Privacy policy

INTRODUCTION

Stimulus Consulting Limited, trading as Appoint Better Boards, (we, us, our, appoint) complies with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 (the Act) when dealing with personal information. We take your right to keep personal information private very seriously.

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual (a natural person), and includes personal data, personally identifiable information and equivalent information under applicable privacy and data protection laws.

This policy does not limit or exclude any of your rights under the Act. For further information on the Act, see www.privacy.org.nz.

This policy was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of our collection and use of personal information. We are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any request for further information should be sent to hello@appointbetterboards.co.nz.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may change this policy by uploading a revised policy onto our website. The change will apply from the date that we upload the revised policy. This policy was last updated on 15 April 2021.

WHEN DOES THIS PRIVACY POLICY APPLY

appoint is a platform that enables organisations to connect with individuals to fill director, trustee and board member positions.

This privacy policy applies to personal information we collect from visitors to our website, users of the appoint platform and other persons with whom we deal.  

DEFINITIONS

In this policy:

Act means New Zealand Privacy Act 2020

Appoint Professional means an individual that pays a membership fee and uses the appoint platform to promote themselves for governance roles.

Advertisement means a listing made by a Member on the appoint platform advertising a director, trustee or board member vacancy.

Member means an Appoint Professional, an Organisation or any other person who has registered to use the appoint platform.

Organisation means an organisation that uses the appoint platform to post Advertisements and/or search for Appoint Professionals and Members to fill vacancies.

CHILDREN

We do not intend to collect personal information from or about children aged under 16.  If you have reason to believe that we have collected personal information from or about a child under the age of 16, please contact us at hello@appointbetterboards.co.nz. 

WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT

Directly from you

We collect the following information directly from you.  

When you fill in a contact or enquiry form on our website, call us, meet us in person or otherwise contact us, we collect your name, email address, phone number and any other information you choose to provide to us.

When you sign up to our newsletter and other electronic alerts, we collect your name, email address and any other information you provide to us when you ask to receive our newsletter or other alerts. 

When you register for, or log in to, an account on appoint or purchase other products or services from us, we collect your name, email address, credit card information and any other information we require or ask for to set you up with an account or that you submit to us for billing and order fulfilment purposes.  See below for further details of the information collected when you register with us.

Some of the personal information that we collect directly from you may be mandatory and some may be optional.  We will let you know which of these applies at the time we collect the relevant personal information.  While you do not have to provide us with some of the information that we may request, this might mean that our products and services may not perform as well as they should, or that we may not be able to provide some parts of the website or all of our products or services to you.  If you require further information about the consequences of not providing us with any information, please contact us at hello@appointbetterboards.co.nz.

Automatically when you use our website

When you access and use our website, the appoint platform or our other products and services we may automatically collect information about your device and usage of our website, the appoint platform or our other products and services, including your IP address, operating system, browser type, time spent on certain pages of the website, pages visited and links clicked.

Some of this data is collected through third party tools and/or the use of cookies, web beacons and similar storage technologies.  Please refer to our Cookie Policy below for further information, including information on how you can disable these technologies.

REGISTERING AS A MEMBER

If you wish to use the appoint platform to promote yourself, find and apply for governance positions, contact Members or post an Advertisement, you must first register an account.

We may collect the following personal information when you register an account:

• full name
• gender
• contact phone number
• year of birth
• ethnicity
• email address
• location
• years of governance experience
• organisation name
• organisation details
• type of organisation (e.g. for profit/commercial or not for profit)
• credit card information.

We collect and use this information:

• to register you as a Member on the appoint platform
• to create a profile
• to identify you when you sign in to your account
• if you post an Advertisement, to allow you access to applications from Members
• to provide appoint to you, including assisting you to find governance positions and/or recruit board members
• to market our products and services to you, including contacting you electronically (e.g. by email for this purpose).  You can stop receiving our marketing emails by following the unsubscribe instructions included in those emails or contacting us at hello@appointbetterboards.co.nz
• to improve our website, products and services
• to publish things on our website (e.g. comments from you or successful appointments)
• to respond to communications from you, including enquiries and complaints
• to conduct research and statistical analysis (on an anonymised basis)
• to protect and/or enforce our legal rights and interests, including defending any claim
• to respond to lawful requests by public authorities, including to comply with law enforcement requirements
• for any other purpose authorised by you or applicable law.

We collect and use your credit card information to bill you and to collect money that you owe us, including authorising and processing credit card transactions to renew your membership, charge you for Advertisements, allow you to answer screening questions by video or when you purchase other products or services from us.

PROFILE

If you are an Appoint Professional, you can create a comprehensive profile.  Information that you can choose to provide includes:

• full name
• gender
• year of birth
• location
• diversity attributes (e.g. iwi affiliation)
• experience
• remuneration
• email address
• profile bio
• interests
• memberships
• roles and education
• curriculum vitae (CV) which may include personal contact details
• LinkedIn and other social media links
• photo of yourself
• profile video.

The profile information provided by Appoint Professionals is viewable by other Members and any visitor to our website.  You can, at any time, amend, correct or remove information on your profile by signing into your account and editing your profile.

We reserve the right to disable or delete your registration with the appoint platform or your profile information at our sole discretion at any time. 

ADVERTISEMENTS

When a Member posts an Advertisement, we may collect the following information:

• organisation name
• organisation website
• organisation contact details 
• type of organisation (e.g. for profit/commercial or not for profit)
• company logo
• position details
• application details
• introductory video.

We may use this information:

• to publish your Advertisement on the appoint platform
• to connect you with applicants
• to provide the appoint platform to our users
• to respond to communications, including enquiries and complaints
• 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.

APPLYING FOR A POSITION

When you apply for a position through an Advertisement, we may disclose your name, contact details, application, CV and cover letter, answers to screening questions, profile video and any other information you choose to provide to the Organisation so they can identify you, assess your application and contact you in relation to the position.  By applying for a position, you are requesting that we pass that information to the Organisation advertising that position as a part of your application.  The information you provide to us in relation to your application will also be stored by us and accessible via the appoint platform by the Organisation that posted the Advertisement. 

The use of your information by Organisations is not within our control and we cannot accept responsibility for the conduct of Organisations.  You can directly contact those Organisations to request access to any personal information that they may hold about you in accordance with their own privacy policies and procedures. 

CONTACTING AN APPOINT PROFESSIONAL

If you are an Appoint Professional, other Members or Organisations may contact you by utilising the email functionality at the bottom of your profile.

 If you are a Member and choose to contact an Appoint Professional by utilising the email functionality at the bottom of their profile, a copy of your message may also be sent to us.

ANALYTICAL DATA

We collect non-identifiable personal information when:

• Members input information into the appoint platform
• Members access and use our website, the appoint platform or our other products and services.

We may use this information:

• to conduct statistical analysis and identify trends and insights
• for research and development purposes.

GENERAL DISCLOSURE

In addition to the disclosure purposes set out above, we may disclose personal information to:

• any business that supports our website, products and services, including any person that hosts or maintains any underlying IT system or data centre that we use to provide our website, the appoint platform or our other products or services or that we use to process payments
• other third parties (for anonymised statistical information)
• a person who can require us to supply your personal information (e.g. a regulatory authority)
• any other person authorised by the individual concerned
• any other person authorised by the Act or another law (e.g. a law enforcement agency).

Also, we may share information about your use of our website with our trusted advertising and analytics partners through the use of cookies, web beacons, and similar storage technologies.  Please refer to our Cookie Policy below for further information. 

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

A business that supports our website, products and services may be located outside of New Zealand (the country where we are incorporated) and also outside of the country where you are located.  This means that the personal information we collect may be transferred to, and stored in, a country outside of New Zealand and the country where you are located. 

PROTECTING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

As required by the Act, we will take reasonable steps to keep your personal information safe from loss, unauthorised activity, or other misuse.  We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risks inherent in processing personal information. 

You play an important role in keeping your personal information secure by maintaining the confidentiality of any password and accounts used in relation to the appoint platform or our other services.  You should not disclose your password to third parties.  Please notify us immediately if there is any unauthorised use of your account or any other breach of security.

ACCESSING & CORRECTING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Subject to certain grounds for refusal under the Act, you have the right to access your readily retrievable personal information that we hold about you and to request a correction to your personal information.  

If you believe we hold personal information about you and want to exercise either of the above rights, email us at hello@appointbetterboards.co.nz.   We will need evidence to confirm that you are the individual to whom the personal information relates.  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).  Where you request a correction, if we think the correction is reasonable and we are reasonably able to change your 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. 

Subject to applicable law, we may charge you our reasonable costs of providing to you copies of your personal information or correcting that information. 

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 our website to another website, the owner of that website will have its own privacy policy relating to your personal information.  We suggest you review that website’s privacy policy before you provide personal information to that owner or website.

DATA RETENTION POLICY

The personal information that we collect and use will not be kept longer than necessary for the purposes for which it is collected, or for the duration required for compliance with the Act, whichever is longer. 

CONTACTING US

If you have any question about this privacy policy, or our privacy practices, or if you would like to request access to, or correction of, your personal information, you can contact us at hello@appointbetterboards.co.nz. 

COOKIE POLICY

INTRODUCTION

We use cookies on our website and as part of our related services, and receive information collected through cookies. This cookie policy explains how we use cookies and how you can opt out of cookies.

By continuing to use our website and related services, you indicate your agreement for us to use the cookies described below.

We use the term cookies in this cookie policy to mean cookies or similar technologies such as web beacons, clear GIFs, and pixel tags.

WHAT ARE COOKIES

Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your browsing device, e.g. a computer or smartphone, when you visit a website. Cookies can be recognised by the website that downloaded them, or by other websites that use the same cookies. This helps a website know if the browsing device has visited that or other websites before.

Cookies can be used to collect information relating to your use of a website or your device, let you navigate between pages effectively, help to remember your preferences and generally improve your browsing experience.

Cookies can be session or persistent cookies.  Session cookies are temporary and only stay on your browser until you stop browsing.  Persistent cookies stay on your device until they expire or are deleted.

The cookies used on our website may be first party cookies (i.e. set by us) or third party cookies (i.e. cookies set on our website by a person other than us). The third party companies that place cookies on our website will have their own privacy policies.

WHAT TYPES OF COOKIES DO WE USE

The types of cookies used by us, and most websites, can generally be categorised as follows.

Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are essential for the full functionality of our website and related services. They enable you to navigate around our website and services and use their features e.g. accessing secure areas and enabling services that you have asked to receive. If you opt out of these cookies, you may not be able to access all the functions of our website and some services that you have asked to receive.
These cookies do not track where else you have been on the internet and do not remember your preferences beyond your current visit. These cookies are generally first party session cookies which will expire when you close your browsing session. These cookies do not collect information that could be used for marketing purposes.

Functionality cookies
These cookies allow a website to remember choices you make and provide enhanced, more personal features. e.g. these cookies allow us to remember the settings you have applied to the website (such as font size, preferences or colours), identify whether you are a returning website visitor and present you with a personalised version of the website, or eliminate the need for you to re-enter your login details. The information these cookies collect is generally anonymous and they do not track your browsing activity on other websites. These cookies may be first or third party, session or persistent cookies.

Performance cookies
These cookies collect information about how you use a website, e.g. which pages are the most visited and if you receive any error message from any page. This information helps us improve the way our website and related services work and helps us manage the performance and design of the website and services. These cookies do not gather information that identifies you. All of the information these cookies collect is aggregated and anonymous. These cookies may be first or third party, session or persistent cookies.

GOOGLE COOKIES

We use Google Analytics to collect information about visitors to our website.  Google Analytics collects information related to your device, browser, IP address, network location, and website activities to measure and report statistics about your interactions on our website.  We use this information to help us manage the performance and design of our website and to improve our website. 

HOW TO CONTROL OR OPT OUT OF COOKIES

You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish.  You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed.  However, if you do this, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit our website and attempt use our services, you may not be able to access certain parts of our website or services, and some functionalities may not work.

You can find out more information about how to change your browser cookie settings at http://www.aboutcookies.org.uk.

To learn more about how to control cookie settings through your browser:

• click here to learn more about the Private Browsing setting and managing cookie settings in Firefox
• click here to learn more about Incognito and managing cookie settings in Chrome
• click here to learn more about InPrivate and managing cookie settings in Internet Explorer
• click here to learn more about Private Browsing and managing cookie settings in Safari.

THIRD PARTY WEBSITE COOKIES

If you follow a link on our website to another website, the owner of that website will have its own cookies.  We suggest you review that website’s cookie policy before you visit that website.