This website is owned and operated by Stuff Limited. In this policy, "us", "we" or "our" means Stuff Limited and its related bodies corporate.

Every day Kiwis like you visit our websites, engage with our apps and purchase services from us. We want to help you understand the data that we collect from you and how we use it, and how you can control this information while using our services.

Some key things to know

1. This privacy policy describes how Stuff Limited and its affiliates, including Neighbourly Limited, (we, us or our) collect and use data, including personal information when you use our services, such as:

  • subscribing to a Newspaper or Magazine;
  • our websites, like stuff.co.nz, neighbourly.co.nz and mags4gifts.co.nz;
  • our apps, like the Stuff app and the Play Stuff app;
  • our email newsletters;
  • becoming a Stuff or Neighbourly Member and posting in the comments section on Stuff/Neighbourly;
  • where you are a participant of an event managed by Stuff Events;
  • where you purchase advertising from us or place a Family Notice; and
  • anywhere we gather information from you and refer you to this privacy policy.

2. We aim to explain the rights and choices you have in relation to personal information that we collect and process about you.

3. Information you post on our website will be publically available for use by us and any third party using our services.

4. Our Cookies Policy provides more information on how we use cookies. You will find information about how you can manage your device and browser preferences, and opt-out of certain types of tracking.

Privacy law in New Zealand

Our data practices are subject to the New Zealand Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 2020 (the Privacy Act).

From time to time, when we are conducting our editorial activities, we may also handle personal information relying on the news media exemption in the Privacy Act. Where we do so, we will ensure that we comply with the New Zealand Media Council Privacy Principles.

If you require more information on the collection and use of personal information in the course of journalism, please visit the Privacy Commissioner Website at http://privacy.org.nz or the Media Council www.mediacouncil.org.nz

What data do we collect?

Data provided by you

We may collect, store and process data, including personal information provided by you when accessing or using our websites, apps and services, such as:

  1. information collected from you: personal information provided by you when you interact with us, such as when you sign up or register to use our services, when you purchase a service from us, when you are a participant at an event or promotion managed by us, information you provide to us through our service centre, customer surveys or directly to our representatives from time to time;
  2. information disclosed by you: we offer the Stuff or Neighbourly Members the ability to post content publicly. We and others may read, collect and use any personal information when you choose to post information on one of our websites;

Data created by using our services

We may collect, store and process data when you are using our websites, apps and services, such as:

  1. Device and location information: we may also collect anonymous data (which is not personal information) relating to your activity on our websites and mobile applications (including your IP address, your location, your operating system, your browser, your device language, the URLs of any pages you visit on our sites and apps, device identifiers, advertising identifiers, and other usage information), aggregated data. More information is detailed in our Cookies Policy and Targeting and Tracking Policy;
  2. Usage information: anonymous information collected through cookies and other tracking software. More information is detailed in our Cookies Policy and Targeting and Tracking Policy;
  3. Advertisers and other ad platforms: anonymous and inferred information provided by our advertising and marketing partners, collected via cookies , tags and other information from partners who you have consented to share that information with us.

Data from other sources

  1. Third parties: someone who has provided us with your information, such as via a gift subscription, credit reporting or law enforcement agencies, advertisers, mailing lists, recruitment agencies, vendors who provide us with address verification services, or contractors and business partners
  2. Affiliates: we may receive data from our related companies such as Neighbourly.

Stuff may combine the data received from these sources with data in our control.

How we rely on data as a business

Our websites make available news, commentary and other media content produced or curated by us. Much of this media content is made available without access charge or access restriction, made possible by online advertising that we display in conjunction with that media content. We are able to produce and make available our media content at no charge to you, only by also providing you with targeted advertising. This is a key source of revenue for us: if we could not do this we could not fund quality journalism and provide free media content. We want you to understand how we provide you with targeted advertising while being fair and responsible and respectful of your privacy. We are able to increase the value of our advertising by enabling advertisers to target groups of our users that are inferred to share interests or preferences. This might be, for example, a shared interest in bicycling, or in beach holidays. These groups are called 'audience segments'.

We sell the ability for advertisers to use particular audience segments to target advertisements to groups of our users where the users are not reasonably identifiable by the advertisers and the advertisements are intended to be relevant to inferred interests and preferences of segments of users. Because the audience segment is inferred to share a common interest or preference, the advertisement is worth more to that advertiser. Targeted advertising can occur without those advertisers at any time knowing being able to identify the individuals within that audience segment.

For more information please see our Tracking Policy here.

How do we use the data that we collect?

We use, store and process information about you for the following purposes:

1. to provide you our products and services, such as:

  • making Stuff services or products available to you;
  • arranging access to your account, and allowing you to personalise your account;
  • providing in-app features such as weather information;
  • providing you with news, information or advice about our existing and new products and services; and
  • providing customer services to you including by email, mail or telephone, and sending service-related messages (e.g. a change in our terms and conditions),

2. to provide customer support;

3. for marketing, such as:

  • to market our services and products; and
  • to market our affiliates; or partners; services and products. Even if we market services and products from our third party partners we do not sell or share personal data with such partners for their own direct marketing unless we have your consent,

4. to allow you to share content including where you make a publicly available post or comments using our services;

5. when we carry out administrative tasks, such as:

  • to manage and enhance our products and services, and to personalise and customise your experience;
  • to complete your payments and transactions;
  • to conduct competitions or promotions on behalf of Stuff and selected third parties;
  • to provide business data to third parties if you have authorised us to do so;
  • to conduct business processing functions for operation of our websites or our business;
  • for our administrative, marketing (including direct marketing), promotional, planning, product/service development, quality control and research purposes, or those of our contractors or external service providers;
  • to provide your updated personal information to our contractors or external service providers; and
  • to investigate any complaints about or made by you, or if we have reason to suspect that you are in breach of any of our terms and conditions or that you are or have been otherwise engaged in any unlawful activity; and/or

6. as required or permitted by any law (including the Privacy Act); or

7. with your consent

How do we disclose your personal information?

Your personal information will not be shared, sold, rented or disclosed other than as described in this Privacy Policy.

We may disclose your personal information to:

  • affiliates: our employees, related bodies corporate and affiliated companies for use as described in this Privacy Policy;
  • service providers: contractors or external service providers for the operation of our websites or our business, fulfilling requests by you, and otherwise provide products and services to you, including without limitation, web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, mailing houses, newsagents, couriers, payment processors, photographic analysers, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators, debt collectors, and professional advisers such as accountants, solicitors, business advisors and consultants;
  • business partners: our existing or potential agents, business partners or joint venture entities or partners;
  • sponsors: our sponsors, or promoters of any competition that we conduct or promote via our services;
  • authorised third parties: specific third parties authorised by you to receive information held by us. We do not provide your personal information to other organisations for the purposes of direct marketing unless expressly authorised by you;
  • regulatory bodies: the police, any relevant authority or enforcement body, or your Internet Service Provider or network administrator, for example, if we have reason to suspect that you have committed a breach of any of our terms and conditions, or have otherwise been engaged in any unlawful activity, and we reasonably believe that disclosure is necessary;
  • as required or permitted by any law (including the Privacy Act); or
  • with your consent.

What happens if we can't collect your personal information?

If you do not provide us with the personal information described in this policy, some or all of the following may happen:

  • we may not be able to provide you with the products or services you requested, either to the same standard, or at all (for example, if you do not register as a member of a website, you will not be able to access features or services that are reserved for members only);
  • we may not be able to provide you with information about products and services that you may want, including information about discounts sales or special promotions; or
  • we may be unable to tailor the content of our websites to your preferences and your experience of our websites may not be as enjoyable or useful.

How long will we store data?

The duration we store information varies depending on the purpose for which we collected the data. We will only hold your personal information for as long as necessary in keeping with the Privacy Act.

Stuff may retain certain user data if necessary or required by law after receiving an account deletion request or a subscription cancellation, or where you no longer receive products or services from Stuff, such as to comply with our financial and tax requirements, and other legal requirements.

When we no longer require personal information, then we may delete or anonymise your data by deleting the identifying details.

Will your personal information be disclosed outside New Zealand?

Stuff Limited is a registered New Zealand company, situated in Wellington, New Zealand.

We may disclose personal information to our related bodies corporate and external service providers located overseas for some of the purposes listed above. We take reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipients of your personal information do not breach the privacy obligations relating to your personal information.

We may disclose your personal information to entities located outside of New Zealand, including the following:

  • our data hosting and Cloud-based IT service providers;
  • other external service providers located in India, the Philippines, Australia and U.S.; and
  • other third parties operating in jurisdictions including China, India, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong and the United States where you have authorised us to do so.

Security

We will take all reasonable steps to protect the personal information that we hold from misuse, loss, or unauthorised access, including by means of firewalls, password access, secure servers and encryption of credit card transactions.

If you suspect any misuse or loss of, or unauthorised access to, your personal information, please let us know immediately.

Managing personal information

You control the personal information that you share with us and the communications you receive from us. Importantly:

  • you can access and correct your data at any time;
  • for services that require an account, you can deactivate and delete your account;
  • you can contact us at privacy@stuff.co.nz for any privacy questions or concerns;
  • you can unsubscribe from any emails or newsletters (excluding service notifications) by using the "unsubscribe" function provided in the email; and
  • you can update the "push notification" settings on your mobile device by using your device settings or uninstalling the app.

1. Access and correct your personal information

Under the Privacy Act you have rights of access and correction to any personal information we hold or process about you. You can contact us at any time using the Privacy Officer contact details below to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you or request a correction to that personal information. If we do not agree that there is a reason to amend your information, then we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with our decision.

When you are logged into your Stuff or Neighbourly Member account, you can update your personal information and other account information using the account edit function at any time.

At any time, you may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us by contacting the Privacy Officer using the contact details below or by using the opt-out facilities provided in the email sent to you (e.g. an unsubscribe link).

2. Deletion

If you would like to delete your account or request that Stuff delete any other personal information we hold about you, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact details below or, where applicable, by using the account edit function provided.

If you request it, we will delete or anonymise your personal data so that it no longer identifies you, unless:

  • we are legally required to maintain certain personal data, such as to meet our legal, tax or accounting purposes;
  • where there is an unresolved issue relating to your account or services you received from us, we will retain data for as long as necessary to resolve the dispute; or
  • where you wish to continue receiving services from us.

3. Controlling the data we receive

You can control the information collected when using our online products and services by managing your browser or device settings. For more information please see our Cookies Policy and Targeting and Tracking Policy.

4. Additional information

If you believe your privacy has been breached by us, have any questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy please, contact us using the contact information below and provide details of the incident so that we can investigate it. We may contact you during the process to seek any further clarification.

We will treat your requests or complaints confidentially. Our representative will contact you within a reasonable time after receipt of your complaint to discuss your concerns and outline options regarding how they may be resolved. We will aim to ensure that your complaint is resolved in a timely and appropriate manner.

How will this policy change?

We may, from time to time, review and update this policy, including taking account of new or amended laws, new technology and/or changes to our operations. All personal information held by us will be governed by the most recently updated policy, and will always be available here. By continuing to access or use our services after those changes become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised Privacy Policy.

Contact information

Please contact our Privacy Officer at:

Privacy Officer

Stuff Limited

Post: PO Box 2595 

Wellington

Email: privacy@stuff.co.nz

Last Updated June 2020