Quick Information about the Privacy Act 1993
Posted on 27 October 2011 | No responses
Note: this applies to New Zealand readers only.
If you work in IT, you really need to know about the Privacy Act 1993, because it is *really* relevant to what we do. You need to be aware of it for your own business, but also so that you can advise clients properly, and don’t design systems for them which breach the Act.
The Privacy Act restricts the use of “personal information”, which is defined in the Act as “information about an identifiable individual”.
The main part to be aware of are the 12 Privacy Principles set out in section 6.
The Privacy Commission has a summary of them here.
The ones that I think are probably the most relevant to Information Systems design are (and I’m paraphrasing here):
1. Personal information may only be collected for a lawful reason connected with the purpose of the organisation collecting it, and if it is necessary for that purpose.
2. Personal information must be collected directly from the person it’s about
5. An organisation which holds personal information must make sure it’s protected against loss, access, and misuse.
9. An organisation can’t keep personal information for longer than needed for the purpose for which it can lawfully be used (which leads to …)
10. If you colect personal information for one purpose you can’t use it for any other purpose, unless the individual concerned authorises it.
And here’s the one that just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me – I’ll just copy the whole thing:
| Principle 12 | |||
| Unique identifiers | |||
| (1) |
An agency shall not assign a unique identifier to an individual unless the assignment of that identifier is necessary to enable the agency to carry out any 1 or more of its functions efficiently. |
||
| (2) |
An agency shall not assign to an individual a unique identifier that, to that agency’s knowledge, has been assigned to that individual by another agency, unless those 2 agencies are associated persons within the meaning of subpart YB of the Income Tax Act 2007. |
||
| (3) |
An agency that assigns unique identifiers to individuals shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that unique identifiers are assigned only to individuals whose identity is clearly established. |
||
| (4) |
An agency shall not require an individual to disclose any unique identifier assigned to that individual unless the disclosure is for one of the purposes in connection with which that unique identifier was assigned or for a purpose that is directly related to one of those purposes. |
||
The other principles are important too – I just think these are the ones that are most likely to come up when designing Information Systems.
For a great summary of the Privacy Act and other privacy-related issues check out the Privacy Commission web page at www.privacy.org.nz.
You can read the whole Privacy Act on the New Zealand Legislation website.
And I like this summary brochure from the Privacy Commission.
Please set me free
Posted on 20 July 2011 | No responses
Here’s a scenario: I’m a happy user of your site. I’ve used it, enjoyed it. I’d recommend it to others. But I don’t want to use it any more, I’m clearing out old internet accounts so they don’t add to my cognative overload, and I want to delete my account.
Hint: let me go.
If I can’t easily remove my account, I am only going to get annoyed. How do I loathe you? Let me count the ways …
- I’m going to have to spend time looking for a way to delete my account.
Chances of me coming back: going down. - If I give up, and keep my account details, every time I see you in my password vault it will annoy me that I couldn’t delete that account.
Chances of me coming back: getting worse every time. - If I give up, but don’t keep my account details, if I do actually go come back to you I’m going to get really annoyed because I know I have an account (that I couldn’t remove) but can’t remember how to get in. So have to create a new one. No, I have no way of knowing which email address I was using at the time, or what username or password I had to alter to fit your stupid requirements of minimum numbers, letters and non-alpha widgits.
Chances of me coming back: getting worse every time.
Chances of me blogging about you: getting really good now. But you won’t like it. - If I have to go through a whole series of emails with you just to delete the $@#*^ account I am going to be really grumpy.
Chances of me coming back: zero.
Chances of me blogging about you: assured. And tweeting, facebooking, G+-ing and everything else I can think of.
So here’s a shoutout to those neat little tools that I’ve used over the years. All have been useful or fun, and all let me sign up for free, which is really good. All offer something good, and are worth checking out. And to those that let me go, thank you – and I might come back some day.
So here’s how they stacked up when I tried to leave:
The Good
The best: Edublogs: neat free wordpress hosting site for educators and students. They’re also great at hooking people up with other bloggers on the site. I simply left to host my own wordpress site. Summary: Option in settings to close, confirmation email, great clear, friendly messages. I’d be happy to come back.
Sites you simply cancel from “Settings”: Goodreads, Digg, Toodledo, Friendfeed, Youtube, and Google (surprisingly). All had good, clear instructions and friendly messages.
No, I’m not moving off Google – I found I had 3 accounts with them, so am consolidating 
The “please email me” category:
I’d rather have an options in the Settings, but I found you can do this well, or do it badly. Ligit is a great example of doing it well: A nice friendly message in their FAQ tells all: “While we hope that you never need to delete your Lijit account, we can delete it for you if you send an email to …”. After such a nice message, I’m happy to do so. Picnik was also clear in its FAQ.
The Bad
Brinkster – free web hosting accounts for educators; really, really good online real-time tech support, which has really helped me. Can be a bit slow, and has ads, but that’s fine for a free site. No complaints about the experience or service. The only problem was leaving, and it’s a procedural rather than technical one.
The automated cancellation process failed for me (that’s ok: it happens). So far ok: the fail page told me the email address to contact them and the details to give them.
I got a really quick response email from a real live person – that’s really great (no sarcasm – it really is). The problem was what she asked for: to email my password (or the last 4 digits of my credit card). Um, no. Dodgy dodgy dodgy. And a concern that she’d be able to see my password to confirm that it was correct.
It’s good that you’re making sure I’m me before you potentially delete my only copy of precious code and data, but that’s not the right way to go about it.
Yahoo – the account deletion process is fine (great, really – nice and simple). BUT my flikr account (which I want) is tied to my yahoo account (which I don’t want) – so if I delete the yahoo account, the flikr account goes too. I might keep it, but the yahoo email address that it comes with actually gets mail in it, which I never check. So the account must go.
The Ugly
Technorati – There’s no option to delete accounts – you have to email them. But nothing on their site tells you that – I had to Google it. And when I did, I read that lots of people are finding that a listing on technorati is ruining their reputation, overloading their sites, or just plain not working for them. I think you’d rather I just read your user manual than all that, wouldn’t you? Um, and I haven’t yet had confirmation that they’ve actually done it, which I read can also be a problem …
And finally Gliffy. Who I have NOT been able to get rid of. Again, no way to delete accounts – you have to email them. However it does tell you this in the FAQ, unlike technorati, so that’s good. Unfortunately that email launched a deluge of “just tell me why?” and “are you sure?” and finally “but it’s free and you could just leave it – why don’t you do that?” emails. From a real, live person, which is I suppose a good thing – but OMG just delete the *&*^^* account please!!! To their credit, after 3 or so emails they did delete the account, and their response was really quick, which was great.
But then I got a tweet this morning apologising for the bad experience, and asking me to email them what the problem was. OMG! it’s worse than breaking up with a clingy boyfriend/girlfriend. And yoy – I aint ever going back.
Moral of the story: letting people leave can be fundamental to getting them to come back. And we all know that it’s much easier to get a return customer than a new one.
Kim.
Totally unconnected to teaching … sort of
Posted on 15 July 2011 | 1 response
I love Shakespeare, because my dad got me into it before I knew it was meant to be hard (or geeky). At age 8 you’re used to not understanding all the words, and you know how to gather the meaning from the words you *do* understand. But I never had much time for Romeo and Juliet.
However, one little insight often makes the whole subject a lot more interesting. For example …
Did you know that when Romeo and Juliet first meet, they play a word game together? They take turns making up a sonnet. This is a game like charades (come on, that’s fun, isn’t it?), and it used to be as common. Having the advantage of prior scripting makes their sonnet better than most, of course. But, still. Have a look -
(Quick primer: sonnets are 14 lines in “iambec pentameter” – which just means up-down 5 times – with some rhyming rules, as you’ll see)
Romeo:
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.[that's the first verse - Juliet knows she needs to add the next]
Juliet:
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.”Romeo:
Have not saints lips?Juliet:
Aye, lips that they must use in prayer!Romeo:
Then grant, I pray, lest hope turn to despair!Juliet:
Saints do not move, but grant, for prayer’s sake[Romeo kisses Juliet (of course - she just said he could!)]
Romeo:
And thus my lips, from sin, by thine are purged.Juliet:
Then have my lips the sin that they have took?Romeo:
Oh, sweet tresspass, sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.[he kisses her again - she kind of asked him to!]
Juliet:
You kiss – by the book!
See? Can’t beat the Bard. Hey – did I just get you to read a sonnet?
By the way, that scene was from memory, so apologies if I got anything wrong … from “that’s pathetic” to “that’s *so* cool that I know it by heart”- that’s what we all want in our classes, right?
I still hate MacBeth, though
Feedback from research presentation
Posted on 18 November 2010 | No responses
Thanks to those who attended and contributed to my research presentation today (slides at www.slideshare.net/1kim).
Some of the comments:
Joanna from our Learning Skills Centre: students tell her that general study skills courses at the start of the semester do work, so questions the research that says they’re ineffective. However this may work best with more mature students.
Her belief is that the best results come from students who form groups and then help and support each other. Thanks Joanna – that’s exactly what I’d like to create online.
She also commented that information seems to be best received when from the course tutor/lecturer, as the student already respects their knowledge.
@dianefriis, our librarienne extraordinaire, points out that our library runs a lot of information literacy classes throughout the semester, which are subject-specific, and best with lecturer involvement.
@catspyjamasnz suggested the development of personal learning networks as an effective way to encourage students to help each other.
Gill in our School of Nursing told me about their online Masters students who formed a very supportive group – thanks Gill, I’ll talk to you more about what helped them do that.
It’s just so cool that EIT is filled with people who really care about helping our students succeed.
Kim.
Good comic on procrastination
Posted on 26 May 2010 | No responses
http://comics.com/zoom/321470/
Thanks @catspyjamasnz
How to do everything
Posted on 24 May 2010 | No responses
It’s Monday night, and so far all is quiet. It’s been a long time since my last real blog post because, almost a year ago, my baby girl was born. In this year of madness, I’ve needed time management skills like never before, and I’ve certainly taken them to new heights, managing to get far more done that I thought possible.
So, then, why haven’t I been writing? It’s not a lack of passion. It’s not lack of time – other mothers have written several books during nap times.
So what is it?
I simply decided that, for a period, I wanted to do other things. I don’t have to do everything. In fact, I can’t possibly do everything I want to; at least, not all right now. So it’s very important to choose what I DO want to do with my time, right now. There will be other times when I can do other things, but right now there are only 24 hours in the day, and it’s up to me what I do with them.
I read a wonderful affirmation recently: “I have all the time in the world”. It’s true. I have all the time there is: it’s up to me to choose what best to do with it.
Quote for the day
Posted on 2 January 2010 | No responses
Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
- author unknown.
The value of Twitter
Posted on 25 October 2009 | No responses
See: Twitter really DOES have its uses in the business world:
How a student got great grades by getting organised
Posted on 24 May 2009 | No responses
A great post from Colin over at Mac Samurai, about how he went from failing all his courses to straight A’s.
I’ve always believed that anyone can get straight As – they just need to learn the study skills so they know what they need to do, then put enough time aside to do it.
Some people are taught the right study skills in high school, which gives then a head start; some people have to learn for themselves when they hit uni – but they can be learnt, and fairly easily, too.
Colin used the GTD system to manage the time side – I use GTD too and love it – but any time management system that works for you (as long as it really does work for you) is fine.
How can you tell if your time management is working for you? Easy: are you getting the things that matter to you done? If so, cool. If something’s slipping – work, health, assignments, quality time with family, life goals – then it needs tweaking.
Are you having bad dreams yet?
Posted on 19 March 2009 | No responses
Click to view original. Source: http://xkcd.com/557/
I don’t know about you, but when I have this dream, it’s usually a sign I’m procrastinating on something I know I need to get doing
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