Source: IAPP

During Privacy Week, New Zealand's Office of the Privacy Commissioner released its 2026 consumer survey showing that public concern has shifted from traditional privacy issues to broader social effects of data-driven technologies, especially children’s privacy, AI-assisted decision-making, facial recognition and large-scale information sharing. The top three concerns remained the same as in 2025 but increased in intensity: children's privacy and social media use (up from 67% to 71%), AI-assisted decision-making (up from 62% to 67%), and social media companies’ handling of personal information (up from 63% to 65%). The Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster characterized these topics as “firmly mainstream concerns, rather than niche ones.”

The survey also found persistent and overwhelming demand for control over personal data, with 82% in both 2025 and 2026 saying they want more say in how their information is collected and used. Concern about health information security rose sharply by 10%, which the privacy commissioner linked to recent high-profile health sector privacy breaches. Only 18% of respondents in 2026 said they were “very” or “extremely” confident that New Zealand law adequately protects personal information, and support for greater enforcement powers for the privacy commissioner continued. The results point to growing public discomfort with gaps between technological capability and regulatory oversight, note the survey and the article, and suggest privacy professionals should emphasize transparency, explainability, AI governance and organizational trustworthiness.