What we do with your personal information

Why we collect personal information

We run programmes to protect and restore our species, places and heritage, and provide opportunities for people to engage with these treasures.

This includes a network of huts and tracks, managing natural heritage and historic properties, science and research, pest control and compliance and law enforcement.

More about our work

As part of our work, we need to collect personal information.

For example, we collect personal information to:

• better provide the right services to people, for example, your ethnicity to understand if we are meeting the needs of different groups
• issue hunting permits, fishing licences, concessions and permissions to use public conservation land
• process bookings for camping and huts
• process volunteer applications and community conservation groups
• ensure the safety of people using our huts and tracks and other services
• undertake proactive security and risk assessment activities.

Sometimes we also need to collect personal information to help detect or investigate potential:

• criminal offending, for example. illegal harvest, wildlife smuggling, poaching, assault or vandalism
• non-compliance of the regulatory requirements of a permit or certificate
• threats to the physical safety of staff; or the security of information, places or operations.

Gathering information for regulatory compliance, law enforcement and protective security

How we use or share your personal information

We’ll use the information we gather to:

• ensure eligibility for a hunting permit, fishing licence, permission, concession or other service available to New Zealanders and visitors
• ensure the safety of people using our huts and tracks and other services
• undertake proactive security and risk assessment activities
• support other state sector agencies activities.

Information you provide as part of the work we do may be subject to an Official Information Act (OIA) request. We’ll maintain individual privacy by withholding personal information that is not allowed for release by the OIA.

How we collect personal information

We collect information from a variety of sources, for example:

• directly from people through forms, online booking systems, phone and face to face engagement
• other agencies and entities
• publicly available sources
• Camera surveillance and drones.

Information our website collects

How we store your personal information

We keep your personal information secure through:

• staff training and awareness
• making regular backups of our data
• using secure systems and servers with strong privacy standards and policies to protect data from outside sources
• secure storage for physical information.

Information is stored, and disposed of, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Information Security Policy and in compliance with the:

• Privacy Act 2020
• Official Information Act 1982
• Public Records Act 2005.

Respecting and protecting information

We have made a commitment to respect personal information and keep it safe.  We have systems, policies and governance in place to control how we collect, manage and use information.

We collect, use and share information appropriately and we meet our obligations under the following:

• Privacy Act 2020
• Search and Surveillance Act 2012
• Bill of Rights Act 1990
• Code of Conduct for the State Services
• State Services Commissions Model Standards on Information Gathering and Public Trust
• Conservation Act and Regulations

Why you might see a DOC advertisement on social media

 We may also use or disclose limited personal information to third parties to assist us to communicate or market our services to you.

To reach groups of people with information that is relevant to them while protecting their privacy, we sometimes provide hashed and fully anonymised information to social media channels when placing advertisements.

In this process, your personal information is treated with the utmost integrity by us. The social media channel is not given any identifiable information. We fully comply with our obligations under the Privacy Act to protect your personal information.

Contact us

If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact DOC’s Privacy team at privacy@doc.govt.nz