of the law of privacy. She has recently been appointed independent Chair of the Public Relations Institute of the NZ Ethics Committee.

The Future of the Tort of Privacy:  Recent legal developments in New Zealand

In 2004, the existence of a New Zealand tort protecting informational privacy was finally confirmed in the leading case of Hosking v Runting. Since that case a number of significant cases have further developed the tort, giving us some idea of its future shape, while inevitably raising further questions. This presentation will outline the development of a privacy right in tort, making comparisons where appropriate with developments in the United Kingdom. It is clear that privacy is no ‘passing fad.

Deborah Marshall

Deborah is the partner in charge of Meredith Connell's Commerce Commission Team and Medico Legal Team.

Deborah is a Senior Crown prosecutor and has prosecuted in numerous jury trials. She has managed and conducted Fair Trading Act and Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act prosecutions for the Commerce Commission and has provided legal advice on related issues. The Team also provides advice to the Commerce Commission on Commerce Act proceedings and initiates proceedings under that Act.

Deborah also advises numerous health sector clients, including District Health Boards in the Auckland region on medico legal matters. She has expertise in the privacy/official information area and undertakes work for the Privacy Commissioner and government agencies seeking Privacy Act and Official Information Act advice. She has also prosecuted and defended in various disciplinary tribunals such as the Dentists' Disciplinary Tribunal, the Psychologists' Board and the Chiropractors' Board. She has appeared in the Coroner's Court, the Human Rights Review Tribunal and at Mental Health Act hearings in the Family Court.

The chilling effect

The paper examines recent Privacy Act cases in the High Court and Human Right Review Tribunal and identifies trends which may give informants, complainants and lay litigants pause for thought.

 

John Edwards

John Edwards is a lawyer who has been working in the field of information law for nearly 20 years.  He has published and spoken widely on privacy and official information both in New Zealand and overseas.  He has provided advice to parliamentary committees, and to a range of departments including the Law Commission, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Crown Law Office and the Ministry of Justice.

Stuck in the middle with you

An outsider’s view of the consultation process, providing effective advocacy for a client in the process of consultation between the Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner. When you don’t know what you don’t know, clear and fair processes are critical.

 

Leo Donnelly

Leo Donnelly is Deputy Ombudsman in New Zealand. He first joined the Office of the Ombudsmen in 1985 as an investigating officer in the Official Information Act section of the Office. He was appointed Assistant Ombudsman in November 1996 and Deputy Ombudsman in September 2004. In that role he assists the Ombudsmen in their statutory investigation and review functions under the Ombudsmen Act, the Official Information Act, the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act and The Protected Disclosures Act. He has played a significant advisory role to the New Zealand Ombudsmen on FOI issues for over 20 years. He has written several papers and addressed seminars on issues relating to information access and privacy and the operation of New Zealand’s official information legislation.

Katrine Evans

Katrine joined the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in August 2004, after a ten-year career as a law lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington. She is legal counsel to the Privacy Commissioner, and is involved in the investigations and litigation work of the Office. She also has responsibility for enquiries, education and communications.

 

Peter Hughes

Peter Hughes has worked in the New Zealand government sector for 20 years - in policy, operations and organisation development roles.

Peter began his career with the Department of Social Welfare, earning promotion into senior policy and operations roles. He was Southern Regional Manager for the New Zealand Income Support Service followed by Deputy-Director General of Health, where he headed the Ministry of Health's corporate, information, policy and regulatory activities. Following this, he took over managing the $7 billion health and disability services spend, which at that time was allocated through the Health Funding Authority (HFA).  He then became Chief Executive of the HFA. He implemented organisation-wide change involving disestablishment of the HFA, moving staff into Ministry of Health and District Health Board positions.  This was followed by his appointment as Secretary for Internal Affairs and then his most current appointment as Chief Executive of the newly formed Ministry of Social Development

Laurence Millar

Laurence Millar began his working career in England, where he worked for ANZ and General Electric.  He moved to New Zealand in 1983 with Databank Systems and in 1990 he joined the Department of Social Welfare as General Manager Information Technology. From 1993 to 2003, Laurence led strategic consulting assignments for government agencies in New Zealand and internationally.

He joined State Services Commission as Director, E-government Unit in 2004 and was appointed Deputy Commissioner, Information and Communication Technologies on 1 July 2005.

Laurence has a Master of Arts in Mathematics (Honours) from Cambridge University and a Master of Science (Distinction) in Cybernetics from London University.