What does it mean when information has been redacted?

Organisations might redact some information from your records

Redaction is when information is removed, or details are hidden before you can access it.

When an organisation says they need to ‘assess’ your records, what they usually mean is they need to decide if any information needs to be redacted. 

Information may need to be redacted if it is about other people

Under the Privacy Act, you are only allowed to see information that is about you. This is to protect other people’s privacy.  

For example, if a record has information about both you and your whānau, the organisation may redact information that involves your whānau.

However, you may be able to access the records of someone else if you have their written permission to act on their behalf.

Some organisations keep records about whānau, not individual people

This means that information about you may be mixed heavily with information about your whānau. If the information about your whānau needs to be removed, the records you receive may be very heavily redacted.  

Information must be redacted from your records if it is legally privileged

Organisations might have to redact information because it is ‘legally privileged.’

Information may be legally privileged if it:

• is communication between the organisation’s staff and lawyers
• was created mainly to prepare for an upcoming court case.

Adoption information may be redacted if you had a closed adoption  

If you were adopted under a closed adoption, you need to request a copy of your pre-adoption birth certificate to access information about your birth parents. You need to be aged at least 20 years to do this. Learn how to request your pre-adoptive birth certificate.

If you were adopted under a closed adoption before 1 March 1986, your birth parents may have placed a ‘veto’ on their information. They can renew the veto every ten years. 

If your birth parents placed a veto on their information, they will not be included in your original birth certificate.

If you had a child adopted out, once the child turns 19 years old, they have the right to place a veto on their own information – which means their birth parents would not be able to get information about them.

Organisations redact information in different ways  

For example, for digital and paper documents different organisations might:

• black out information
• insert grey boxes with red text that tells you which part of the Privacy Act or Official Information Act (OIA) the information was redacted under (for example “s 9(2)(a) OIA” refers to section 9(2)(a) of the OIA act)
• include an explanation of why the information was removed.

Below are some examples of redacted documents.