Archives New Zealand has indefinitely removed access to its widely used online search system for its collections after restricted records containing private information became publicly visible.

Now the only way people can access Archives’ collections is by going into physical Archives offices and requesting physical copies of records.

On Friday, the Government record-keeping authority discovered that brief record titles containing private information were publicly visible. The full records were not available digitally and have never been accessible to the public.

“We take the privacy of the material we hold very seriously,” chief archivist Anahera Morehu said in a statement.

You can read more in an article by André Chumko published in the stuff.co.nz web site at https://www.stuff.co.nz/about-stuff/94800421/contact-details-for-stuffs-newsrooms-and-editors .