Privacy and security
Privacy and security policy
Public Trust is an agency for the purposes of the Privacy Act 1993 ("the Act"). We understand the need to safeguard your personal and financial information and respect your rights under the Act.
From time to time we collect, retain and use information about you that we consider will help us to operate our business and provide you with relevant products, services and information.
Personal information you provide to Public Trust
Personal information such as your name and email address is collected only when we explicitly require it, that is, when you register with Public Trust online or request information or make an appointment. When you register with Public Trust online, you will establish your own unique user identity (online ID) and password. The parts of the site that hold information personally identifying you cannot be accessed without your user identity and password.
How we use your information
Public Trust will only use the information that you provide about yourself to carry out our business. We do not sell, publish or give away your information.
Personal information is collected, used and stored only for the purposes of administering your records, complying with certain laws and regulations, processing your requests for information or services and helping us to understand your general needs and preferences so that we can provide you with enhanced services.
We may provide your information to independent auditors for the limited purposes of verifying website usage statistics. In certain circumstances, we may be obliged to disclose information to law enforcement or other government officials. For example, in connection with an investigation of fraud or any other activity that is illegal, or that may expose us to legal liability.
Your right to access and correct your information
Under the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993 you have the right to request access to the personal information that Public Trust holds about you and to request that it be corrected.
We make every effort to ensure that your personal details are up to date and accurate. You may at any time check the information we hold about you by calling 0800 371 471, emailing us at info@publictrust.co.nz or by making an enquiry at your nearest Public Trust Customer Centre.
You may also update your details through the 'Change your details' option in Public Trust Online if you have registered as a user.
Contacting you by email
We may from time to time contact you by email regarding your registration with Public Trust online. We will not divulge personal information through internet email. Internet email is not secure - Internet Service Providers or others can monitor your emails.
If you've given us permission to do so, we may also contact you from time to time by email with information on products or services that we believe will help you to achieve your personal goals. You can let us know at any time if you do not wish to receive such emails by clicking the "unsubscribe" option within the email itself. We may keep details of any exchange of emails between us, as we do for traditional correspondence. If you don't want us to communicate with you by email at all, even for operational matters relating to your business with us, please get in touch with us to ask us to remove your email address completely from your customer record.
Cookies
We may use 'cookies' to provide you with tailored information from our Public Trust website and to serve you better when you return to it.
A cookie is a small data file that the website sends to your browser which may then store it on your system for later retrieval by our website. Cookies track your movements through different websites; they do not record any other personal information about you.
Cookies are widely used on websites to help with navigation and to help personalise your experience when you visit a website. You should be able to instruct your browser not to accept cookies, or to notify you when you receive them. You do not need to accept cookies to access our services on the internet, but if you choose not to accept them some information may not be available to you.
Security
To ensure your security, please ensure you have an up-to-date web browser and your system has the latest system updates.
The internet is not a secure environment. We recommend that you should only provide confidential information within a secure environment. When using Public Trust online, or other areas of the Public Trust website where you may be asked to provide confidential information, you should ensure that your web browser has a secure session running.
Checking the security of your session
Depending on your browser, the two main ways to tell if you are in a secure session are...
- a padlock symbol is displayed, normally in the bottom right corner of the screen
- the url, in the web location address bar, starts with https, rather than http.
The most important thing for you to remember is never to let anyone else know your online ID or password. Public Trust employees will never ask for your online ID or password, and you should never enter these on any website except Public Trust online.
Digital certificate
We have a digital certificate verifying that our online site is encrypted and secure.
Privacy complaints
If you wish to complain about the way we used any of your personal information please email us at privacy@publictrust.co.nz or write to us at...
Public Trust Privacy Complaints
Private Bag 17906
Greenlane