\u201cThis ensures AI use at Corrections occurs within an environment where we can manage privacy and security controls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Staff use of Copilot was governed by its AI policy, which was in line with guidance from the Government\u2019s chief digital officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe policy is explicit that personal information, including any identifying details, health or medical information, or details relating to people in Corrections\u2019 management, must not be entered into Copilot Chat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart said the uptake of Copilot remained \u201crelatively low\u201d with about 30% of Corrections staff engaging with the tool since it was introduced on Corrections devices in November 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cCopilot is intended to be used solely as an assistive tool to create and refine content that does not contain sensitive information. Corrections staff can only access the free Microsoft Copilot Chat feature that is part of our existing Microsoft 365 licence and is a standalone chat function, without integration into our system data.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart said the policy was clear that Copilot Chat must not be used under any circumstances to draft, structure, analyse, or generate content for reports or assessments that contain personal information. Staff may be subject to auditing, with all prompts searchable and exportable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have recently become aware of a small number of incidents where staff have used Copilot to assist with their work in a way that does not comply with our AI policy and guidance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve taken action as soon as we\u2019ve become aware of these instances and made it extremely clear that any use of Copilot outside of its approved use is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
A privacy risk assessment was undertaken where instances of inappropriate use were identified.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur leaders, particularly within Community Corrections where staff write a number of reports, are actively working to ensure proper AI use is an ongoing conversation with staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cStaff are regularly reminded of the AI policy and other relevant guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart said Corrections was \u201cactively working\u201d to ensure any ongoing use of AI was \u201csafe, secure and appropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cCorrections has an AI assurance officer, a function held by the director cybersecurity, who is accountable for guiding safe and secure adoption of AI. This includes external reporting to the Government chief digital officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cCorrections participates in the All of Government Community of Practice on AI, managed by the Government chief digital officer. We also have established the AI working group to provide formal governance of AI which includes embedding safe and ethical AI practices across the department and provide consistent advice on its safe use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Any misuse of technology was taken \u201cextremely seriously\u201d, Stewart said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are committed to protecting the privacy of the people we work with and maintaining the professional integrity of our assessments, reports, and case documentation.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of Friday, no notifications had been made to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, a Corrections spokesperson confirmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlongside our existing guidance, our privacy team are working with the relevant work groups to provide further guidance on the use of Copilot in the Community Corrections space. Any information entered into Copilot by Corrections remains within the Corrections\u2019 domain.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) said in a statement that the Privacy Act applied to the use of personal information, including through AI tools.<\/p>\n
It was the responsibility of agencies to understand the technology they use and to ensure use met privacy requirements, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCorrections has stated that its policy prohibits staff from entering personal information into Copilot Chat or using Copilot to prepare reports or assessments containing personal information.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this is correct, then privacy concerns would be limited to any cases in which Corrections staff use Copilot in breach of Corrections policy. Where Copilot is used in a way that breaches Corrections policy, OPC would expect Corrections to take appropriate action to remedy this.\u201d<\/p>\n
– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis ensures AI use at Corrections occurs within an environment where we can manage privacy and security controls.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[432,9092,9556,138,25207,9557,111,139,69,1118,15768,112462,1120,137794,6306],"class_list":["post-285828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-action","tag-against","tag-artificial","tag-business","tag-corrections","tag-intelligence","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-sherwood","tag-staffs","tag-takes","tag-unacceptable","tag-use"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}