This site is owned and operated by Manawatū District Council using software licensed from Social Pinpoint. For details on how Manawatū District Council collects and protects your personal information, refer to their Privacy Statement below. For details of how Social Pinpoint may access personal information, please refer to Social Pinpoint’s Privacy Policy.

Privacy Statement for Make Your Mark Manawatū
(Updated 15 February 2023)

The Manawatū District Council (collectively referred to as “MDC”, “we”, “our” or “us”) is committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information.

This privacy statement tells you about our collection and use of your personal information through your use of the Make Your Mark on Manawatū website.

We are subject to the Privacy Act 2020 (the “Privacy Act”) and the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (“LGOIMA”), which govern how personal information is collected, used, stored and accessed. This privacy statement has been prepared in accordance with our obligations and your rights under the Privacy Act and the LGOIMA.

By using Make Your Mark Manawatū and providing us with your personal information, you consent to our use of your personal information in accordance with this privacy statement (as amended from time to time).

Why do we request personal information?

Manawatū District Council is requesting to collect your personal information for several reasons:

• to enable us to respond to you should you request that
• to enable us to include you in any future events on any specific topics that you request
• to provide us with the demographic information to determine the extent to which the feedback collected is representative of the community
• to allow us to gather participation data (such as numbers interacting from specified areas) with specific topics to better inform our feedback to Council
• to understand the reach and representation achieved and address any gaps to ensure diverse representational engagement across the Manawatū District community
• to ensure that any one participant or spammers and trolls are not unduly influencing the feedback results

What personal information do we collect?

Registered Participants

When you register for Make Your Mark on Manawatū or sign in to an existing account, the personal information we collect includes:

• name
• email address
• username (this will be published on the site alongside any public comments you make so you are welcome to use a pseudonym)
• sign up date
• last login date
• last contribution
• number of contributions

The optional information we encourage you to provide includes:

• post code
• ethnicity
• gender
• Year of birth (if you are under the age of 12 you must seek parental guidance before registering for and using our online engagement tool)
• Connection to the Manawatū
• Interests
• Locations of interests

Participant Feedback

We collect comments, votes, posts and selections you contribute when interacting with the feedback mechanisms provided through Make Your Mark on Manawatū which may include:

• forums
• interactive maps
• surveys
• quick polls

This information is analysed to inform Council’s decision makers in the creation of better projects, plans and policies.

Can you remain anonymous or withhold personal information?

Yes. You can access and participate in some Make Your Mark on Manawatū engagements anonymously, without disclosing any personal information. Some projects will require you to register and establish an account in order to participate. As stated above, users may choose to adopt a pseudonym for these projects.

Website Information

Make Your Mark on Manawatū is equipped with analytics services which assist us to collect and interpret information. The information collected may include your IP address, web browser, mobile network information, pages viewed, time spent on pages or in apps, links clicked and conversion information. This information is aggregated and all users are anonymous and not personally identifiable.

This statistical information will be viewable by website administrators and Social Pinpoint. This information may be used by us to analyse and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, and better understand online activity.

Requirements

The Manawatū District Council Privacy Policy 2022 states that the Council must

• Collect, hold and manage personal information carefully and consistently in accordance with our obligations under the Privacy Act 2020.
• Know what personal information we hold.
• Ensure every piece of personal information has an “owner” who is responsible for ensuring that the information is managed in accordance with established practices and procedures.
• Be clear about our privacy obligations, the expectations on us, the processes and procedures that are relevant to our work.
• Ensure training is provided to all employees who require it, and managers ensure training is kept current.
• Manage privacy breaches openly and transparently and treat every breach as an opportunity to improve our privacy practices.
• The Council is committed to complying with the 13 Information Privacy Principles (IPP) under the Privacy Act 2020; the principles are listed under section 6. More information can be found at Office of the Privacy Commissioner | Privacy Act 2020 and the Privacy Principles
• All employees, particularly those with responsibility for collecting, storing, using and disclosing personal information must be familiar with the obligations these principles impose on us.

For more information on Manawatū District Councils Privacy Policy please email us at privacy@mdc.govt.nz.

Email notifications

If you subscribe to receive updates and communications from us, the email address you provided will be used by us to send you that information. You can unsubscribe from these notifications at any time.

Sharing of your personal information

Access to your personal information is confined to authorised users only, which includes employees of Manawatū District Council on a need to know basis, our website administrators, and Social Pinpoint.

Manawatū District Council respects the privacy of your information and will take all reasonable measures to prevent unauthorised access to, or unlawful disclosure of, your personal information.

Publicly available information

When you sign up to and use Make Your Mark on Manawatū, some of the information you provide will be publicly available.

Information that is available to the public is limited to your username and any comments you leave under that username in the forums or other feedback tools published to Make Your Mark on Manawatū. As above, you can use an anonymous user name if you do not want your full name attached to your comments.

Feedback (including overall results of polls and surveys, and in some instances, quotes from forums and surveys) may be published in publicly available reports at the end of the consultation period.

Storage of personal information

Information collected through Make Your Mark Manawatū will be held by Social Pinpoint in accordance with its privacy policy. The information will also be downloaded on Manawatū District Council servers with privacy protections in place. We comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act in relation to the transfer of personal information offshore.

Access and Correction

If you would like to access, update, correct, or delete the personal information that the Manawatū District Council is holding about you, you are welcome to make these requests by emailing Manawatū District Council at privacy@mdc.govt.nz.

We will provide you with access to your personal information unless we are required or authorised to refuse such access by law.

You may also request a change or correction of personal information that we hold about you. When you are a registered user you will have the ability to correct your personal information at your discretion through the ‘edit profile’ function. You may also choose to contact us to request a change or correction of your personal information. We will take all necessary steps to accommodate your request unless we are required or authorised to refuse that request by law.

If you want to check personal information that we hold about you or have any other access or correction request, please contact us at privacy@mdc.govt.nz.

Please quote your name and address and, if possible, provide brief details of what information you want a copy of (this helps us to more readily locate your information).

Links to external websites

Make Your Mark on Manawatū may contain links to other websites. Those links are provided for convenience only and may not be current or be maintained. Manawatū District Council is not responsible for the content, accuracy or privacy practices associated with the linked websites.

Any links to other websites should not be construed as any endorsement, approval, recommendation, or preference by Manawatū District Council of the owners or operators of those websites, or of any information, graphics, materials, products or services referred to on those websites.

Changes to this privacy statement

We reserve the right to amend this privacy statement from time to time by posting an updated privacy statement here on this website. We will collect, use, hold and disclose your personal information in accordance with our most recently updated version of the privacy statement. We recommend that you regularly review this privacy statement when you visit this website.

If you do not agree with any aspect of the updated privacy policy, you must promptly notify us using the contact details set out below.

Who can you contact?

If you have any questions, queries, or complaints about the handling of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer in the first instance using the contact details set out below and we will do our best to assist.

Email address: privacy@mdc.govt.nz

You can also make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner. Further details on how to do this are available from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner website at www.privacy.org.nz.

The following Terms and Conditions govern the use of Make Your Mark on Manawatū (“the site”). The software platform is owned by Social Pinpoint Pty Ltd and operated by us, Manawatū District Council.

By accessing and using this site, you are choosing to accept and comply with the Terms presented throughout this agreement as well as the Privacy Policy and Moderation Policy. These Terms apply to all visitors and users of this site. Linked sites, affiliated services or third party content or software have their own Terms that you must comply with. If you disagree with any of the Terms presented in this agreement, you may discontinue using the site immediately.

If you are under 18 years old, please ensure that your parent or guardian understands and accepts these Terms and Conditions (including the Privacy Policy and Moderation Policy).

What are the conditions with a user’s account?

While using the site, you must not violate any applicable laws and regulations. It is our duty to protect the confidentiality of content you provide on our site in accordance with our Privacy Policy. When you create an account with us, you must always provide us with accurate information. Failure to provide accurate information violates the Terms, which may result in immediate termination of your account on our service. You are responsible for protecting your own password you use for this site and for any activities done under that password. Unauthorised use of your password or account must be immediately reported to us. In some cases, we or our agents may require access to your user accounts to respond to technical issues.

We are not responsible for the content on the site that has been provided by the users of the site. Any content posted by you is subject to the rules of our Moderation Policy. Your contribution to the site may be edited, removed or not published if we consider it inappropriate (refer to Moderation Policy). Contributors should also be aware that their posts may remain online indefinitely. Where practical, you may choose not to identify yourself, deal with us on an anonymous basis or use a pseudonym.

What do we require from our users?

You must understand and agree that, without limitation:

• all information, data, images and other materials are the sole responsibility of the person from whom the content originated;
• you are prohibited from advertising or offering to sell or buy any goods and services
• you cannot transmit Content that contains software viruses or programs designed to change or destroy the functionality of any computer software or hardware; or
• you cannot collect or store personal data about other users of the site
• you cannot impersonate any person or entity, including without limitation to a Manawatū District Council representative
• you cannot interrupt or interfere with the site or servers or networks connected to the site
• you cannot attempt to gain unauthorised access to the site or other use accounts

Can your account be suspended or terminated?

We may terminate or suspend access to your site and/or account immediately, without prior notice, including without limitation if you breach the Terms. We may immediately deactivate or delete your account and all the related files and information in your account. After your account has been terminated, the content you have posted may also remain indefinitely on the site.

If you want to terminate your own account, please send an email to makeyourmark@manawatudc.govt.nz.

Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed in accordance with the laws of New Zealand, without regards to its conflict of law provisions.

Indemnification

Manawatū District Council, its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, licensors and other partners are not responsible for any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including legal fees, made by any third party due to or arising from a breach of this agreement and/or any breach of your representations and warranties set forth above.

What content do we own?

This website contains the copyrighted material, trademarks, patents, trade secrets and other proprietary information (“Intellectual Property”) of Manawatū District Council and its suppliers and licensors. Manawatū District Council owns and retains all proprietary rights in the intellectual property. All intellectual property in the content of this site including without limitation to text, software, source code, pages, documents and online graphics, photographs, sounds, audio, video and other interactive features are owned by or licensed to us.

Any original content that you submit or post on our site may be made available to the public and allows users to share your content (with the end user acknowledging your contribution) under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Australian License.

Except for Intellectual Property which is in the public domain or for which you have been given written permission, you may not copy, alter, transmit, sell, distribute any of the Intellectual Property on this site.

We are not responsible for your communications or dealings, including payment and delivery of goods or services, with a third party found via our website. Any loss or damage incurred from those communications or dealings are solely between the user and the third party.

Disclaimer and Warranties

Users must agree that you use of the site is at your own risk. We make no warranty that the site will meet your requirements or be uninterrupted or error-free. Any material that the user downloads through the site is done at their own risk and are responsible for any damages to their computer system or loss of data.

What happens if these Terms change?

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time without notice. The most recent version of the Terms can be seen on this page. By continuing to access or use our site after those revisions become effective, you agree and will comply to the revised terms. If you do not agree to the revised terms, please discontinue using our site.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at makeyourmark@manawatudc.govt.nz.