This privacy statement explains how the Hāpai Hapori branch of the Department of Internal Affairs (Department) collects, stores, uses, and shares your personal information.

It explains how to access and update your personal information, and where to go for further information.

Hāpai Hapori is committed to looking after the personal information entrusted to us to ensure members of the public, staff and the Department retain the highest level of confidence in our ability to safeguard the personal information we hold.

You can ask us for a copy of your personal information held by the Department at any time. You also have the right to ask for it to be corrected if you think it is incorrect.

To ask for copy of your personal information email us at: privacy@dia.govt.nz

You can also write to:

The Privacy Officer
Department of Internal Affairs
PO Box 805
Wellington 6140

Collection of information

All personal details submitted to the Department are handled in alignment with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020. When we say ‘personal information’, we mean identifiable information about you, relating to your:

• identity, including your name and title
• contact details, including your address, email address, and telephone numbers
• financial details, including bank account details
• technical information, including internet protocol (IP) address, browser type, and version
• profile information, including requests made by you, your feedback, and survey responses
• valid proof of identification.

We may also collect any other information provided by you in connection with, or specifically related to, your communications with us or your use of our services.

We may collect your personal information when you, or someone acting on your behalf, provides information to us directly. For example, when you:

• communicate and correspond with us, whether in person, by letter, phone, text, email, instant messages, or other means of electronic communication
• complete and submit forms for our services, such as funding applications or registering on our online system
• subscribe to our newsletter or updates
• follow or post comments in response to our social media or other facilities.

We collect information when you interact with our online grants system. This includes, but is not limited to, logging into the system and updating information within the system, such as in the organisational profile or a request form.

Purpose of collection

The Department collects personal information from people to assist with the provision of a variety of services, such as requests for funding. We only collect your personal information when it is necessary for a specific purpose connected with the services we provide. The purpose for collecting and using your information varies according to the services you are using. We collect your personal information fairly and with your consent.

How we use your information

The personal information that we collect from you, or someone acting on your behalf, may be used for any of the following purposes:

• to provide you with services that you have requested
• to positively confirm your identity, avoiding inappropriate release or use of your information
• to respond to correspondence or to provide you with information that you have requested
• to process your application for any funding request or other service for which you have applied
• to respond to your requests, enquiries, or feedback, or for customer care-related activities
• to provide you with information about our events, news, and services
• to comply with relevant laws and regulations
• for any specific purpose which we notify you of at the time your personal information is collected
• to carry out surveys to improve our business processes and operations, based on your feedback.

Disclosure of information

For general administrative and business purpose we may share your personal information with:

• any person engaged by the Department to provide products or services to you on our behalf, where your personal information is necessary for the provision of those products or services
• a third party if we are required to do so under any laws or regulations
• any person you authorise us to disclose your personal information to
• a third party contracted by the Department to provide data hosting services and who is based in countries with compatible privacy laws such as Australia or the USA. Appropriate safeguards are put in place to ensure adequate protection of information.

Storage and security

Looking after your information is our priority. We are committed to protecting your personal information and take reasonable steps to ensure it is protected against:

• loss
• damage
• misuse
• unauthorised access.

We restrict access to personal information to those individuals who need access to this information to assist us in performing our duties and obligations.

Retention and disposal of information

The Privacy Act 2020 provides that an agency only retains personal information for as long as it is required. However, we are a New Zealand Government entity and as such we are bound by the requirements of the Public Records Act 2005. Where your personal information is held as part of a Record, that information will not be erased until such time as the Disposal Authority issued by the Chief Archivist allows for it to be so. For the Department, the Public Records Act 2005 overrides the Privacy Act 2020.

There is more about information disposal authorisation on Archives New Zealand's website:

Te whakaaetanga porowhiu - Disposal authorisation

Use of information for publicity

We may collect your permission to use stories, photos, and videos for our projects and publications. You can withdraw your consent for publicity at any time or object to our use of your personal information.

Please note that once published, it may not be possible for us to remove it from all sources, but we will take it down from our controlled sites and social media. To do so, please contact us at: HapaiHapori.SocialMedia@dia.govt.nz

Agreeing to participate in Hāpai Hapori publicity is optional and does not affect consideration of any grant request, or the terms and conditions if a grant is received.

Community Matters website's use of cookies

The Department may collect statistical information about your visit to our website to help us improve it. This information does not identify individuals and makes use of cookies.

A cookie is a piece of code that creates a file on your computer to track the pages that you view on our website. We use Google Universal Analytics to collect and analyse details about the use of our website.

You may turn off cookies. Most browsers have a feature that allows the user to refuse cookies or issue a warning when cookies are being sent. Turning off cookies will not affect your ability to use the Community Matters website.

The information Google Analytics collects includes:

• the first three parts of the IP address of the device
• the pages accessed on our site and the links clicked on
• the date and time the site was visited
• the referring site (if any) through which you clicked through to this site
• the operating system (e.g., Windows 7, Mac OSX) on the device used
• the type of web browser used (e.g., Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox)
• other incidental matters such as screen resolution, and the language setting used.

If you have any questions, please email: webmaster@dia.govt.nz.

Privacy statement may change

We may update this privacy statement from time to time, for example, to reflect changes to the Privacy Act.

This statement was last updated on 13 December 2024.