An employee of the Environmental Science and Research agency has appeared in the Auckland District Court charged with illegally disclosing information from a DNA database.
The charge against Alexandra Cranstoun, 27, follows an investigation into an alleged breach of the ESR's National DNA Databank.
Ms Cranstoun was remanded and will appear again on 28 August.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of three years but the police prosecutor says the court is considering granting diversion.
ESR says it is the first time that any allegation of inappropriate disclosure has been made since the databank was set up in 1996.
The National DNA Databank holds individual profiles as a string of numbers which are used only for matching family connections or to help solve crimes.
ESR says external parties, including police, cannot access any information on the database.
