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A big payout for a four letter word

New Zealand – March 2015

Ms Hammond, living and working in Auckland, New Zealand, uploaded to her Facebook page a picture of a cake made by her for a private dinner party. Both she and a fellow worker had recently resigned from Credit Union Baywide trading as NZCU Baywide (NZCU Baywide). The party was attended by ten close personal friends, five of whom were current employees of NZCU Baywide.

What would otherwise have been an unexceptional set of circumstances was transformed by two factors. First, the top of the cake had been iced with the words “NZCU F*** YOU” while the side of the cake bore the word “C***”. (Please use your imagination ….. . We have replaced the original letters with the *)

Cake Bake The privacy setting on Ms Hammond’s Facebook page meant only those accepted by her as “friends” had access to the photograph.

Determined to gain access to the photo, NZCU pressured a junior staff member, who was a Facebook friend of Ms Hammond, to log into her Facebook account and take a screenshot of the picture for NZCU. Upon receiving the private image, NZCU:

· emailed a screenshot that was then distributed to multiple employment agencies in the Hawke’s Bay area which, along with contemporaneous phone calls from NZCU Baywide, warned against employing Ms Hammond.

· sent an internal email outlining the circumstances of Ms Hammond’s resignation; and

· disclosed the photo to her current employer while placing severe pressure on them to terminate Ms Hammond’s employment .

One of the issues Ms Hammond experienced was frustration when she found some members of the executive team did not listen to her when she cautioned that in her view, NZCU Baywide was at commercial and financial risk for failing to adhere to the Privacy Act.

Had NZCU failed with regard to privacy in their dealings with the recently departed staff member?

YES, said the Tribunal who found that NZCU breached its privacy obligations to Ms Hammond which requires an agency that holds personal information to refrain from disclosing that information.

Ms Hammond was awarded $168,000 in compensation, comprising $98,000 for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings, $38,350 for pecuniary loss of income, $16,177.78 for loss of benefit and $15,543.10 for legal expenses.

It could be said that this was a great deal of money for a four letter word ED

More at:- http://www.justice.govt.nz/tribunals/human-rights-review-tribunal/decisions-of-the-human-rights-review-tribunal/decisions-under-the-privacy-act-1993/2015/hammond-v-credit-union-baywide-2015-nzhrrt-6

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