Emergency services want to expand their ability to locate at-risk people such as missing trampers or kidnap victims by tracking their cellphones.
Currently people can only be searched for using GPS if they make a 111 call, but the changes would allow anyone in harm's way to be tracked.
Privacy Commissioner John Edwards, who is proposing the change, told RNZ reporter Mackenzie Smith he supports it as long as it's regulated because there is the potential for misuse.
A public consultation runs until the end of February.
