New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Services is evaluating the “potential risks and security concerns” of a Chinese intelligence firm’s database that has profiles on hundreds of influential Kiwis.

Spy chief Rebecca Kitteridge issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon saying the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) had obtained the database, details of which have been published by Stuff.

The “Overseas Key Individuals Database” was collated by Zhenhua Data, a Chinese intelligence firm that has been linked to Beijing’s intelligence apparatus, and is said to include the details of more than 2 million people across the world, largely gained through publicly available records.

Stuff has gained access to the database and confirmed more than 730 New Zealanders have been profiled, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s mother Laurell, father Ross and sister Louise, Cabinet ministers, former prime minister Sir John Key’s son Max, and sportswoman Barbara Kendall.

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“While we are still assessing the information, at this stage we believe the information is primarily drawn from publicly accessible sources such as social media and news reporting,” said Kitteridge, the director-general of security.

“We know that different organisations compile information of this nature from publicly accessible sources for a range of purposes, ranging from private companies wanting to carry out marketing or research at one end of the spectrum, through to governments seeking to influence public discussion or gather intelligence in other countries.”

The SIS would review the data, of which New Zealanders formed a small part, for potential risks and security concerns, the statement read.

“I understand people may be unaware their information could be gathered up in this way ... This is a timely reminder to everyone to check the security settings on their social media accounts and review the amount of information they are sharing on the internet,” Kitteridge said.

Zhenhua Data described online as an open source data intelligence focused on “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” and spoke of selling services to “party, government and military”.

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Its database was to American academic Associate Professor Chris Balding, an expert on China, who then passed the material to Canberra-based cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0.

The Canberra firm’s co-founder, Robert Potter, told Stuff Zhenhua claimed to be partnered with numerous companies that “are reasonably prominent in the intelligence and military contracting space in China”.

The profiling of New Zealand politicians in the database has raised the spectre of possible foreign interference in politics on the campaign trail.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, in Tauranga on Wednesday campaigning for his party, NZ First, said he was not concerned about the collation of the database itself.

Peters’ daughter, Brittany, was among a handful of his family members named on the list.

"I don't care what information they've got on me, but I do care when families can be manipulated ... It's what they are going to use with the information, and how they're going to use it,” he said.

"It's going to be used to gain outcomes, in circumstances where, if that sort of pressure wasn't applied, the outcome would be different.”

Asked about the possibility the information was being collated for political interference purposes, Peters said “it’s already happening”.

Peters said he had not spoken his Chinese counterpart about this, or asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to seek an explanation about the database.

"I'm not going to stop the world and ring our Beijing office and start saying, 'Do something about this'. Our job is to be careful and aware that this is happening,” he said.

National Party leader Judith Collins said she was expecting a briefing on national security issues “pretty soon” from the security agencies.

"It sounds like someone’s on some kind of trawling expedition, I think that’s all I could say on it,” she said.

The database seen by Stuff equates to roughly 10 per cent of the total database the company had collated, as much was corrupted and irretrievable when obtained by Internet 2.0.

Zhenhua Data has not responded to a request for comment, nor has the Chinese Embassy.