The Privacy Commissioner has found that an agency that sent personal information to the complainant, but at her place of employment, was in breach of the employee’s privacy.  The agency knew that the employer had a policy of opening all mail received at the business, as it had made the same mistake on previous occasions when sending sensitive information to the complainant.

The Privacy Commissioner concluded that the agency was in breach for sending the information to the employer’s address and that the complainant had suffered harm as a result of being bullied by her co-workers who learnt of the information provided.  The matter was settled by way of an apology and a payment of $6,000.00 compensation to the woman by the agency.


Alan Knowsley