Privacy Commissioner case notes: A resource from NZ and beyond Blair Stewart Assistant Commissioner Office of the Privacy Commissioner New Zealand Privacy Issues Forum 2006 Wellington, 30 March 2006

What’s a case note? “Any report outlining the outcome of an investigation, conciliation or determination of a complaint that is contained in a series of reports released by a privacy authority” Source: Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities Forum, Statement of Common Administrative Practice on Case Note Citation, adopted 17 November 2005

What’s in a case note? A label identifying the report within a series i.e. a citation allowing people to find the note and know where it’s from etc., may also say something about the case itself Some facts Some instructive indication of the outcome of the case e.g. on how investigated, mediated, resolved or law interpreted

What’s a case note? “Any report outlining the outcome of an investigation, conciliation or determination of a complaint that is contained in a series of reports released by a privacy authority” Source: Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities Forum, Statement of Common Administrative Practice on Case Note Citation, adopted 17 November 2005

Case notes can go where judgments cannot … Complaints closed No jurisdiction - 56 Closed within jurisdiction Provisional opinion Settled: no final opinion - 94 Final opinion Settled: no provisional opinion Total closed without final opinion HRRT - 31 * Figures are for 2001/02 and 2004/05 combined Typical 2 years complaints load *

Case notes can go where judgments cannot … Complaints closed – 100% No jurisdiction – 2% Closed within jurisdiction – 98% Provisional opinion – 23% Settled: no final opinion – 5% Final opinion – 19% Settled: no provisional opinion – 74% Total closed without final opinion – 78% HRRT – 2% Approximations only

Case notes in NZ Office of the Privacy Commissioner issuing case notes since 1996 Now about 125 i.e. about p.a. Since then other Privacy Commissioners have also started case noting …

The steady advance of case notes in Asia Pacific region …

APPA (formerly PANZA+) has adopted a citation standard Abbreviations adopted for APPA participants: HKPrivCmr – Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data KRPIDMC – Korean Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee NSWPrivCmr - New South Wales Privacy Commissioner NTICmr – Northern Territory Information Commissioner NZPrivCmr - New Zealand Privacy Commissioner PrivCmrA – Privacy Commissioner of Australia VPrivCmr – Victorian Privacy Commissioner Source: Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities Forum, Statement of Common Administrative Practice on Case Note Citation, 17 November 2005

Case notes to date from APPA members

Canada has been active too

NZ case notes as a slice of the pie

Why stop at NZ case notes? If you find case notes useful – for advice, interpretation or educative purposes – you may not want to stop just at the local ones Based on near universal principles

How to obtain case notes? NZ OPC mailing lists, compilations Individual web sites Increasingly RSS/ alerts Professional texts (e.g. PLAP) Or Central depository with a common search engine - a very powerful option

Various searches by: groups of databases named databases etc. Can branch out with all WorldLII if wanting general court decisions Boolean searches Watch out for FOI cases (e.g. NOT FOI)

Remember Lots of case notes now available Readily accessible, able to be cited

Handouts Overseas case notes Some new NZ ones Survey of users – please complete and drop off The end