Privacy policy for the Ministry for Regulation employer branding and recruitment
Date of publication: 07-06-2024
We at the Ministry for Regulation manage our employer branding and recruitment process through our career site (the “Career Site”), and by using a related applicant tracking system.
In this privacy policy, we explain how we process your personal information if:
- You visit our Career Site (you being a “Visitor”)
- You connect with us via our Career Site, to create a profile with us and receive information about current or future vacancies with us (you being a “Connecting Candidate”)
- You apply for a position with us, via our Career Site or a third party service (you being an ”Applying Candidate”)
- We collect information about you from other parties, sites and services, since we believe your profile is of interest for our current or future vacancies (you being a “Sourced Candidate”)
- We receive information about you from our employees or partners, since they believe your profile is of interest for our current or future vacancies (you being a “Referred Candidate”)
- We receive information about you from a Candidate, who lists you as their reference (you being a “Reference”).
This privacy policy also describes what rights you have when we process your personal information, and how you can exercise these rights.
When we use the term “Candidate” in this privacy policy, we are referring to each of Connecting Candidates; Applying Candidates; Sourced Candidates; and Referred Candidates, unless it’s stated otherwise.
1. About processing of personal information
Personal information is all information that can be directly or indirectly linked to a living, physical person. Examples of personal information are: name, e-mail address, telephone number and IP address. Processing of personal information is any automated use of personal information - such as collecting, creating, analysing, sharing, and deleting personal information.
There are laws and regulations on how organisations may process personal information, so-called information protection laws. Different information protection laws apply to different types of use of personal information, and in different parts of the world. An example of an information protection law that is relevant for our use of your personal information, as described in this privacy policy, is the Privacy Act 2020.
Most obligations under the Act apply to the so-called New Zealand agency (“information controller”). An information controller is the entity that decides for which purposes personal information will be processed, and how the processing will be executed. The information controller can use a so-called information processor. An information processor is an entity that is only allowed to hold or process personal information as agent for and as instructed by the information controller, and may not use the personal information for its own purposes. The personal information for our Career Site is held and processed by our overseas information processor in accordance with our instructions and as our agent.
We are the information controller collecting, holding and processing your personal information as described in this Privacy policy.
2. What personal information do we process?
All individuals
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Device information - If you visit our Career Site, we will collect information about your device, such as IP address, browser type and version, session behaviour, traffic source, screen resolution, preferred language, geographic location, operating system and device settings/usage.
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Technical and statistical information - If you visit our Career Site, we will collect technical and statistical information about your use of the site, such as information about which URLs you visit, and your activity on the site.
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Communications information - We will collect and store your communication with us, including the information you provided in the communication. This may include the content of emails, video recordings, messages on social media, the information you add to your account with us, surveys, etc.
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Contact details - Such as your name, email address, telephone number and physical address.
Candidates
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Information from interviews, assessments and other information from the recruitment process - Such as notes from interviews with you, assessments and tests made, salary requirements.
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Information in your application - Such as your CV, cover letter, work samples, references, letters of recommendation and education.
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Information in your public profile - Meaning the information we collect about you from public sources related to your professional experience, such as LinkedIn or the website of your current employer.
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Information provided by references - Meaning the information we receive from our employees or partners who refer you to us, or by the persons you have listed as your references.
3. Where do we receive your personal information from?
All individuals
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From the Career Site. If you visit our Career Site, we collect technical and statistical information about how you use the Career Site, and information from your device.
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Directly from you. Most of the information we process about you, we receive directly from you, for example when you apply for a position with us or connect with us. You can always choose not to provide us with certain information. However, some personal information is necessary in order for us to process your application or provide you the information you request to get from us.
References
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From the person for whom you are a reference. If a Candidate lists you as their reference, we will collect your contact details from the candidate to be able to contact you.
Candidates
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From public sources. We may collect personal information about you from public sources, such as LinkedIn or the website of your current employer.
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From our references. We may receive information about you from our employees or partners (such as recruitment service providers), when they believe your profile is of interest for our current or future vacancies.
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From your references. If you provide us with references, we may collect information about you from them.
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Information we create ourselves or in cooperation with you. Information about your application and profile is usually created by us, or by us in cooperation with you, during the recruitment process. This may for example include notes from interviews with you, assessments and tests made.
4. For what purposes do we process your personal information?
Protect and enforce our rights, interests and the interests of others, for example in connection with legal claims.
Affected individuals: The individual(s) affected by the legal issue - this may include persons from all categories of individuals listed above.
Categories of personal information used: All the categories of personal information listed above can be used for this purpose.
Share your personal information with other recipients, for the purposes mentioned in Section 5 below.
Affected individuals: Varies depending on the purpose of the sharing, see Section 5 below.
Categories of personal information used: All the categories of personal information listed above may be used for this purpose.
Collect information about your use of the Career Site, using cookies and other tracking technologies, as described in our Cookie Policy.
Affected individuals: Visitors.
Categories of personal information used: Device information.
Maintain, develop, test, and otherwise ensure the security of the Career Site.
Affected individuals: Visitors.
Categories of personal information used: Device information; Technical and statistical information.
Analyse how the Career Site and its content is being used and is performing, to get statistics and to improve operational performance.
Affected individuals: Visitors.
Categories of personal information used: Device information; Technical and statistical information.
Provide you with updates about vacancies with us.
Affected individuals: Connecting Candidates.
Categories of personal information used: Contact details; Communications information.
Review profiles and applications sent to us. This also includes communicating with you about your application and profile.
Affected individuals: Connecting Candidates; Applying Candidates.
Categories of personal information used: All the categories of personal information listed above may be used for this purpose.
Collect and evaluate your professional profile on our own initiative. This also includes communicating with you regarding your profile.
Affected individuals: Sourced Candidates; Referred Candidates.
Categories of personal information used: All the categories of personal information listed above may be used for this purpose.
Contact you directly about specific, future vacancies with us.
Affected individuals: Candidates.
Categories of personal information used: All the categories of personal information listed above may be used for this purpose.
Record the interview(s) with you.
Affected individuals: Candidates.
Categories of personal information used: Communications information.
Contact you to ask for your participation in surveys
Affected individuals: Candidates.
Categories of personal information used: All the categories of personal information listed above may be used for this purpose.
Contact you to ask you to provide information about a Candidate, and evaluate the information you provide.
Affected individuals: References.
Categories of personal information used: Contact details; Communications information.
5. Whom do we share your personal information with?
Our service providers. We share your personal information with our suppliers who provide services and functionality in our employer branding and recruitment process. For example, this includes recruitment service providers and the supplier of our Career Site and related applicant tracking system.
Companies providing cookies on the Career Site. If you consent to it, cookies are set by other companies than us, who will use the information collected by these cookies in accordance with their own privacy policy. You can find information about which cookies this applies to in our Cookie Policy.
To authorities and other public actors - when we are ordered to do so. We will share your personal information with authorities and other public actors when we have a legal obligation to do so.
To parties involved in legal proceedings. If needed to protect or defend our rights, we share your personal information with public authorities or with other parties involved in a potential or existing legal proceeding. This can for example be in case of discrimination claims.
To requesters under the Official Information Act 1982 (“OIA”). We will consult with you before making a decision about whether to withhold or release your personal information if it been requested under the OIA.
6. On what legal bases do we collect and process your personal information?
To be able to collect and process your personal information, we need to have a so-called legal basis. A legal basis is that collecting and processing the personal information is for a lawful purpose connected with our activities and the collecting and processing is necessary for that purpose under the Act.
When we process your personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, the legal basis we rely on is normally that the collecting and processing is necessary for our lawful purpose in being able to recruit talent with the relevant competence for us and, where applicable, using and processing the personal information of a successful candidate as part of the employment records.
There may be specific circumstances when the processing is only performed if and when you provide your consent to the processing. This is for example the case if we propose to record an interview with you. Please see Section 9 below for more information about your right to withdraw your consent.
7. For how long do we keep your personal information?
All individuals
If we process your personal information for the purpose of being able to protect and enforce our rights, we will keep your personal information until the relevant legal issue has been fully and finally resolved. Personal information may also be held in accordance with the requirements under the Public Records Act 2005.
Visitors
We keep your personal information for one (1) year for security purposes. The retention periods for cookies are set out in our Cookie Policy. We keep your personal information to analyse the performance of the Career Site for as long as we keep personal information about you for other purposes.
Candidates
If you are a Connecting Candidate (only), we keep your personal information for as long as you remain connected with us.
For other types of Candidates, we keep your personal information to decide if you are a suitable candidate for the relevant vacancy(ies) with us.
If you don’t succeed in the initial recruitment process, we keep your personal information for as long as needed to consider, and potentially contact you, for relevant future job openings.
If you are hired, we will keep your personal information during your employment, for other purposes than those stated above, which you will be informed of.
References
We keep your personal information for as long as we keep the personal information of the Candidate for whom you acted as a reference.
8. What rights do you have, and how can you exercise them?
In this section, you will find information about the rights you have when we collect, hold or process your personal information.
If you want to exercise any of the rights listed here, we suggest that you:
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Log in to your account with us, or
- Contact us directly at people@regulation.govt.nz
Right to be informed
You have the right to be informed if we plan to hold or process your personal information for any purpose other than that for which it was originally collected.
We provide you with such information through this privacy policy, through updates on our Career Site (see also Section 11 below), and by answering any questions you may have for us.
Right to access your personal information.
You have the right to know if we hold or process personal information about you, and to receive a copy of the information we hold or process about you.
Right to rectification.
You have the right to request that we rectify inaccurate information, and that we complete information about you that you consider incomplete.
Right to raise a complaint.
If you have complaints about our collecting, holding or processing of your personal information, you can raise a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner.
You can find their contact details here
9. Where can you turn with comments or questions?
If you want to get in touch with us to exercise your rights, or if you have any questions, comments or concerns about how we handle your personal information, you can reach us by sending an email to people@regulation.govt.nz
10. Updates to this Privacy policy
We update this privacy policy when necessary - for example, because we start collecting, holding or processing your personal information in a new way, because we want to make the information even clearer to you, or if it’s necessary to do so in order to comply with applicable privacy laws.
We encourage you to regularly check this page for any changes. You can always check the top of this page to see when this privacy policy was last updated.
