Privacy statement

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

• apply for employment with us
• correspond with us directly, whether in person, by letter, phone, text, email, instant messages or other means of electronic communication
• complete and submit forms we provide for applications for consents, licences, approvals, permits or other authorisations, or for the use of any of our services or facilities, including signing up for and using our online services and applications
• prepare and submit a written submission, request or other feedback in relation to applications for consents, licences, approvals, permits, or other authorisations, or in relation to any form of draft or proposed plan, policy, bylaw or other document
• use any of our services or facilities
• subscribe to any of our newsletters or update service
• follow or post comments in response to our social media or other facilities such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.

We may use the information we hold about you:

• to provide you with services or facilities that you have requested
• to respond to correspondence or to provide you with information that you have requested
• to provide you information about our services or facilities that may be of interest to you
• to comply with relevant laws and regulations
• for any specific purpose which we notify you of at the time your personal information is collected
• for assessment, statistical analysis or research and development purposes so that we can review, develop and improve the services we offer
• to provide ‘aggregated’ statistical information to regulators and reputable third parties (this information will not allow anyone to be personally identified).

We may disclose personal information about you to:

• any person engaged by Wellington Water 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, or in the course of legal proceedings or other investigations
• any person you authorise us to disclose your personal information to.

We take reasonable steps to ensure personal information is:

• protected against loss, damage, misuse and unauthorised access. We restrict access to personal information to those individuals who need access to this information in order to assist us in performing our duties and obligations
• accurate, up to date, complete and relevant.

We may retain all personal information that we collect (on both our active systems and our archive systems), for as long as administratively necessary, in accordance with Wellington Water’s Information Retention and Disposal schedule.

The Public Records Act 2005 requires us to retain “protected records” indefinitely. In some circumstances, your personal information may be included within a protected record.

You have the right to access your information under the Privacy Act 2020 if you are an individual, or under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 if you are a company or other corporate entity. You can also ask us to amend any information held about you that is incorrect.