Last updated: 5 November 2024

The Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards (NZOTY or NZOTY Awards) and the NZOTY Awards Office is bound by the Privacy Act 2020 (Privacy Act) in relation to the handling of personal information.

This Privacy Policy sets out:

• how we collect, hold, use and share your personal information;
• how you may seek to access or correct your personal information; and
• how you can make a privacy complaint or enquiry.
  
  

This Privacy Policy will apply to you and your information from when your nomination is received by you or a third party or if you or a third party submit your application to be a judge on a judging panel. It will continue to apply throughout the life of the NZOTY Awards.

This Privacy Policy covers all our work associated with the NZOTY and all our interactions with participants and judges of the NZOTY Awards. These interactions also include using our apps and website, telephone calls, emails, communications, nomination process, judging process, events and media and promotion of NZOTY.

What is personal information?

References in this Privacy Policy to ‘personal information’ has the same meaning given in the Privacy Act. In general terms, it means information that is about you or could identify you.

What personal information do we collect?

Personal information may be collected by the NZOTY Awards Office:

• from the person who nominates you;
• directly from you or your representative;
• through independent research, news sources and/or social media; or
• from other third parties such as nominees, nominators, referees and general members of the public.
  
  

The kinds of personal information collected by the NZOTY Awards Office includes, but is not limited to:

• names;
• addresses;
• email addresses;
• contact details;
• photographs;
• moving images;
• biographical information (including date of birth and age);
• qualifications and experience;
• police checks;
• voice recordings
• any other personal information provided to the NZOTY Awards.

For what purposes does the NZOTY Awards Office collect, use and share personal information?

The NZOTY Awards Office collects, uses and shares personal information to carry out its functions and activities, which may also include working with other parties such as media, to:

• receive and consider nominations;
• conduct background and other due diligence checks including police checks;
• reference checks, including obtaining information from employers, community connections and organisations connected to the nomination;
• generally coordinate the NZOTY Awards and to provide information to judges in order to judge the nominations;
• obtain information from social media and other relevant internet sites;
• promote the NZOTY Awards campaign and gala event; and
• contribute to the NZOTY Awards gala event including any images or recordings during the event.
  
  

Personal information is also collected for the purposes of:

• historical, statistical, promotional and archival use, and in the case of biographies, photographs and moving images, for ongoing publication and rebroadcast; and
• recruitment and employment management.
  
  

We may also use contact details supplied by individuals to inform them of upcoming events, and for other promotional purposes. If an individual does not wish to receive these materials, they can notify the NZOTY Awards Office by contacting us at the address below.

Photographs and images

Photographs and moving images may be taken by or on behalf of the NZOTY Awards Office, NZOTY partners and sponsors, marketing agencies and media at events organised by the NZOTY Awards Office when promoting the NZOTY Awards regardless of when the image was taken or recorded. The images or recordings may be used by the NZOTY Awards Office solely for the purposes of, and for the life of, the NZOTY Awards, unless you notify NZOTY in writing that your image is not to be used for future promotion. Photographs and moving images taken at NZOTY events may be published on our website, made available to the media and/or the general public as well as suppliers and contractors, partners and NZOTY sponsors.

Website data collection and cookies

We store information in New Zealand, electronically and physically and we store electronic information in facilities in New Zealand and Sydney, Australia.

The NZOTY website is: nzawards.org.nz

Our website uses cookies to collect certain information when a user accesses the website, for statistical and website improvement purposes, and user authentication when you login to an online account or service. The types of data collected includes:

• the user’s device IP address;
• the user’s domain name (e.g. .com, .gov, .nz, .uk, etc);
• the date and time of the visit to the site; and
• the pages accessed and documents downloaded.
  
  

Our websites also use Google Analytics, a web analytics tool provided by Google Inc, which uses cookies and JavaScript code to anonymously track and analyse website traffic and usage. Collected data will be transmitted to and stored on Google servers located outside of New Zealand. The NZOTY Awards Office use reports provided by Google Analytics to improve website functionality. The data collected may also be used by Meta/YouTube dependent on ad campaigns.

You can set your browser so that your computer does not accept cookies, however please note this may affect your ability to use the full functionality of our websites.

How is personal information stored?

The personal information we collect from you is stored in accordance with our obligations under the Privacy Act. We take reasonable steps to ensure the security of your personal information and to do that we use third-party providers to store and process our data and ensure that our cloud-based platforms meet New Zealand privacy requirements.

Who will we share your personal information with?

The NZOTY Awards Office may share personal information for the purpose of assessing the suitability of award nominees and judges and coordinating the NZOTY Awards.

Personal information collected by the NZOTY may be shared to:

• contractors, consultants, media partners and sponsors;
• NZOTY Awards judging panels;
• event attendees and speakers
• contracted service providers (including ICT professional services providers); and
• other persons and bodies with your consent, where this is authorised by law, or it is otherwise where permitted under the Privacy Act.
  
  

How can personal information be accessed and corrected?

NZOTY Awards Office takes steps to ensure that the personal information we collect is accurate, up to date and complete. These steps include maintaining and updating personal information when we are advised by individuals that their personal information has changed, and at other times as necessary.

You have the right to ask for a copy of any personal information we hold about you, and to ask for it to be corrected if you think it is wrong. If you’d like to ask for a copy of your information, or to have it corrected, please contact us at office@nzawards.org.nz.

Access and correction requests and privacy complaints should be made in writing by contacting the NZOTY Awards Office on the details below. If you consider that your complaint was not satisfactorily resolved by the NZOTY Awards Office, you can also make a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

See Office of the Privacy Commissioner | Making a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner for further information.

How to contact us

Awards Director
Email – office@nzawards.org.nz
New Zealander of the Year Awards Office
PO Box 1158
Christchurch 8140
New Zealand