Timaru District Council respects and protects the privacy of our website users.

Purpose

This policy sets out our approach to the privacy of personal information and is based on the principles expressed through the Privacy Act 2020.

Collection and Use of Personal Information

Timaru District Council will only collect information from you that you volunteer. This information is required for lawful purposes used in the functioning of the Council. We will hold your personal information in accordance with the requirements set out in the Privacy Act 2020. In particular:

• your personal information will only be used for the purposes for which it is collected
• it will be retained only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which the information was collected (including any time that we are required by law to retain such information).
• we will not release your personal information to any third party except where required to, permitted to, by law, where you have authorised us to do so or where disclosure is connected to the purpose for which the information was collected.
• any information we collect will not be used in ways that you have not consented to.

For more detailed information about the Privacy Act you can refer to the Privacy Commissioner's Guide to the Privacy Act 2020. If you are concerned that the Council may have breached the Privacy Act or if you are not sure of our obligations, you can contact the Privacy Commissioner. Privacy Hotline: 0800 803 909.

Privacy Commission website

How Timaru District Council Uses Your Information

Timaru District Council may use your information:

1. To provide you with personalised content, services or facilities – including those our Council Controlled Organisations provide;
2. To process and respond to inquiries;
3. For the purposes for which you provided the information.
4. To comply with relevant laws and regulations
5. For any specific purpose that we notify you of at the time your personal information was collected.

Storage of Personal Information

We have strict security procedures covering the storage of your information in order to prevent unauthorised access and to comply with the terms of the Privacy Act 2020.

We do not sell, trade or rent your personal information to others. All data is stored behind corporate firewalls and only specific employees are able to access your personal data. TDC has in place measures to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of your personal information. Our servers are protected by reasonable physical and electronic security measures.

This means that sometimes we may ask you for proof of identity or for other personal information before we can process your enquiry further.

Access to, editing and deleting personal information

At any stage, you have the right to access and correct or update your personal information or to request not to receive communications from us. This can be done by contacting us by emailing enquiry@timdc.govt.nz or phoning 03 687 7200. It is your responsibility to ensure that personal information provided to us is accurate.

Links to Third Parties

The website may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. Timaru District Council takes no responsibility for the privacy practices of third parties. You should consult the privacy policies of each linked website in order to determine the policy that each third party adheres to.

TDC Website and Cookies

You may browse and access information contained on our website without providing personal information. This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to collect information about how you interact with our website and allow us to remember you. We use this information in order to improve and customize your browsing experience and for analytics and metrics about our visitors both on this website and other media.

This website does not use cookies to collect or store personal information such as financial transaction or bank details.

Security of web-based personal information

A secure method using TLS (transport layer security) encryption is used when accessing this website.

Website statistics

We may collect statistical information about your visit to either help us improve this site, or to determine traffic patterns and volumes.  This information is aggregated and non-personally identifying, and is viewable by our website's administrators.

IP Address

An IP address is a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you're surfing the worldwide web.  Web servers automatically identify your computer by its IP address.  We collect IP addresses for the purposes of system administration, to report aggregate information to our internal customers and to audit the use of our site.  When visitors request pages from the Council, our servers log the visitors' IP addresses.  We do not normally link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable, which means that a user's session will be logged, but the user remains anonymous to us.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

From time to time, at our discretion, we may change aspects of our Privacy Policy with or without notice to you. All changes will be posted on this page so that you are always aware of how we are handling your personal information. If you have any further questions relating to this Privacy Policy, please contact us through the website enquiry form or phoning 03 687 7200.

General Data Protection Rules (GDPR)

If you are in the European Union, you have additional rights in relation to your personal data under the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (in effect on 25 May 2018). Under the GDPR you have the right to:

• Withdraw consent. You have the right to notify the TDC that you no longer want us to process or use your personal data. You can do that by contacting TDC on 03 687 7200 or enquiry@timdc.govt.nz
• Right to data portability. You have the right to obtain a copy of any personal data stored and processed by TDC and you may direct TDC to transfer your personal data to another controller via csv format.
• Right to erasure/Right to be forgotten. You have the right to request that any of your personal data is deleted from our records. Please note that while we can delete your personal data from our current records, data may be stored in TDC inactive and archived records and will be deleted in accordance with TDC’s document management policies. In some cases, your personal data may continue to be stored in archived records of transactions or activities where TDC is required by law to retain such records.
• Right to restriction of processing. You may request that TDC restrict the processing of your personal data. This may affect your ability to use or navigate some of our customer services.

Further information and complaints

For further information about this Privacy Statement or if you think that we have breached our obligations, you may make a complaint to our Privacy Officer by writing to privacy@timdc.govt.nz

or:

• Timaru District Council – Privacy Officer
  • PO Box 522, 2 King George Place, Timaru 7910, New Zealand.
  • Phone: 03 687 7200
  • Email: enquiry@timdc.govt.nz
• You can also call the Privacy Commissioner's privacy hotline: 0800 803 909.