Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to Hamilton City Council. This Privacy Statement covers our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as well as our obligations and your rights as set out in the Privacy Act 2020.

In this Privacy Statement, the Council is referred to as “we”, “our” or “us”. We may​ change this Privacy Statement from time to time. The most current version will be available online.

The personal information we collect may include your name, date of birth, address or area you live in, email address, telephone numbers, age, gender, household arrangement, prior criminal convictions, and pictures or video footage of you. It may also include information on your use of our services or facilities and any other information provided by you or through your communications with us.​

• We may collect personal information about you when you, or someone authorised to act on your behalf, provides information to us directly. For example, when you:
  
  • ​apply for employment with us;
  • correspond with us, whether in person, by letter, phone, text, email, instant messages or other means of electronic communication, including in relation to any payment you make to us;
  • complete and submit forms we provide for applications for consents, licences, approvals, permits, funding or other authorisations;
  • use of any of our services or facilities, including signing up for and using our online services and apps, such as our online payment services;
  • submit a written submission, request or other feedback in relation to applications for consents, licences, approvals, permits, funding or other authorisations, or in relation to any form of draft or proposed plan, policy, bylaw or other document;
  • subscribe to any of our newsletter or update services; or
  • follow or post comments in response to our social media or other facilities such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
• We may keep a record of any information that you acquire from us.
• 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.
• We may collect personal information about you from other organisations or persons, such as:
  
  • Our related organisations including Council Controlled Organisations
  • Our suppliers which include organisations such as:
    • Government organisations such as Land Information New Zealand and the New Zealand Police;
    • QV;
    • Solicitors/conveyancers;
    • Our website hosting or internet service providers;
    • Consultation providers (e.g. for surveys)
    • Credit reporting agencies, ​​and other organisations and persons where you have expressly authorised them to provide us with information.

When you visit one of our websites, we may use technology solutions such as “cookies” to provide you with better access to tailored information and services on the websites and to better serve you when you return to them. Our internet servers 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.

​CCTV

“Closed Circuit Television” (CCTV) capturing both sound and footage, is used in particular areas to monitor passenger and traffic movements, secure Council facilities such as libraries and recreation centres, 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 within the city. CCTV footage will only be viewed by authorised staff and representatives from public law enforcement agencies (e.g. the NZ Police) 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, or in relation to any legal proceedings.

Body-worn cameras 

Cameras are worn by our parking wardens, animal control officers and City Safety officers as a deterrent to anti-social behaviour towards them and to provide a clear record of events if an altercation occurs. Our staff operate the cameras continuously while they are on duty in public places. You will be advised if a staff member is recording you. Footage from cameras may be used as part of any reported or suspected investigations, or in relation to any legal proceedings.

Drones

We use drones to support project work. This includes conducting condition assessments of our building assets for health and safety purposes, undertake surveys of our property and capture other property work under development. If we fly over private property for the purpose of survey works, we do so only with the relevant land owner’s consent. We do not use any footage of privately-owned properties without this consent.​

If any drone footage identifies an individual, privacy enhancing technology is used to distort that individual’s identity.

Our use of drones is conducted in accordance with Civil Aviation Authority’s rules and guidance, and data is processed in accordance with the Council’s Surveillance Camera Management Policy.

Live streaming of Council meetings and photo/video footage at civic events 

In the interests of making our decision-making process transparent and accessible, 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 public forum. The footage will be publicly available and can be accessed from our website.​

We may also take photos or video footage at civic events in Hamilton (e.g. citizenship ceremonies and other public or community events that we manage) for internal or external publications. Signage on display or other communication at an event will let you know if photography or filming will be taking place. If you do not want to be included in any photos or video footage, please talk to one of our staff members present at the event.

The personal information that we collect from you, or someone authorised to act on your behalf, may be used by us 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 positively confirm your identity. This is to avoid inappropriate release or use of your information.
• To respond to correspondence or to provide you with information or services that you have requested, including in relation to any submission you have made to us.
• To process your application for any consent, licence, approval, permit or other authorisation for which you have applied.
• To process your application to use or to register for any of our services or facilities, including our online services.
• To manage your membership or use of any of our services or facilities.
• To process payments received, or made, by us.
• To respond to your requests, enquiries or feedback, or for customer care related activities; including communicating to other persons you have authorised us to deal with on your behalf.
• To seek your feedback on our services or facilities you have used. This will help us better understand who is using our services and facilities and how these can be improved. You can contact us if you don’t want to be included in these types of surveys.
• To provide you with information about our events, news, services or facilities, or the events, news, services or facilities of our Council Controlled Organisations, that we consider may be of interest to you.
• To comply with relevant laws and regulations, including the storage of information on public registers (e.g. Rating Information Database). You may have the right to request that your information is not disclosed on a public register – please contact us to enquire.
• To carry out activities connected with the running of our business or operations such as personnel training, testing and maintenance of computer and other systems or processes, or ensuring the information we hold about you is consistent across the organisation.
• For any specific purpose which we notify you of at the time your personal information is collected.
• For general administrative and business purposes.

We may disclose personal information about you to:

• Any person or organisation we use to provide products or services to you on our behalf, where your personal information is necessary for the provision of those products or services.
• Our agents, service providers (including website hosting providers) and any other third parties to the extent this is necessary to make our services and facilities available to you, or in connection with any of the purposes set out in this statement. We will only provide such third parties the relevant information required for the provision of the services, and the third parties are prohibited from using such personal information for any other purpose.
• Council Controlled Organisations, in order to assist with the functions and services that they provide.
• A third party if we are required to do so under any legislation, or in the course of legal proceedings or other investigations. This may include:
  
  • sharing footage from our CCTV or other surveillance cameras with the New Zealand Police or other public-sector agencies where criminal activity is reported or is the subject of an investigation or court proceedings;
  • governmental organisations, such as Inland Revenue Department or Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment; or
  • a debt collector agency to recover overdue materials or charges.
• Any person to whom you authorise us to disclose your personal information.
• Any person, if that information is publicly available. For example, information held on property files or our Rating Information Database, or  livestream footage of Council and Committee meetings.
• Elected members and the public when you make a submission or petition to the Council. Submissions may be made available in full (including the submitter’s name and demographic information) on our website and at our main office.

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. Third party access to our systems and data is restricted to approved contractors only, and is reviewed through our internal and external audit programmes.
• accurate, up to date, complete, relevant, and not misleading.

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 Council’s Records Management Policy and relevant legislation.

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 or long-term plans, and district planning instruments.

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 info@hcc.govt.nz or otherwise contacting us, at the addresses provided below.

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 info@hcc.govt.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.

When publishing public submissions online and in Council documents, Hamilton City Council can choose to redact words and/or sentences that include:

• ​offensive or threatening language or remarks, including swear words or words in breach of legislation
• any information that identifies people, including Hamilton City Council team members
• ​personal contact details.

Hamilton City Council may, at its discretion, redact and paraphrase an entire submission if it feels the content is not relevant and/or breaches any of these guidelines.

Hamilton City Council Privacy Officer
Email address: info@hcc.govt.nz
Postal Address: Private Bag 3010, Hamilton, 3240, New Zealand​