Purpose
This policy is to set out the measures Onions New Zealand Inc takes to ensure privacy and confidentiality of information.
Personal information
Personal information is information about an identifiable individual (a natural person) and includes, in relation to Onions New Zealand Inc’s role:
- information relating to Membership of Onions New Zealand Inc
- home addresses
- nature of business
- email address
- contact phone numbers
- country of origin
Why do we collect and use personal information?
We collect and use personal information for the purpose of providing services either requested or authorised, and for purposes specified at the point of collection.
We may also collect and use personal information to:
- respond to any questions or correspondence
- eliminate the need to repeatedly provide us with the same information
- send information about a service we are providing
- verify identity
- inform policy settings
From time-to-time the information we collect may also be used for training and research purposes to improve our services.
Access and correction
You have access to your personal information that we hold unless an exception in the Levy Order applies. You can access some information, such as in our membership database.
If your information is wrong, please ask us to correct it.
- For your contact details in the membership database, you can update those by contacting info@onionsnz.com
- If you are on an Onions New Zealand Inc mailing list and wish to be removed, please contact the sender of the email.
How do we collect your personal information?
When you interact with Onions New Zealand Inc we will collect information directly from you by any of the following:
- face-to-face
- telephone
- email
- writing to us
- making an application for our services or completing forms on our websites.
If you are a grower connected to a collection agent, some of your personal information is accessible by Onions New Zealand Inc from the collection agent organisation. This accessibility enables Onions New Zealand Inc to undertake its statutory functions and provide services to you.
Use and disclosure of personal information
Onions New Zealand Inc may use and disclose your personal information for the purposes for which you provided it, or with your permission.
There are exceptions such as those under Principles 10 and 11 of the Privacy Act or under other laws.
View legislation
Common exceptions are:
- following up your complaints or queries, or other directly related purposes
- statistical or research purposes where you are not identified
- avoiding prejudice to the maintenance of the law (including in relation to offences)
- where we are required by a law, a Court, or a Tribunal.
Where Onions New Zealand Inc has called for public submissions on a matter, such as where Onions New Zealand Inc issues public consultation documents on rule changes, the consultation document will set out publication information for the submissions. If the document does not set out publication information, access to your submission will be governed by the Official Information Act.
Onions New Zealand Inc may use your information to contact you to ask for feedback on the services it has provided to you. We welcome your feedback. It is your choice as to whether you wish to provide feedback.
Security of personal information
We will take all reasonable precautions to protect personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, or disclosure.
Some of the ways we protect your personal information include:
- external and internal premises security
- storing your information on access-controlled systems
- restricting access to your personal information to staff who need it to perform their day-to-day functions
- ongoing auditing of our use of personal information, and
- providing training on the Privacy Act to our staff.
Storage and retention of personal information
We use third party providers to store and process our information, including the use of electronic analytical tools for processing, to inform decision making, and to improve the ways in which we support our customers. This means that some personal information we hold may be transferred to, or accessed from, countries other than New Zealand.
Where personal information needs to be stored with or disclosed to organisations in other countries Onions New Zealand Inc will comply with Privacy Principle 12. This involves seeking to ensure that there will be similar protections to those in the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020. However, where Onions New Zealand Inc is unable to ensure this, Onions New Zealand Inc will ensure the individual whose information is being stored or disclosed is aware of the potential risk by informing them that their information may not be given the same protection. If the individual is not happy with that offshore storage or disclosure the individual will be able to withdraw from being provided the service involved.
The information is kept until it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was held.
Personal information and the Onions New Zealand Inc website
You may access and browse our website https://www.newzealandonions.com/ without providing any personal information.
In some places on the website, you can voluntarily provide personal information, such as emailing an enquiry to us or registering or logging into Onions New Zealand Inc’s secure services (such as the Grower and Exporter Member Portal).
If you choose not to provide the required information, you will not be able to access the secure services.
Important information
For any further explanations of what we do with your information, check the parts of the website where you can provide us with that information, or contact us info@onionsnz.com.
For information on the privacy laws of New Zealand, please visit the Privacy Commissioner’s website.
If you wish to make a complaint about Onions New Zealand Inc gathering or use of your personal information please email us on info@onionsnz.com.
Statistical information - websites
We collect non-identifying statistical information about all visits to our websites.
These statistics allow us to assess the number of visitors to different sections of our website, identify information of interest, monitor system performance, and help us make the website more useful to visitors.
Use of Cookies
We use 'cookies' to collect information about you and your activity across our site. A cookie is a small piece of data that our website stores on your computer, and accesses each time you visit, so we can understand how you use our site. This helps us serve you content based on preferences you have specified.
Refer to the Privacy Act for details of the Privacy Principles