Marama Davidson: Green Party Co-Leader on their campaign promise of harsher penalties for companies breaching the Privacy Act

The Greens are calling for a beefed-up Privacy Commissioner to tackle major breaches. 

The party's campaigning on plans for the Commissioner to apply for penalties of up to $500 thousand for breaches by individuals, and $10 million for corporations. 

Any penalty would have to go before the courts. 

Greens Co-Leader Marama Davidson says the Manage My Health hack showed the need to close the gap allowing companies to treat New Zealanders' data as an afterthought. 

She told Heather du Plessis-Allan the proposal would see penalties match those given for breaches of the Commerce Act – bringing privacy protection up to where it should already be. 

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