This privacy policy applies to personal information collected through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) website business.govt.nz. It also explains how we treat personal information if you call our contact centre.
The purpose of this privacy statement is to let users of business.govt.nz know when we collect personal information and what we do with it. We do not use, share or disclose personal information collected or received through this website except as set out in this statement.
You can use business.govt.nz without disclosing any personal information. You can also choose to set up a business.govt.nz account which will let you:
You will not be able to register for training or events if you do not have a business.govt.nz account. When you register for an event not run by business.govt.nz, we may direct you to an external registration page which will have its own privacy policy.
With a business.govt.nz account you can save:
You may choose to voluntarily provide personal information through this website – for example, in comments, questions, registration or feedback. This information will be viewable by:
When you subscribe to one of our alerts or newsletters, we store the details you provide in a secure third-party database called Qrious. We will ask you to provide your name and email address so we can send you future electronic alerts and newsletters. When you unsubscribe from an alert or newsletter, your subscription status is automatically updated and we will no longer send you any more alerts or newsletters.
Privacy Policy(external link) — Qrious
We may ask or require you (including where required by legislation administered by MBIE) to provide some personal information when you complete an online form, for example, by submitting information through an online service.
When you provide personal information, it will be held by us. It may be stored or accessed on behalf of us by authorised third parties (such as third-party contractors) to the extent that is necessary, for example to administer or work on the site. We will store and keep it secure in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. Any third parties will be subject to our information security and privacy requirements.
We will generally not share personal information provided or collected through this website, unless it is necessary to do so for the purpose for which you gave us the information, for example:
We will not otherwise disclose personal information provided or collected through this website unless required or otherwise permitted by law.
We may use personal information provided to us through this website or our contact centre for other reasons permitted under the Privacy Act (for example, with your consent, for a directly related purpose, or where the law permits it).
We will only retain personal information as long as it is required for the purposes for which it may lawfully be used.
Where any information (including personal information) provided to or through this site constitute public records, it will be retained to the extent required by the Public Records Act 2005. We may also be required to disclose information:
MBIE websites have security measures in place to prevent the loss, misuse and alteration of information under our control. To maintain the cyber security of MBIE systems and information, MBIE systems are subject to ongoing monitoring. This includes activity logging, analysis and auditing.
We may use information about your use of our websites and other IT systems to prevent unauthorised access or attacks on these systems or to resolve such events. We may use this information even if you are not involved in such activity. We may utilise services from one or more third-party suppliers to monitor or maintain the cyber security of our systems and information. These third-party suppliers will have access to:
As part of our commitment to providing the best possible service to our customers, we record all telephone calls answered in our contact centre. This helps us identify how we can provide you with better service.
We record calls:
We understand your personal information is important to you, and we are committed to protecting your privacy. We store the recordings securely for two years and destroy them after this period.
You have the right to:
If we have a good reason for refusing a request for correction, you can ask that a statement be attached to the information, noting that a correction was sought but not made.
If you want to check the personal information that we hold, access it and/or request the correction of it, you can:
Privacy Officer
Companies Office
Northern Business Centre
Private Bag 92061
Victoria Street West
Auckland 1142
For more information on privacy laws in New Zealand and contact details for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, visit the Office of the Privacy Commissioner website.
Browser or web cookies are small text files that are sent by a website and stored on your computer's hard drive to collect information about how you browse the website.
We use cookies to remember your preferences and the choices you make on our website. For example, they are used to remember the notifications you’ve seen so we don’t show them to you again.
We also use cookies to collect anonymous statistical information about how you use the website so it can be updated and improved based on your needs. This information is aggregated and non-personally identifying. The information will be viewable by site administrators and other MBIE staff. It may also be shared with other government agencies.
Statistical information includes:
Third-party vendors such as Google use cookies to serve advertisements based on someone's past visits to the business.govt.nz website. Any data collected will be used in accordance with our privacy statement as well as the privacy policies of Google.
Cookie information for Google’s ad products(external link) — Google
The types of advertising features implemented on the business.govt.nz website may include:
None of our cookies collect information that could identify you personally. We collect statistical data only, and may use this statistical data to enhance the browsing experience for our customers and improve our website.
You can manually disable cookies at any time – check your browser's 'Help' section to find out how (disabling cookies will not affect your ability to use this website).
We use a third-party provider called UbiQuity to deploy business.govt.nz mailouts. It is also used to maintain the newsletter’s database of subscribers’ email addresses. When you visit the business.govt.nz website UbiQuity sets a unique cookie on your device to anonymously capture the details of your visit, and then stores this information in their database. If you subscribe to the business.govt.nz newsletter and click on a link in a mailout, your previous website history, as well as any new website visit information, is linked to your subscription email address.
The Climate Action Toolbox requires you to select answers to several questions before showing your results. The completion of the tool can take some time, and you may want to save your progress and return later to complete it. To do this, you have to save your results.
To save results and come back later, you need to have a business.govt.nz account. You can also choose to subscribe to updates about the Climate Action Tool, and to the business.govt.nz newsletter.
Climate Action Toolbox(external link)
The Cash Flow Forecaster requires you to enter financial information about your business before it will display your cash flow forecasts. If you choose to save this information to come back to later, you will need to have a business.govt.nz account. We do not share the information you save with third parties.
Cash Flow Forecaster(external link)
The Compliance Matters tool requires you to provide an email address to be sent a PDF of the action list. Business.govt.nz does not collect or store these email addresses, unless you subscribe to our newsletter.
We collect statistics on the items added to saved lists. This information is anonymised and cannot be traced back to an email address used to export a saved list.
The Employee Cost Calculator tool requires you to provide an email address to email the calculation results. Business.govt.nz does not collect or store these email addresses.
You can email yourself the results of your assessments. We do not store your email address, unless you subscribe to our newsletters.
The Employment Agreement Builder (EAB) tool requires you to send your completed agreement(s) to an email address. You will also be asked for an email address if you start an employment agreement and intend to finish it at a later date. Your email address is stored alongside your draft agreement until either the draft expires, or you complete the agreement. Stored email addresses are only accessible by a system administrator and used to resolve issues where a user has not received an email sent to them.
Your email address will be deleted when you complete your employment agreement, unless you subscribe to receive our newsletters.
All private information such as names and email addresses are deleted when the agreement is completed, or if a draft agreement is not reopened within 90 days.
Employee Agreement Builder(external link)
The Workplace Policy Builder (WPB) tool requires you to send your completed workplace policy to a secure email address. You will also be asked for an email address if you start a workplace policy and intend to finish it at a later date. These email addresses are stored within the WPB tool and used to send you a link to return to your draft policy. Stored email addresses are only accessible by a system administrator and used to resolve issues where a user has not received an email sent to them.
The tool will store this email address until the workplace policy has been completed. Once you complete your workplace policy, your email address will be deleted from the tool and business.govt.nz. These email addresses will not be used for marketing purposes unless you opt-in to receive marketing emails.
In the event that you do not complete your workplace policy you will have to retype these fields when you return to your draft workplace policy. Any draft workplace policy not reopened in 90 days will be deleted, along with your email address.
Once you have completed your workplace policy, all information will be deleted from the tool and business.govt.nz.
Workplace Policy Builder(external link)
The ONECheck tool requires you to enter a business name to see if that business name, and related web domains, trade marks and social media usernames are available.
ONECheck uses Application Programming Interfaces (API) via a Domain Search company called Whoxy to see if a domain name is available for purchase. ONECheck uses MBIE’s APIs to search the New Zealand Companies Office, New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) and Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand’s (IPONZ) for information. ONECheck also queries social media platforms for information, which may include Meta, Google, YouTube and X. By using ONECheck, you agree to adhere to the relevant API terms of service these social media platforms, and in the case of YouTube, Google’s Privacy Policy.
Meta Privacy Policy(external link) — Meta
Google Privacy Policy(external link) — Google
Last modified: July 2024