The Privacy Commissioner has issued an urgent and special code to give authorities certainty about personal information they can share.
The issuing of the code comes after the 6.3-magnitude earthquake in Christchurch.
Commissioner Marie Shroff says the code will help emergency services and others to share personal information as necessary.
Ms Shroff says it also allows government agencies to help indentify injured people, provide medical and financial assistance to victims, get information to families and help to get international visitors home from New Zealand.
