This Privacy Policy explains how Balance New Zealand (we, us, our) collects, uses, holds, discloses and protects personal information about you. It applies to information we collect through our website at balancenz.org.nz, through any of the forms on that website (including the contact form, membership application form, donation form and newsletter signup), and through any related communications you have with us by email or otherwise.
We are committed to handling personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 and the Information Privacy Principles. This Policy should be read together with our Website Terms of Use.
Who we are
Balance New Zealand is an unregistered Political Party under Part 4 of the Electoral Act 1993" / Our principal address is 176 Ridgway Street, Whanganui
For the purposes of the Privacy Act 2020, the agency responsible for personal information collected through our website is Balance New Zealand. You can contact us about this Policy and any matter relating to your personal information using the details in section 16.
3What personal information we collect
We collect only the personal information we need for the purposes described in section 4. The information we collect, broken down by collection point, is set out below:
Contact form: Your name; your email address; and any information you choose to include in your message.
Membership application form: Your full name; postal address; phone number; email address; date of birth (used to verify eligibility under the party's rules and to confirm you are old enough to be a member); the membership type you have selected; and information about how you wish to pay your membership fee.
Donation form: Your full name; postal address; email address; the donation amount; and a declaration that you are eligible to donate under the Electoral Act 1993 (in summary: you must be a New Zealand citizen, a registered elector, or a person ordinarily resident in New Zealand if the donation is more than $50). Where the donation exceeds the relevant statutory threshold, additional information may be required to enable us to comply with our donation return obligations.
Newsletter signup: Your name and your email address. We only send the newsletter to people who have opted in.
Payment information: If you pay a membership fee or make a donation by card, payment is processed directly by Stripe Inc. We do not see, store or have access to your full card details. Stripe processes your card details in accordance with its own privacy policy and PCI-DSS security standards. If you pay by bank transfer, we receive your name and bank account details via the transaction record.
Information collected automatically: When you visit our website we collect certain information automatically through our analytics tools and through cookies. This is described in section 9. The information includes (in general terms) IP address, device and browser type, pages visited, time spent on pages, and the website (if any) that referred you to ours.
How information is collected and the IPP 3 matters: Each web form on our site will display, at the point of collection, a short notice telling you: (a) why we are collecting the information; (b) who will receive it; (c) whether the supply is voluntary; (d) the consequences (if any) of not supplying it; and (e) your rights to access and correct your information. Those matters are also set out in this Policy. This Policy and those short notices together meet our obligation under Information Privacy Principle 3.
Why we collect and use your personal information
We use personal information for the purposes for which it is collected and for purposes directly related to those. In practice this means:
to respond to enquiries you send through the contact form;
to process and administer your membership application, including communicating with you about your membership and party matters relevant to members;
to process donations, issue donation receipts, and meet our recordkeeping and reporting obligations under the Electoral Act 1993;
to send you our newsletter and other electronic communications you have opted in to receive;
to analyse use of our website and improve its content and functionality;
to comply with our legal obligations (including under the Electoral Act 1993, the Privacy Act 2020, and the Inland Revenue Acts where applicable); and
for any other purpose that is reasonably necessary to perform our activities as a political party, where that purpose is directly related to the original purpose of collection.
We will not use your personal information for any other purpose without your authorisation, unless permitted by the Privacy Act 2020 (for example, where the use is required or authorised by law).
Political opinions and other sensitive information
Information about your membership of, or support for, a political party is, by its nature, information about your political opinions. We recognise this is sensitive and we take particular care with it. In practice this means we:
limit internal access to membership and donor records to people who need it to perform their role;
do not share membership lists with third parties except as described in section 7;
apply the same approach to any other information of a sensitive nature you may share with us (for example, accessibility needs disclosed when registering for an event).
Political communications, segmentation and direct marketing
If you have opted in to receive communications from us, we may send you political communications (including newsletters, campaign updates, donation appeals and event invitations). We may also use information about you (such as your location, the issues you have engaged with, or your donation history) to make our communications more relevant to you. ] You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email we send you, or by contacting us using the details in section 16. Unsubscribe requests are actioned within five working days, consistent with the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007.
When and with whom we share your information
We do not sell or rent your personal information. We share it only as set out below.
Service providers
We use the following service providers to operate the website and our communications. Each provider is permitted to use the information only for the purpose of providing the service to us:
Stripe Inc. (United States) — payment processing. Stripe's privacy policy is at stripe.com/privacy.
Google LLC (United States) — website analytics through Google Analytics. Google's privacy policy is at policies.google.com/privacy.
Basin (Moonshot Ventures Inc.) (Canada) — secure form submission processing. Basin's privacy policy is at usebasin.com/privacy
Mailchimp (United States) — newsletter and email delivery. Mailchimp's privacy policy is at intuit.com/privacy/statement
Webflow (United States) — website hosting. Webflow's privacy policy is at webflow.com/legal/privacy
Within Balance New Zealand We may share your information with members of the party who hold roles relevant to your interaction with us — for example, your branch or electorate organisation, or volunteer coordinators in your area. Information is shared on a need-to-know basis and recipients are required to handle it in accordance with this Policy. ]
Other disclosures
We may disclose your personal information where:
the disclosure is required or authorised by law (including under the Electoral Act 1993, the Privacy Act 2020, or in response to a lawful request from a regulator, court or law enforcement agency);
the disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to public health or safety, or to the life or health of any individual; or
you have specifically authorised us to make the disclosure.
Overseas disclosure (IPP 12)
Some of our service providers are located outside New Zealand (see section 7). Before we disclose personal information to an overseas recipient, we satisfy ourselves on reasonable grounds that the recipient is required to protect the information in a way that, overall, provides comparable safeguards to those in the Privacy Act 2020. In practice we do this by ensuring our service providers operate under contracts that include appropriate privacy and security commitments, and by selecting providers whose own privacy frameworks (for example, Stripe's and Google's published privacy and security commitments) are recognised as offering comparable protection.
If you would like more information about how a particular overseas recipient handles your information, please contact us using the details in section 16.
Cookies, analytics and tracking technologies
A cookie is a small text file that a website places on your device. We use the following categories of cookies:
Strictly necessary cookies — required to make the website work (e.g. to remember form input as you move between pages). These cannot be switched off.(b) Analytics cookies — used by Google Analytics to help us understand how visitors use the website (which pages are visited, time on page, referral source, and similar). Analytics data is aggregated and we do not use it to identify individual visitors.
Marketing cookies - used to deliver relevant advertising and marketing content, measure the effectiveness of campaigns, and track interactions with advertisements across websites and platforms. These cookies may be set by third-party providers such as Google, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), LinkedIn, or other advertising partners. They may collect information such as pages visited, links clicked, device and browser information, and referral sources to help us improve our marketing activities and personalise advertising content.
You can manage cookies through our cookie banner when you first visit the website, and at any time afterwards through the "Cookie Preferences" link in the website footer. You can also disable cookies through your browser settings, but doing so may affect website functionality.
You can opt out of Google Analytics specifically by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Security
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, modification or disclosure, as required by Information Privacy Principle 5. These steps include access controls on internal systems, secure transmission of form submissions through Basin, and use of Stripe for card payments so that we do not hold card data ourselves.
No method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. While we apply industry-standard practices, we cannot guarantee absolute security of information you send us electronically.
Notifiable privacy breaches
If we become aware of a privacy breach that has caused, or is likely to cause, serious harm, we will notify the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and affected individuals as soon as practicable, as required by section 114 of the Privacy Act 2020.
How long we keep your information
We keep your personal information only for as long as we need it for the purpose for which it was collected, or for as long as we are required to keep it under New Zealand law.
In particular, donation records are kept for the period required by the Electoral Act 1993 and any regulations made under it. Membership records are kept while you are a member and for a reasonable period afterwards to deal with any matters arising from your membership.
When personal information is no longer required for any of these purposes, we will take reasonable steps to destroy it or de-identify it.
Your rights
You have the right to:
request access to the personal information we hold about you;
request correction of any personal information that is inaccurate, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading;
withdraw consent to any uses of your information that are based on consent (for example, by unsubscribing from our newsletter); and
make a complaint about how we have handled your information (see section 15).
To make an access or correction request, please contact us using the details in section 16. We will respond within 20 working days of receiving your request (Privacy Act 2020, s 40), unless we extend the timeframe under s 41 (for example, because the request involves a large amount of information or requires us to consult others). There is no fee for making a request, although we may charge a reasonable fee in limited circumstances permitted by the Privacy Act 2020.
Children
Our website is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16 without appropriate parental or guardian consent. If you believe we hold information about a child under 16 that should not have been provided to us, please contact us and we will arrange for the information to be deleted.
Complaints
If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first using the details in section 16 and we will work with you to resolve it.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner: Office of the Privacy Commissioner Website: privacy.org.nz Phone: 0800 803 909 Email: enquiries@privacy.org.nz
Contact us
You can contact us about this Policy or any matter relating to your personal information at:
Balance New Zealand Attention: Lana Moase , "Party Secretary"] Address: 176 Ridgway Street Email: admin@balancenz.org.nz Phone: 0279333378
Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time. The current version, with the date it was last updated, will always be available on our website. If we make a material change, we will take reasonable steps to bring the change to your attention before it takes effect — for example, by posting a notice on our website or, where appropriate, by emailing you. Minor or clarifying changes (such as updates to contact details or service provider names) will take effect when posted.
