Abstract:
This article examines the website privacy notices of listed companies in New Zealand, comparing them with overseas companies listed in New Zealand and with a snapshot of United States companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The privacy notices are assessed for legal compliance and best practice against several criteria including accessibility, readability, compliance when providing online services, procedures for privacy breaches, transparency in relation to government requests for personal information and independent privacy assurance. The research finds areas of deficiency (especially in relation to compliance of New Zealand companies doing business in Australia with the requirements of the new Australian Privacy Principles) and makes recommendations as to how both legal compliance and best practice might be achieved through appropriately constructed privacy notices. The paper finds the performance of New Zealand companies lags behind that of their overseas counterparts and this is likely to put them at a competitive disadvantage through customers’ reluctance to share their personal information.