Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Introduction

The International Centre for Terrestrial Antarctic Research at the University of Waikato (ICTAR, we, us, our) complies with the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993 (the Act) and the University of Waikato Privacy Statement when dealing with personal information. Personal information is information about an identifiable individual (a natural person). This Policy sets out how we will collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information and does not limit or exclude any of your rights under the Act.

Changes to this policy

We may change this policy by revising this webpage (https://ictar.aq/privacy-policy/) with immediate effect. 

What personal information does ICTAR collect?

We collect personal information about you from:

  • you, when you provide that information to us through any registration or subscription process and through any contact with us (e.g., email or telephone call).
  • third parties, where you have authorised your information to be released or the information is publicly available.

What personal information does the DryVER GPS Tool collect?

We collect personal information about you from:

  • Google, when you download the DryVER GPS Tool app through your Google or G Suite account.

For full functionality, the DryVER GPS Tool requires permission on your mobile device to access its location (i.e., GPS) and storage (locally stored maps). The DryVER GPS Tool does not transmit any information that you create or store to ICTAR. Since the DryVER GPS Tool is underpinned by OruxMaps, OruxMaps’ Terms of Use (as amended from time to time) applies to users of the DryVER GPS Tool.

How do we use your personal information

We will use your personal information:

  • to verify your identity;
  • to provide services to you;
  • to improve the services that we provide to you;
  • to respond to communications from you, including a complaint;
  • to conduct research and statistical analysis (on an anonymised basis);
  • to protect and/or enforce our legal rights and interests, including defending any claim;
  • for any other purpose authorised by you or the Act.

Disclosing your personal information

We may disclose your personal information to:

  • any individual within ICTAR and the University of Waikato;
  • any business that supports our services, including any person that hosts or maintains any underlying IT system or data centre that we use to provide the ICTAR website, the DryVER GPS Tool, or other services and products;
  • other third parties (for anonymised statistical information);
  • any other person authorised by the Act or another law (e.g., a law enforcement agency);
  • any other person authorised by you;

In order to ensure compliance with the law and maintain cybersecurity standards, we and our authorised contractors monitor the use of and interaction with our information systems (including email traffic and web browsing). This monitoring includes activity logging and analysis and occasional formal audit. Information gathered through such monitoring (regardless of whether it relates to or is connected with your involvement in any malicious or illegal activity) may be:

  • used to prevent and resolve unauthorised access to or attacks on our information systems;
  • provided to others (such as data analysis companies, information security providers, the police, and/or other government agencies) to:
    • comply with New Zealand or overseas laws;
    • improve cybersecurity; and/or
    • assist us to decide what is needed in order to comply with such laws or improve cybersecurity;

A business that supports our services and products may be located outside New Zealand. This may mean your personal information is held and processed outside New Zealand. We shall not be responsible to you (or anyone else) if we use or provide information about you for the purposes outlined above.

Protecting your personal information

We will take reasonable steps to keep your personal information safe from loss, unauthorised activity, or other misuses.

Accessing and correcting your personal information

Subject to certain grounds for refusal set out in the Act, you have the right to access your readily retrievable personal information that we hold and to request a correction to your personal information. Before you exercise this right, we will need evidence to confirm that you are the individual to whom the personal information relates.

In respect to a request for correction, if we think the correction is reasonable and we are reasonably able to change the personal information, we will make the correction. If we do not make the correction, we will take reasonable steps to note on the personal information that you requested the correction.

If you want to exercise either of the above rights, contact us at info@ictar.aq. Your email should provide evidence of who you are and set out the details of your request (e.g., the personal information, or the correction, that you are requesting).

Internet use

While we take reasonable steps to maintain secure internet connections, if you provide us with personal information over the internet, the provision of that information is at your own risk.

If you follow a link on the ICTAR website to another site, the owner of that site will have its own privacy policy relating to your personal information. We suggest you review that site’s privacy policy before you provide personal information.

We use cookies (an alphanumeric identifier that we transfer to your device’s storage so that we can recognise your browser) to monitor your use of the ICTAR website. You may disable cookies by changing the settings on your browser, although this may mean that you cannot use all of the features of the ICTAR website.