The App: The Waikato Regional Council (or its contractor) (“WRC”, “we”, “us” or “our”) operate a demand-responsive public transport service (“Service”) via the App (“App”). Under the Service, certain travel routes are operated by WRC based on customer demand rather than a fixed route and timetable. The App allows users to use the Service by booking, specifying and paying for selected trip routes on buses and any other public transport services operated by WRC from time to time.  

Your Privacy: WRC understands the importance of protecting your privacy, so we will only collect, use, disclose, process and store any personal information that you record in the App for the purpose of operating the App, and fulfilling our regulatory obligations as a local authority.

Your authorisation: You do not have to consent to WRC collecting your Personal Information. But if you do not consent, then you cannot use the App. If you later decide that you no longer agree with our Privacy Policy or no longer wish for us to continue collecting your Personal Information, then you should immediately delete the App from your device.

Please read our Privacy Policy carefully.

 

1. WHO IS COLLECTING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Waikato Regional Council is the New Zealand agency that will be collecting, using, disclosing, storing and processing your Personal Information.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact our Privacy Officer at busit@waikatoregion.govt.nz.

 

2. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We may collect from you the following Personal Information when you use the App:

  • your name and contact details;
  • your age;
  • your account history with us;
  • details of your trips;
  • information about your use of the App;
  • information about the webpages you visit on our App and any documents that you download;
  • information you provide to us when giving us feedback or responding to our customer surveys via the App; and
  • any other information you choose to give us.

When you give us your Personal Information, it must be accurate, complete, up-to-date and not misleading.

If you give us Personal Information about someone else, then you must be authorised to do so by that person. You must also tell that person about this Privacy Policy.

 

3. HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

There are several different ways that we use to collect Personal Information:

  • from you directly, when you provide Personal Information to us;
  • from you indirectly, through your use of the App, and when you interact with us on various platforms;
  • from third parties, through contractors and agents that we engage to perform services relating to the App; and
  • from publicly available sources.

 

4. HOW WE WILL USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

You authorise us to use and disclose your Personal Information to third parties (including our contractor) for the following purposes: 

  • to operate and enable the functionality of the App;
  • to perform the Services;
  • to improve and develop the App;
  • to administer your account with us;
  • to communicate with you;
  • to verify your identity when you contact us;
  • for our internal record keeping;
  • to perform our functions as a local authority;
  • to comply with our legal obligations; and
  • for any other purposes you authorise.

 

5. DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION OVERSEAS

From time to time, we may, and you authorise us to, disclose your Personal Information to an overseas third party service provider whom we or our contractor engages to assist us in the operation of the App, such as developing, hosting and maintaining the functionality of the App.

We and our contractor will take reasonable steps to require the overseas third party service provider to protect your Personal Information in a way that, overall, provides comparable safeguards to those required under New Zealand’s Privacy Laws.

Examples of such steps include a written agreement between us or our contractor and the third party service provider, or making reasonable enquiries regarding the data protection standards of the country in which the third party is domiciled in.

 

6. Cookies

We may use cookies from time to time. Cookies are small text files placed on your computer, mobile, tablet, or any other electronic device to store data that can be recalled by a web server in the domain that placed the cookie. This data often consists of a string of numbers and letters that uniquely identifies your device, but it can contain other information as well. Some cookies are placed by third parties acting on our behalf. We may use cookies and similar technologies to store and honour your preferences and settings, enable you to sign-in, provide interest-based advertising, analyse how the App performs, and fulfil other functions or operations set out in this Privacy Policy. In addition, we may collect and store your location information if you enable your mobile device to send it to us. We may also collect information that identifies the mobile device you are using. Collection of this information improves the provision of the Service.  You may opt-out of location-based services at any time by editing the setting at the device level.

To enable some of the features and functionality of the App, you may need to permit us to place cookies on your device.  If you choose not to, then those features and functionality will not be available to you. You can remove or block cookies by using the settings in your browser but it may affect your ability to use the App.

 

7. CHILDREN

Our privacy obligations outlined in this Privacy Policy and under privacy laws apply equally to those under the age of 18 years. For children under 18 years old, you confirm that we have the authorisation of your parent or legal guardian to collect your personal information for the purposes of outlined in this Privacy Policy.  We also will ensure that the manner in which we collect a child’s personal information is fair and does not intrude to an unreasonable extent upon the personal affairs of the child. 

 

8. AGGREGATE DATA

We may anonymise and aggregate data collected through the App and use it for various purposes relating to our legitimate function as a local authority. Examples of how we may use anonymised and aggregated data include for statistical analysis of public transport routes, public usage of and demand for public transport and population growth.

 

9. ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION

If you opt-in to receive electronic communications from WRC, you will be able to unsubscribe at any time by following the instructions included in the electronic communication.

 

10. THIRD PARTY LINKS

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services in the App. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites.

 

11. HOW WE STORE AND PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will ensure that your Personal Information is protected, by such security safeguards as are reasonable in the circumstances to take, against unauthorised access, use, modification, disclosure, loss and destruction. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that our third parties whom we disclose or transfer your Personal Information to also take reasonable steps to protect your Personal Information in accordance with the Privacy Laws.

 

12. REQUEST ACCESS OR CORRECTION TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

You have the right to request access to or correction of your Personal Information by contacting our Privacy Officer. If we do not give you access to the Personal Information that you have requested or if we decide that it is unnecessary or inappropriate to correct your Personal Information, then we will let you know the legal reasons for not doing so.

 

13. PRIVACY COMPLAINTS 

If you think that your privacy rights have been breached, you can make a written complaint to our Privacy Officer or otherwise contact the NZ Privacy Commissioner.

 

14. PRIVACY POLICY CHANGES

We may from time to time change our Privacy Policy. These changes may reflect, among other things, changes in the law, changes to our data collection practices, and/or changes to our functions as a local authority. We will post any updated policies on the App. The updated Privacy Policy will take effect immediately after the date it is posted. 

If you continue to use the App or interact with us after the updated Privacy Policy comes into effect, then you consent to the updated Privacy Policy.  We encourage you to review our Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.

If you don’t agree with the changes to the Privacy Policy, then you should immediately delete the App from your device.

 

15. DEFINITIONS AND INTERPRETATION

“Including” means “including without limitation”. 

“Personal Information” means any information that can be used to directly or indirectly to identify an individual, and references to “your Personal Information” also includes any Personal Information that you provide to WRC about someone else.

“Privacy Laws” means the Privacy Act 1993, Privacy Act 2020 and successor legislation.