Whakatipu Wildlife Trust (Registration Number CC54794) (we, us or our), understands that protecting your personal information is important. This Privacy Policy sets out our commitment to protecting the privacy of personal information provided to us, or collected by us, when interacting with you. We collect and process personal information about you only where we have legal bases for doing so under applicable laws, in particular the Privacy Act 2020.
The information we collect
Personal information: is information or an opinion, whether true or not and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual who is identified or reasonably identifiable.
The types of personal information we may collect about you include:
- Identity and Experience Data including your name, age, gender, fitness level and trapping experience.
- Contact Data including your telephone number, address and email.
- Financial Data including bank account and payment card details where you make a donation to us.
- Technical and Usage Data when you access any of our websites or platforms, details about your internet protocol (IP) address, login data, browser session and geo-location data, statistics on page views and sessions, device and network information, acquisition sources, search queries and/or browsing behaviour, access and use of our website (including through the use of Internet cookies or analytics), and communications with our website.
- Interaction Data including information you provide to us when you participate in any interactive features, including surveys, contests, promotions, activities or events.
- Marketing and Communications Data including your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
- Professional data including where you are a worker or volunteer of ours or applying for a role with us, your professional history such as your previous positions and professional experience.
How we collect personal information
We collect personal information in a variety of ways, including:
- when you interact directly with us, including face-to-face, over the phone, over email, or online;
- when you complete a form, such as our volunteer application form or website contact form;
- when you apply for a job with us;
- from third parties, such as details of your use of any website we operate (from our analytics and cookie providers and marketing providers. Where we collect personal information about you from a third party source other than you (other than the personal information which we have specified will be collected by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy) we will take reasonable steps to notify you of such collection, including the fact that the information has been collected, the purpose for which the information has been collected, the intended recipients of the information, and the name and address of the agency that is holding the information, as required by Information Privacy Principle 3A of the Privacy Act 2020. See the “Cookies” section below for more detail on the use of cookies).
- from publicly available sources, such as social media, if necessary.
Why we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information
Personal information: We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes: We will only use your personal information for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, or for a directly related purpose, unless you consent otherwise or we are required or authorised by law to use it for another purpose (Information Privacy Principle 10).
- to contact and communicate with you about our activities and events, or any enquiries you make via our website and register your attendance at our events
- for internal record keeping, administrative and donation recording purposes;
- to run promotions and competitions;
- if you have applied for employment or to volunteer for us, to consider your employment application or contact you about volunteer opportunities; and
- to comply with our legal obligations (including our community agreements with the Department of Conservation and Queenstown Lakes District Council) or if otherwise required or authorised by law.
- For volunteers – we also use your personal information to:
- Keep records of who is an official volunteer and has completed our health and safety training;
- Assign you to a local trapping group;
- Add you to a TrapNZ project;
- Add you to a trapping group WhatsApp group (with your permission);
- Understand our volunteer demographics such as age and ethnicity (with your permission); and
- Report to funders on the overall demographics of our volunteer base. For the purposes of such reporting all personal information is aggregated and anonymised so you are not personally identifiable.
- Where a volunteer is under 18 years of age, we collect and process their personal information only with the consent of a parent or guardian, who must sign the volunteer registration form on the volunteer’s behalf.
Our disclosures of personal information to third parties
We may disclose personal information to:
- Our Trustees, employees, contractors and/or related entities;
- IT service providers, data storage, webhosting and server providers;
- marketing or advertising providers such as Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter/X;
- professional advisors, bankers, auditors, our insurers and insurance brokers;
- sponsors or promoters of any promotions or competition we run;
- courts, tribunals, regulatory authorities and law enforcement officers, as required or authorised by law, in connection with any actual or prospective legal proceedings, or in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights; and
- any other third parties as required or permitted by law, such as where we receive a subpoena.
Overseas disclosure
Personal Information
While we store personal information in New Zealand, where we disclose your personal information to the third parties listed above, these third parties may store, transfer or access personal information outside of New Zealand. We will only disclose your personal information overseas in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. Where we disclose personal information to overseas recipients, we take reasonable steps to ensure those recipients are subject to privacy laws or contractual obligations that provide comparable protections to the Privacy Act 2020 (Information Privacy Principle 12).
Your rights and controlling your personal information
Your choice: Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. If you provide personal information to us, you understand we will collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You do not have to provide personal information to us, however, if you do not, it may affect our ability to work with you.
Information from third parties: If we receive personal information about you from a third party, we will protect it as set out in this Privacy Policy.
Restrict and unsubscribe: To object to processing for direct marketing/unsubscribe from our email database or opt-out of communications (including marketing communications), please contact us using the details below or opt-out using the opt-out facilities provided in the communication. Where you have given us consent to collect or use your personal information
for a specific purpose (such as demographic information or inclusion in a WhatsApp group), you may withdraw that consent at any time by contacting us using the details below. Withdrawal of consent will not affect any processing already carried out.
Access: You may request access to the personal information that we hold about you. Please note, in some situations, we may be legally permitted to withhold access to your personal information. If we cannot provide access to your information, we will advise you as soon as reasonably possible and provide you with the reasons for our refusal and any mechanism available to complain about the refusal. If we can provide access to your information in another form that still meets your needs, then we will take reasonable steps to give you such access.
Correction: If you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, please contact us using the details below. We will take reasonable steps to promptly correct any information found to be inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. Please note, in some situations, we may be legally permitted to not correct your personal information. If we cannot correct your information, we will advise you as soon as reasonably possible and provide you with the reasons for our refusal and any mechanism available to complain about the refusal.
Complaints: If you wish to make a complaint, please contact us using the details below and provide us with full details of the complaint. We will promptly investigate your complaint and respond to you, in writing, setting out the outcome of our investigation and the steps we will take in response to your complaint. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner.
Storage and security
We are committed to ensuring that the personal information we collect is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures, to safeguard and secure personal information and protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. We also take reasonable steps to ensure that any personal information we hold is accurate, up-to-date, complete and not misleading, having regard to the purpose for which it is to be used (Information Privacy Principle 8). We only retain your personal information for no longer than is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. For health and safety training records relating to trapping volunteers, we retain information for the duration of your volunteering and for six years after your last active involvement, to meet our legal and safety obligations. For donor records, we retain information for seven years to meet our financial reporting obligations. For general contact and marketing records, we retain information while you remain engaged with us and for two years after your last interaction, after which information is securely deleted or anonymised, unless a longer period is required by law.
While we are committed to security, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that is transmitted to or by us over the Internet. The transmission and exchange of information is carried out at your own risk.
If a privacy breach occurs that is likely to cause serious harm to any affected individual, we will notify the Privacy Commissioner and affected individuals as soon as practicable (and where possible within 72 hours of becoming aware), as required under the Privacy Act 2020.
Cookies
We may use cookies on our website from time to time. Cookies are text files placed in your computer’s browser to store your preferences. Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your email address or other personally identifiable information. However, they do recognise you when you return to our online website and allow third parties to cause our advertisements to appear on your social media and online media feeds as part of our retargeting campaigns. If and when you choose to provide our online website with personal information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.
You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our website.
Amendments
We may, at any time and at our discretion, vary this Privacy Policy by publishing the amended Privacy Policy on our website. We recommend you check our website regularly to ensure you are aware of our current Privacy Policy.
For any questions or notices, please contact us:
Privacy Officer
In accordance with the Privacy Act 2020, Whakatipu Wildlife Trust has appointed a Privacy Officer to oversee our compliance with privacy regulations and ensure the protection of personal information. The Privacy Officer’s responsibilities include:
- Providing guidance on privacy-related matters within our organisation.
- Ensuring compliance with the Privacy Act 2020 and relevant data protection standards.
- Handling privacy inquiries, complaints, and requests related to personal information.
- Liaising with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner as required.
- Assisting with the development and implementation of privacy policies and procedures.
If you have any concerns or inquiries about how your personal information is managed, you can contact our Privacy Officer at:
Whakatipu Wildlife Trust
Email: hello@whakatipuwildlifetrust.org.nz
Postal address: PO Box 690, Queenstown 9348
Last update: 10 July 2026