Mass privacy breach must be explained, apologised for

A press release by Andrew Little from the New Zealand Labour Party

Labour’s ACC spokesperson Andrew Little is questioning why a serious breach of privacy, involving the wrongful release of details of thousands of ACC claimants, wasn’t raised during a select committee meeting earlier this month.
“The Transport and Industrial Relations select committee considered the ACC financial review only two weeks ago.
“Given this is a significant matter, and one that senior managers have apparently known about for months, you would expect it to have been brought to the attention of both the Auditor General and the select committee,” Andrew Little said.
“It wasn’t.
“Now we have ACC chief executive Ralph Stewart saying he only became aware of the situation today.
“These allegations - and the fact that the very people who should have been the first to know about them didn’t – are a real concern. The whole issue raises serious questions over whether information has been deliberately concealed.
“And nowhere has there been any mention of any apology to those affected by the mail-out. The least ACC can do is let those people know and work with them to address obvious concerns.” Andrew Little said.
He has written to the Auditor General asking what that office knew about the allegations.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1203/S00169/mass-privacy-breach-must-be-explained-apologised-for.htm