Privacy Commissioner case notes: A resource from NZ and beyond

Blair StewartAssistant Commissioner

Office of the Privacy CommissionerNew 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 - 2019 No jurisdiction - 56

Closed within jurisdiction - 2003

Provisional opinion - 473

Settled: no final opinion - 94

Final opinion - 379

Settled: no provisional opinion - 1490

Total closed without final opinion - 1584

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 10-12 p.a.

Since then other Privacy Commissioners have also started case noting …

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

NZPrivCmr

PrivCmrA

HKPrivCmr

KRPIDMC

NSWPrivCmr VPrivCmr

NZ HRRT (On-line)

NZ HRRT Compilations

PrivCmrACD

HKPrivCmrAAB

PC of Canada

Timeline 1994 - 2006

Principal Asia Pacific Privacy Case Note Series

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

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

VPrivCmr NSWPrivCmr KRPIDMC HKPrivCmr PrivCmrA NZPrivCmr

Casenotes to '06

Canada has been active too

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

VPrivCmr NSWPrivCmr KRPIDMC HKPrivCmr PrivCmrA NZPrivCmr PrivCmrC

Casenotes to 2006

NZ case notes as a slice of the pie

Australia

NZ

Canada

HK

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/email alerts• Professional texts (e.g. PLAP)

Or• Central depository with a common search engine - a very powerful option www.worldlii.org

www.worldlii.org/int/special/privacy/

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