Privacy policy

We may collect personal information about you (such as your first and last name, mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address, credit card number), directly from you, when you use the Website, over the phone, by letter or email.

We will only use and disclose your personal information for the purposes for which it was collected (or otherwise as required or authorised by law). This may include using your personal information for the following purposes:

• (a) to provide you with products or services and to personalise your experience when browsing the Website;
• (b) to undertake customer service activities, such as responding to any queries, comments or complaints you may have;
• (c) to administer the Website services, including processing any searches or requests for information about our products or services;
• (d) to maintain and develop our business systems, including testing and upgrading them;
• (e) to enable us to monitor, review and improve our products and services and communicate with you about them;
• (f) for our administrative purposes and for internal record keeping;
• (g) to comply with relevant laws and regulations; and
• (h) for any other specific purpose which we notify you of at the time your personal information is collected.

From time to time, we may also contact you for market research purposes or to provide you with information about new products or services or special offers and promotions. This may include information about our programmes, research funding, special events, donor and fund-raising programs. We will allow you to opt in before receiving any unsolicited content. If you do opt in, we will also give you the opportunity to opt out of receiving such direct marketing or market research content.

If you do not want your personal information to be collected, please do not submit it to us. Please note that if you elect not to provide certain personal information to us, we may not be able to provide you with the services, products or information you require.

For the purposes we have described, we may disclose your personal information:

• (a) to our suppliers (including service and content providers), contractors, dealers, agents, and business partners who help us administer the Website and/or deliver services and/or products to you;
• (b) to our professional advisers;
• (c) to anyone to whom our assets or business (or any part of it) is transferred;
• (d) where you have otherwise consented; or
• (e) as otherwise required or authorised by law.

We may also disclose your personal information to anyone who hosts or maintains data centres, service platforms and other infrastructure and systems on behalf of us, where your personal information is processed and/or stored.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the persons and organisations to whom we disclose personal information are bound to protect the privacy of that personal information. Please note that some of the persons to whom we disclose personal information may be situated outside New Zealand. Our Website and systems may also be based on servers located outside of New Zealand.

If you have shared your information to us regarding any personal stories of heart disease, we will only shares these stories (via avenues such as in newsletters or on the Website) with your express written permission.

We take reasonable measures to ensure the security of your personal information that is held by us from such risks as loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. We remind you, however, that if you send information to our Website, the Internet is not a secure environment and although all reasonable care is taken, we cannot warrant or guarantee the security of information you provide to us via electronic means.

If you identify any inaccuracy in your personal information, or you need to make a change to or would like to verify such information, please contact us so that we may update our records or you may go online to the Website and update your own information. Our contact information is set out below.

Where you request details of your personal information and the information requested is not readily retrievable, we may charge a reasonable fee for the cost of accessing or retrieving that information. We note that we are not required to provide access to information in certain situations, but if we refuse access, we will give you our reasons for doing so.

We will keep your personal information for only as long as is necessary to achieve the purpose for which we collected it.

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. These third-party sites are not operated or controlled by us, and we are not responsible for the content or practices of these sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies and security details of any third-party sites you visit.

Email scams are becoming more commonplace. Fraudsters can use email addresses that look like they come from reputable and trustworthy organisations, like the Heart Foundation. The aim is to get the recipient to click on a link and provide personal information. These messages are an impersonation scam and should be deleted or ignored. Do not click on any of the links in the message or reply. 

To identify a phishing email, look for red flags like: 

• a suspicious "from" email address 
• poor grammar 
• urgent requests for personal information 
• links that don't match the website address  
• unfamiliar attachments 
• a sense of urgency or panic in the email content. 

If you’re concerned that you have clicked on links or downloaded attachments from a phishing email, you may be able to get advice from ownyouronline.govt.nz and netsafe.org.nz. 

If you have any queries, please contact us at supportercare@heartfoundation.org.nz or call us on 0800 863 375 or (09) 571 9191. 

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time and if we do so, we will post any updated Privacy Policy on the Website. We encourage you to check the Website periodically to ensure that you are aware of the terms of our current Privacy Policy.