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Privacy Statement

This privacy statement explains how the University of Otago Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka collects, stores, uses and shares your personal information for the purpose of conducting the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study.

The study is a collaboration between the University of Otago Educational Assessment Research Unit (EARU) and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER), conducted on contract to the Ministry of Education.

Purposes for collecting personal information

We need to collect and use personal information for the purpose of conducting the research required to deliver the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study, and to meet our contractual obligations to the Ministry of Education. It is not mandatory that you agree to participate in the study and provide us with this personal information.

Collection and use of personal information

We collect personal information in the following ways:

  • When it is provided to us directly, for example when schools provide information we request as part of their participation in the study, or when website users join our mailing list.
  • We may also collect personal information from third parties, for example when schools participating in the study provide information about their students. The Ministry of Education also provides information to us about schools and students.
  • Information about website users is also automatically captured when they visit this website.

Information we collect about schools:

  • Ministry of Education school identity numbers
  • school equity index numbers
  • general school demographic information (e.g. region, student population)
  • general school contact details (including address, telephone, and email)
  • name and school contact details (including mobile phone number) for staff nominated by the school
  • interactions and communications with study staff and our systems. School related information may be stored on our customer relationship management system, Pipedrive – (Pipedrive privacy notice)
  • study participation consent and non-participation information
  • school staff responses to questionnaires and surveys
  • bank account details (if provided by the school) to facilitate financial transactions

Information we collect about students:

  • general details and identifiers (including name, year level, gender, class/homeroom, and National Student Number)
  • ethnicity information
  • learning support information and ORS status
  • assessment data (written/keyed answers and video footage)

Information we collect about users of our website and applications:

  • the internet address of the user’s browser, and the type of browser used
  • the address of the user’s server
  • the user’s domain name
  • the user’s IP and/or MAC address
  • the date and time that the user visited the website
  • the pages visited and any documents downloaded
  • the previous site visited
  • access details for restricted sites
  • any information provided via online forms, surveys or other functionality.
  • Google Captcha telemetry (to determine if a legitimate user is submitting a form)
  • information generated by cookies.

Access to personal information

To meet the purposes of the study, we provide access to the personal information we collect to:

  • approved staff and researchers
  • New Zealand Council for Educational Research
  • Ministry of Education

We will only ever share the minimum amount of personal information needed to meet our purposes. Wherever possible, we will share only aggregated information (such as data about cohorts of students, not identifiable individuals).

We take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate privacy protections are in place for any personal information shared.

We also work with third parties to provide web services, such as website hosting and maintenance. Website visitor information may be shared with these third parties to the extent necessary for them to provide these services. This information will not include personally identifiable data such as names or addresses but it may include such things as IP and /or MAC addresses, domain names, the pages you accessed, and the date and time you visited our website.

Other than stated above, we do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties personally identifiable information. We take reasonable steps to ensure that any partner or third party involved handles personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020.

Disposal of personal information

Paper records of data for the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study are scanned and archived. Hard copy originals are then housed in locked storage for a minimum period of five years. After five years, the archived documents are logged, sentenced, and disposed of through secure document destruction services.

Digital records are managed in accordance with the University of Otago Information and Records Management Policy (and related policies/procedures).

Storage and security of personal information

Personal information will be stored on University of Otago files and databases and we will take all reasonable steps to keep personal information safe and secure, and to ensure that it is protected against loss or unauthorised access, modification, use or disclosure. As noted above, school related information may be stored on our customer relationship management system, Pipedrive.

In some instances, personal information may be transferred, and held, by service providers in New Zealand and overseas (including, for example, where it is stored using a cloud-based service). Where this occurs, we will do everything reasonably within our power to ensure that the service provider also has reasonable security measures in place to protect personal information.

EARU will not transfer personal information to a foreign person or entity (including an overseas-based service provider) unless:

  1. it reasonably believes that the foreign person or entity has obligations to protect personal information in a way that is comparable to the protections afforded by the Privacy Act 2020; or
  2. the user authorises the disclosure of their personal information after being expressly informed by EARU that the foreign person or entity may not be required to protect their personal information in a way that, overall, provides comparable safeguards to those in the Privacy Act 2020; or
  3. it is not reasonably practicable in the circumstances for EARU to comply with 1. and 2., and it believes on reasonable grounds that disclosure of the personal information is necessary as permitted under the Privacy Act 2020.

Your rights

The Privacy Act gives you rights to request access to and correction of the personal information we hold about you. Please contact us at curriculuminsights@otago.ac.nz to exercise these rights.

Contact details

Please contact us if you have any concerns about the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information.

Education and Resource Centre, Level 1
157 Union Street East
Dunedin 9016
New Zealand

Email: curriculuminsights.admin@otago.ac.nz
Free phone: 0800 808561
Tel: +64 3 479 8561

You can also contact the University’s Privacy Officer:

Registrar and Secretary to Council
Email: privacy.officer@otago.ac.nz
Tel: +64 3 479 8899