New Zealand Blood Bank Allows Third-Party Access
New Zealand's National Testing Centre in Auckland holds blood samples from 1.9 million, or nearly half, of its citizens, and allows access to an increasing number of third parties. Few New Zealanders even know their blood samples have been stored with barcodes and personal details. In a report written in September, then-privacy commissioner Bruce Slane pushed for an "urgent" review of the storage procedures. He was "uneasy" that access to the blood was getting cheaper, easier and more frequent. There was "no legal protection for the samples against access by third parties or against future uses".
Third parties increasingly access material from blood bank DNA
The New Zealand Herald, November 26, 2003
