One Register to Rule them All: the privacy implications of person-level tracking
A persistent ID that links data from all agencies – and beyond – does not seem to fit the Privacy Act Principles.
Information Privacy Principles (IPP) say agencies must not assign a unique identifier that is the same as one used by another agency unless necessary, and that the use of a persistent identifier must not lead to unintended tracking or cross referencing beyond the intended statistical purposes. Hence we have different numbers for our passports, drivers license and tax.
“But a Statistical Register like the one being created, does just that”, says a Stats NZ insider who spoke to me on condition of anonymity.
They remain unclear about the legal basis for what Stats NZ is doing.
In light of the Manurewa Marae scandal, the Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster scolded Stats NZ and Health NZ for their roles in the mismanagement of private data. He said agencies “must be better at privacy”, and that “the protection of personal information needs to be treated as a priority”.
Yet notably, Stats NZ has not even consulted the public on the creation of its Statistical Register and Persistent Unique Identifier, a basic first step in transparency.
Read more: One Register to Rule them All: the privacy implications of person-level tracking
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