The “Act”

Press, 25 March 1980, Page 17

The “Act”

In conversation, staff of the Wanganui Computer Centre frequently refer to “the act.” And that Is what rules the place: it is behind the high security and the elaborate checking systems for programmers and operators. M The Wanganui Computer Centre Act of 1976 carefully spells out the measures that ensure access to its information is kept confidential. It appoints a Policy Committee, which includes a judge or former judge, that is responsible for policy relating to privacy and the rights of the individual, and a management committee which, in membership, is in effect a subcommittee of the policy committee. The act also appoints a Privacy Commissioner, whose task is to investigate complaints about the computer system and generally to act as a watchdog that the system is being run according to the act. He is the person you apply to when you want to see what information the computer has, if any, about you (except for the police modus operand! and wanted persons files, which are not open to citizen’s inquiries). The Commissioner has the relevant expertise of the three departments that use the computer to extract a print-out of your file. This goes to him and eventually you pick it up from your local postmaster after identifying yourself to his satisfaction. . . In the year to March 31, 1979, the Commissioner sent 839 people the results of searches for information on them; of these 145 had no record at all in the system.