privacy commissioner case notes: a resource from nz and beyond blair stewart assistant commissioner...
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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