Wellington lawyer John Edwards will replace Marie Shroff as the New Zealand's third Privacy Commissioner.

GCSB head Ian Fletcher yesterday acknowledged there was no protection of New Zealanders' data stored in servers overseas from spy agencies.

The head of the GCSB spy agency Ian Fletcher has given a public assurance there was no large scale collection of New Zealanders' data by the US National Security Agency..

Prime Minister John Key sought an assurance from the GCSB director that the spy agency hadn't been involved in collecting metadata from Kiwis - and was given it.

Australia's eavesdropping agency was prepared to share information on individual citizens to intelligence partners.

It is not a matter of if but when Snowden makes damaging revelations about New Zealand's role in the 5 Eyes network, writes Paul Buchanan.

The UN General Assembly's human rights committee unanimously adopted a resolution sponsored by Brazil and Germany to protect the right to privacy against unlawful surveillance.

Australian Prime Minister's troubles compounded by revelations that President Yudhoyono's calls were among those spied on.

The second half of the Government's rejig of spying laws passed its third reading yesterday.

The National Security Agency operates in close co-operation with four other English-speaking countries - Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - sharing raw intelligence, funding, technical systems and personnel.

The diplomatic fallout from continuing disclosures about America's vast global spy network has begun descending on Australia after revelations that its foreign embassies are being used to intercept sensitive communications.

A USB stick with sensitive information about 1200 clients of a life insurance company has been stolen from an employee's car.

New claims have emerged over the extent of United States intelligence agencies' monitoring of the mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Europe's leaders have turned their wrath on the United States, condemning as unacceptable the alleged "out of control" spying on citizens and governments.

Barack Obama has spoken to France's President Francois Hollande as a row rages over claims that a US spy agency eavesdropped on millions of phone calls of French citizens.

Vodafone has sent some of its staff a warning about delving into records after the Herald's hunt for the sender of a threatening text to Bevan Chuang.

Internet giants' plea for exemption fails to convince Communications Minister.

The Government has backed down over a clause in a controversial spying bill which could have seen companies like Microsoft banned from offering services in NZ.

Facebook is getting rid of a privacy feature that lets users limit who can find them on the social network.

Almost 100,000 Kiwis have had personal details accidentally released under National, says Labour leader.

Millions of pieces of private information about New Zealanders are being shared between state departments - and that's set to be increased, a Herald investigation finds.

Over 30 new agreements are being explored between government agencies to share information about hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders.

Technology such as smart phones has led to spending more time working and increasingly taking work home, a survey has shown.