Privacy

The personal information we collect may include your name, date of birth, address, email address, telephone numbers, and gender. It may also include information on your use of our services or facilities and any other information provided by you through your communications with us.

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

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

We may keep a record of any information you acquire from us and we may monitor and record phone calls for quality control or staff training purposes. If a call is to be monitored and recorded, you will be informed at the time of the call.

We may collect personal information about you from other organisations, entities or persons, such as:

• our related organisations, including Council Controlled Organisations
• our suppliers, which include organisations such as: - Land Information New Zealand - QV - solicitors/conveyancers - the New Zealand Police, credit reporting agencies and other organisations, entities and persons where you have expressly authorised them to provide us with information.

CCTV

Closed Circuit Television (CCTV), capturing both sound and footage, is used in particular areas to monitor passenger and traffic movements, secure facilities such as libraries and recreation centres, and monitor public places in order to help reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, and to promote community safety.

Signage indicates where CCTV equipment is operating. CCTV footage will only be viewed by authorised people in accordance with the purpose noted above, or when checking that the system is operational. No attempt will be made to identify individuals from CCTV footage except in cases of reported or suspected incidents requiring investigation.

Body-worn cameras

Cameras are worn by our parking wardens and animal control officers as a deterrent to anti-social behaviour towards them and to provide a clear record of events if an altercation occurs. The officer will only start recording if an interaction escalates and will notify those present when this occurs.

Live streaming of Council meetings

In the interests of making our decision-making process transparent and accessible, most public Council meetings are broadcast live online and then made available on our website. You will know which meetings are being filmed as there will be a sign clearly stating this before you enter into the meeting room. Most of the filming will cover elected members as they speak and debate at the meeting, however, the filming may also include shots of the public in the background and of anyone speaking at a meeting.

In some instances, your personal information may be transferred, and held, by service providers in New Zealand and overseas (for example, where it is stored using a cloud-based service).

Responses to online forms

When you respond to an online form on our site, we hold any information you have entered into these forms. This information is used to respond to issues you raise, correct information we hold, provide a service to you, or to inform decision making and is shared with Porirua City Council officers and any third-parties needed to provide a service to you.

Online submission forms for consultations

All submissions (including name, but not contact details) may be provided in their entirety to elected members and made available to the public at our office and on our website. Personal information (including contact details) will also be used for the administration of the consultation process including organising an oral submission and informing you of the outcome of the consultation.

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

• To provide you with services or facilities – including those you have requested and those our Council Controlled Organisations provide to you.
• To confirm your identity – this is to avoid inappropriate release or use of your information.
• To respond to correspondence or provide you with information you have requested.
• To process any consent, licence, approval, permit, or other authorisation for which you have applied.
• To process your application to use or register for any of our services or facilities, including our online services and to process payments received or made by the Council.
• To respond to your requests, enquiries, feedback, or for customer care related activities.
• To provide you with information about our (or our Council Controlled Organisations') events, news, services, or facilities we consider may be of interest to you.
• To comply with relevant laws and regulations.
• To carry out activities connected with the running of our business or operations such as personnel training or testing and maintenance of computer and other systems.
• For any specific purpose that we notify you of at the time your personal information is collected.
• For general administrative and business purposes.

Keeping your information secure and accurate

We take reasonable steps to make sure personal information is:

• protected against loss, damage, misuse and unauthorised access – we give restricted access to individuals who need personal information to help us perform our duties and obligations
• accurate, up to date, complete, relevant, and not misleading.

We may disclose personal information about you to:

• any person engaged by the Council to provide products or services to you on our behalf, where your personal information is necessary for the provision of those products or services
• Council Controlled Organisations, in order to assist with the functions and services they provide
• a third party, if we are required to do so under laws or regulations, or in the course of legal proceedings or other investigations. This may include sharing CCTV footage with the New Zealand Police or other public sector agencies where criminal activity is reported or suspected. The New Zealand Police may also access live feeds from certain CCTV cameras from time to time for law enforcement, investigation, and emergency response purposes
• any person you authorise us to disclose your personal information to
• any person, if that information is publicly available, eg information held on property files or the rating information database
• Councillors and the public when you make a submission in relation to bylaws, annual plans, district or regional plans, or draft or proposed policies or strategies. Submissions are made available in full (including the submitter’s name and contact details) on our website and at our main office.

If you do not provide us with all of the personal information about you that we request from you, we may not be able to adequately respond to your correspondence, process any applications you have submitted, provide the services or facilities you have requested, process payments, or otherwise deal with any requests or enquiries you have submitted.

We may retain all personal information we collect (on both our active systems and our archive systems) for as long as administratively necessary, in accordance with the Council’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, including submissions you make in relation to bylaws, annual plans, and district or regional planning instruments.

Your right to access and correct any personal information we hold about you are outlined in the Privacy Act. You may request confirmation of whether or not we hold any personal information about you, and you may request access to your personal information that we hold by emailing us at [email protected] or via the Privacy Commissioner’s 'About Me' tool. Once we have verified your identity, we will provide you with confirmation and access, unless one of the grounds for refusal set out in the Privacy Act applies.

You may request that the personal information we hold about you be corrected. If we agree, we will do so and we will also provide you with an amended record, if requested.

If you have any queries or concerns about this Privacy Statement or personal data Porirua City Council has collected, we are happy to respond or investigate. Please contact the Porirua City Council Privacy Officer by email [email protected] or by post at PO Box 50218, Porirua 5240, New Zealand.

For more detailed information about our obligations and your rights under the Privacy Act, you can refer to the Privacy Commissioner's website or call the Privacy Commissioner’s enquiry line: 0800 803 909.

This work is based on/includes WCC data, which is licensed by Wellington City Council for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

1. Purpose of collection of personal information. 
   
2. Source of personal information. 
   
3. Collection of information from subject. 
   
4. Manner of collection of personal information. 
   
5. Storage and Security of personal information. 
   
6. Access to personal information. 
   
7. Correction of personal information. 
   
8. Accuracy, etc., of personal information to be checked before use. 
   
9. Agency not to keep personal information for longer than necessary. 
   
10. Limits on use of personal information. 
    
11. Limits on disclosure of personal information. 
    
12. Disclosure outside New Zealand.
    
13. Unique identifiers. 

For an overview of the privacy principles, see the Privacy Commissioner's website A quick tour of the privacy principles here.

The Act applies to the Porirua City Council in its role as an agency. In compliance with The Act, the Porirua City Council holds certain information about ratepayers and residents of Porirua City. This information is required for lawful purposes used in the functioning of the Porirua City Council. This information is sourced in accordance with Principle 2 of The Act.

For more detailed information please refer to the Privacy Commissioner's website.

If you wish to view any personal information held by the Porirua City Council, please phone (04) 237 5089 or email [email protected].