Ministry of Social Development repeats ACC privacy breach debacle

The privacy breach at the Ministry of Social Development is yet another blow to the public's trust in the ability of Government agencies to safeguard the confidential data they hold, the Green Party said today.

"This privacy breach is symptomatic of a Ministry with a low regard for client privacy, with their Minister Paula Bennett leading the way by publicly releasing the details of a beneficiary who criticised her policies," Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said.

"The Ministry of Social Development has repeated ACC's privacy breach debacle, with details including housing and pharmacy records of children in CYFS care being publicly available via self-service kiosks at Work and Income branches across the country.

"While ACC is learning from its mistakes, Paula Bennett has refused to rule out personally releasing the private details of beneficiaries who criticise her policies in the future.

"Given the poor example set by their Minister, it is hard to see how the Ministry of Social Development can improve their practices with regards to client privacy.

"Section 6, Principle 5 of the Privacy Act 1993 states that the Ministry must do "everything reasonably within the power of the agency" to prevent unauthorised use of the private information they hold.

"By having private information available to anyone who walks in off the street, the Ministry has fallen well below the very high bar set for agencies who hold private information.

"The Ministry needs to explain how they can assure all those who interact with them that this sort of breach will not happen again, and an independent audit of their network security practices is urgently needed."