The Office of the Privacy Commissioner ('OPC') released, on 27 November 2020, a blog post addressing the transition period from the Privacy Act 1993 to the Privacy Act 2020, which will come into effect on 1 December 2020. In particular, the OPC noted that the Privacy Act 1993 may still be relevant to privacy complaints about actions that occurred prior to the enactment of the Privacy Act 2020. Furthermore, the OPC outlined that, in accordance with Clause 4 of Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act 2020, any access or correction request that has not been responded to by 1 December 2020, should be processed under the Privacy Act 2020. Similarly, the OPC stated that any complaints that have not been responded to regarding matters that occurred before the commencement date will be handled under the procedures of the Privacy Act 2020. Regarding investigations, the OPC noted that it will conduct investigations with reference to the act in force at the time of the action under investigation, and that any pending proceedings at the Human Rights Review Tribunal will be continued and completed under the Privacy Act 2020. In addition, the OPC highlighted that the notifiable breach regime does not apply to a notifiable privacy breach that occurred before 1 December 2020 even the breach continues after that date.

You can read the blog post here.