Manage your privacy and security

Spark Transparency Reports

We greatly value the trust New Zealanders place in Spark and we work hard to protect your personal information and keep it private.

Like all New Zealand organisations, including telecommunications companies, there are times when we need to assist the New Zealand government and law enforcement agencies. Sometimes, this means sharing customer information with them. This assistance is provided for specific reasons. For example, to help agencies carry out their statutory duties, investigate crimes and fraud or find missing persons.

Sharing information with government agencies is not something we do lightly. We take a strict approach to how we assess and manage these requests to protect the privacy of our customers. For example, we only voluntarily share your personal information if you’ve said we can or in exceptional circumstances such as where there’s an immediate threat to public health, safety or lives. Other than that, we only share personal information with government agencies when we’re legally compelled to.

We want to be open and upfront about this process. That’s why we publish these reports.

If you have questions about these reports, please email privacy@spark.co.nz

What’s included in these reports

These reports cover requests by New Zealand government agencies, and other agencies, for Spark customers’ personal information. They also show instances where we provided all, some or none of the information requested and the agencies that most of the requests came from.

Information provided can include SIM and device information, call logs, text logs and content, browsing information, voicemail, account notes and billing information. It can also include location information from cell towers.

What’s not included

The reports don’t include requests made under the Intelligence and Security Act 2017. The reports also exclude instances where information has been shared with emergency services providers through the Police TESA database or the Emergency Caller Location Information (ECLI) initiative.

Find out more about the TESA database

Find out more about ECLI

How we manage information requests from agencies

Our specialist Call Investigations Centre (CIC) manages requests for personal information from the New Zealand government and other agencies, excluding requests made under the Intelligence and Security Act 2017.

When they receive a request, the CIC check whether it has been made according to the relevant legal process. For example, some types of requests can only be made by certain people, certain agencies or using certain forms. Some requests require a New Zealand court order. We only voluntarily share your personal information if you’ve said we can or in exceptional circumstances such as where there’s an immediate threat to public health, safety or lives. Other than that, we only share personal information with agencies when the law says we have to and the correct processes have been followed.

Our CIC team works with Spark’s legal and privacy teams to ensure we’re doing what we need to under law, while maintaining high standards for protecting our customers’ privacy.

When we provide all, some or none of the information.

When we have the information requested, and there’s no doubt that we legally must provide it, then we’ll fulfil the request.

Where we supply either none of the information, or only some of it, this may be because we don’t have the information requested, or because we don’t have enough information from the government agency to identify the customer with confidence. Occasionally, we challenge a request because we don’t believe there’s a reasonable legal basis for it.

Reports by half-year

2023: July - December

Spark received two formal notices from the New Zealand Commerce Commission (NZCC) under the Commerce Act 1986. These notices required Spark to provide NZCC with information about our broadband customer base as of 30 June 2023 for its Rural Connectivity Study.

The information included every broadband customer’s connection location, plan, whether they also have a Spark landline and/or mobile plan, and the amount of data and voice minutes they used each month for the twelve months ending 30 June 2023. Spark was legally compelled to fulfil these requests.

Spark’s full transparency report for July - December 2023 will be published in early 2024.