Dovetail Privacy Statement
At Dovetail, we are committed to protecting your privacy and confidentiality. We comply with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 and take the secure handling of your personal information seriously. This statement explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we protect it, and your rights regarding your data. This statement applies to personal information we collect, handle or store when providing research, evaluation and professional services to our clients, when you participate in trainings, events, surveys or other activities we facilitate and your general communications with us.
Why we collect information
We conduct research, surveys, interviews, and focus groups, often on behalf of government agencies, charities, or other organisations. These organisations use the information we gather to improve their services, understand communities, and make better decisions.
We may also collect information to communicate with people who are interested in our work or services via our website at www.dovetail.co.nz.
The information we collect
Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:
Contact details: Names, email addresses, and phone numbers.
Demographic information: Data you provide during surveys or interviews.
Employment information: employment, occupational or organisational information.
Media: Recordings of interviews, focus groups, or photos (we will always ask for your explicit consent before capturing these).
Responses to surveys or interviews may include: Opinions, experiences, complains, feedback and other information people choose to provide.
Health/sensitive information: May be collected where this is relevant to a project.
How we collect your information
We collect your information in a few different ways:
Directly from you: When you choose to participate in our surveys, interviews, trainings, events, recruitment processes or if you contact us.
From our clients: In some cases, an organisation you interact with may provide us with your contact details so we can invite you to provide feedback. The Privacy Act 2020 allows organisations to share contact details for research purposes, provided the final results do not identify individuals.
From research panels: We occasionally use independent databases or panels (like ConsumerLink) that you may have previously joined.
Participating in our research is always voluntary. You can choose not to participate or stop at any time.
Sometimes we may receive personal information about you from another person or organisation. Where required by the Privacy Act 2020, we will take reasonable steps to let you know that we have collected this information and why. There may be circumstances where notification is not required, for example where you have already been made aware of the collection, the information is publicly available, or another exception under the Privacy Act applies.
How we protect, store and share your data
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We use appropriate physical, administrative and technological safeguards to protect the information we hold and review these measures as needed.
Access to personal information is limited to Dovetail staff, contractors and service providers who need it to carry out their work or provide an authorised service. Anyone with access to personal information is expected to meet appropriate confidentiality, privacy and information-management requirements.
When we are working on behalf of a client, we also follow any additional privacy, confidentiality, security and information-management requirements agreed with that client.
Our standard practice is to keep your personal information completely confidential. We report research and survey results back to our clients as combined, de-identified data.
Anonymity: We will not tell our clients whether you participated, nor will we share your specific answers linked to your name, unless you give us explicit permission to do so.
Security: We store your information safely online using strict access controls, passwords, and encryption so only authorised staff can view it. We also follow the professional standards of the Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Association (ANZEA) (click here for their Standards).
Web surveys: We only use reputable survey platforms that operate under privacy safeguards similar to those in New Zealand. If you complete an online survey, your data may be processed overseas. Please note that no transmission of data over the internet is completely secure and is done at your own risk.
Legal requirements: We will only disclose identifiable information to outside parties if we are required to do so by a regulatory authority or by law.
We do not hold onto your personal information longer than necessary:
Survey contacts: We generally delete your name and contact details that are linked to any of your answers following conclusion of the project.
Project contacts: For other research, we delete your name and contact details linked to your answers at the end of the project.
De-identified data: Anonymous, combined research data is kept for 7 years, unless a client requires a different timeframe.
How long we keep your information
We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purpose it was collected, or to meet any legal, contractual, professional or record-keeping requirements.
When we no longer need personal information, we take appropriate steps to securely delete, destroy or de-identify it, unless there is a lawful reason for us to retain it.
Privacy breaches and complaints
If a privacy breach involves your personal information, we will take appropriate steps to contain and assess the breach and meet our obligations under the Privacy Act 2020, including notifying affected individuals and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner where required.
If you are concerned about a potential privacy breach, or about how we have collected, used, stored or shared your personal information, please contact Dovetail’s Privacy Officer using the contact details below.
Contact us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement, or if you would like to request access to or correction of your personal information, please contact us at [email protected]. Please note: To protect your privacy, we will need to verify your identity before processing any data requests.