Privacy policy
Your privacy is important to us, and we have a Privacy Policy that governs our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information.
We stick to the principles and definitions of the Privacy Act 2020, and we’re committed to acting in accordance with our obligations and your rights as set out in Act.
There are 13 Information Privacy Principles at the core of the Privacy Act. These principles set out how agencies like us are to:
collect personal information
store personal information
provide access to and correct personal information
use and disclose personal information
only keep personal information for as long as necessary and
use unique identifiers).
The Trust will adhere to the principles of the Privacy Act. You can read more about the principles here.
What kind of personal information do we collect?
The personal information we collect may include your name, date of birth, addresses, email address, telephone numbers, gender, information on your use of our services or facilities and any other information provided by you in connection with, or specifically related to your communications with us or, your use of our services or facilities.
Collecting your information
This is how we may collect personal information about you.
a) 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 housing with us
apply for employment with us
correspond with us, 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 housing or other authorisations or for the use of any of our services or facilities, including signing up for and using our online services
use any of our services or facilities
subscribe to any of our newsletter or update services, and/or
follow or post comments in response to our social media or other facilities such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
b) We may keep a record of any information that you acquire from us.
c) We may monitor and record phone calls made to or by us for quality control or staff training purposes. If a call you make to us, or that we may make to you, is to be monitored and recorded, you will be informed of this at the time of the call.
d) We may collect personal information about you from other organisations, entities or persons, such as:
Ministry of Social Development
Support agencies, and
The New Zealand Police, credit reporting agencies and other organisations, entities and persons where you have expressly authorised them to provide us with information.
e) When you visit our website, we may use technology solutions such as “cookies” to provide you with better access to tailored information and services on the website and to better serve you when you return to them.
f) Our internet service providers may also make a record of your visit and log information for statistical purposes. This information is only analysed on a bulk basis for broad demographic content. Individual use is not analysed. We do not attempt to identify users or their browsing activities unless they choose to give us personal information while using our website.
g) “Closed Circuit Television” (CCTV) may be used in housing complexes to help prevent crime and anti-social behaviour and to promote community safety. If CCTV is used, the recordings are held only for a minimal period.
h) Signage advising of CCTV equipment will give notice of areas covered by such equipment. CCTV footage will only be viewed by authorised people in accordance with the purpose noted above or for the purposes of regularly checking the system is operational. No attempt is made to identify individuals from CCTV footage except in relation to a reported or suspected incident requiring investigation.
i) CCTV footage in Offices/Premises is used in the office and in some premises as a deterrent to anti-social behaviour.
Using your information
The personal information we collect from you or someone acting on your behalf may be used for any of the following purposes:
a) To provide you with services or facilities, including:
those you have requested and
assisting to provide such services or facilities to you.
b) To positively confirm your identity. This is to avoid inappropriate release or use of your information.
c) To respond to correspondence or to provide you with information that you have requested.
d) To process your application for housing for which you have applied.
e) To process your application to use or to register for any of our services or facilities.
f) To process payments received by, or made by the Trust.
g) To respond to your requests, enquiries or feedback, or for customer care related activities.
h) To provide you with information about our events, news, services or facilities, or the events, news, services or facilities of the Trust that we consider may be of interest to you.
i) To comply with relevant laws and regulations.
j) 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.
k) For any specific purpose, which we notify you of at the time your personal information is collected.
l) For general administrative and business purposes.
Sharing your information
We may disclose personal information about you to:
a) Any person engaged by the Trust to provide products or services to you on our behalf, where your personal information is necessary for the provision of those products or services.
b) The Trust, in order to assist with the functions and services that we provide.
c) 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. 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 feeds from certain CCTV cameras from time to time, for law enforcement, investigation and emergency response purposes.
d) Any person you authorise us to disclose your personal information to.
e) Any person, if that information is held in a public register, e.g. information held on property files or the rating information database.
What if you do not provide us with the personal information requested?
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.
In some circumstances, failure to provide information when requested may be unlawful, and/ or result in legal consequences. These circumstances and the potential consequences will be explained to you when your personal information is collected.
Security and accuracy
We take reasonable steps to ensure personal information is:
a) 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
b) accurate, up to date, complete, relevant, and not misleading.
How long we hold personal information
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 the Trust’s information retention and disposal schedule.
Accessing and correcting your personal information
If you have any queries about our privacy policy, you want to request confirmation we hold any personal information about you, or you want to request access to your personal information, please contact us:
If you have any queries about our privacy policy, you want to request confirmation we hold any personal information about you, or you want to request access to your personal information, please contact us:
Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust Privacy Officer
Email address: admin@ocht.org.nz
Postal Address: PO Box 53, Christchurch 8140
Once we have verified your identity we will provide you with such confirmation and access unless one of the grounds for refusal to do so under the Privacy Act applies.
You may request that the personal information we hold about you be corrected by emailing us at admin@ochtorg.nz.
If we agree that your personal information is to be corrected, we will provide you with an amended record of your personal information if requested.
Your rights of access to and correction of any personal information we hold about you are subject to the procedures set out in the Privacy Act.
For further information contact
Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust Privacy Officer
Email address: admin@ocht.org.nz
Postal Address: PO Box 53, Christchurch 8140
Concerns?
If you are not satisfied with our response to your concern, you can contact the Privacy Commissioner:
Officer of the Privacy Commissioner
PO Box 10094
Wellington 6143
Phone 0800 803 909
Fax 04 474 7590
Email enquiries@privacy.org.nz
You can find more information on www.privacy.org.nz
The Office of the Ombudsman handles complaints and investigates the administrative conduct of state sector agencies, including in relation to official information requests.