Privacy Commissioner announces successful privacy research applicants

24 November 2015

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards today announced grants for four independent privacy research projects in the inaugural funding round for the Privacy Good Research Fund.

Mr Edwards launched the Privacy Good Research Fund in June 2015 and made $75,000 available to support privacy research. The objective of the fund is to stimulate privacy-related research, public education or awareness raising initiatives. Applications that might assist with ‘making privacy easy’ for agencies or individuals or contribute to ‘Better Public Services’ were especially encouraged.

“I was impressed by the quality of the research proposals and am pleased that the Privacy Good Research Fund will enable several academic and not-for-profit projects to go ahead,” Mr Edwards said.

Fifteen applications for funding were received from New Zealand and overseas by the deadline in August. The total amount sought substantially exceeded the funds available.

Funded projects 2015

The four recipients of funding from the 2015 Privacy Good Research Fund are as follows:

Full information will be publicly released on completion of the research projects, probably in mid-to-late 2016. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner plans to hold a symposium where the research findings can be presented towards the end of 2016.

Background

The Privacy Good Research Fund was established to support the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s mission to promote privacy and protect personal information.

The Fund seeks to:

• capitalise on existing privacy research capacity in academic and non-profit sectors;

• generate new knowledge and support the development of expertise in selected areas of privacy and data protection;

• increase awareness and understanding among individuals and organisations across New Zealand of their privacy rights and obligations; and

• promote the uptake and application of research results by relevant stakeholders.

More information about the Privacy Good Research Fund is available on the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s website athttps://privacy.org.nz/further-resources/privacy-research.

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