Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff has urged a delay of the passage of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) Amendment Bill, The New Zealand Herald reports. Though her office “has no mandate to comment on the collection and use of data by intelligence agencies,” Shroff said, “Effective oversight is required to ensure that it is collected and used appropriately, not as the tool of mass surveillance that it has the capacity to be, if unchecked.” The bill would expand the legal powers granted to New Zealand intelligence agencies. Other groups, including the Human Rights Commission, are also saying that the GCSB’s powers should be “demonstrably necessary and justified.”
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