Privacy Policy
This project has been reviewed and approved by the University of Otago Human Ethics Committee (Health) (reference H24/0086). If you have any concerns about the conduct of this research, please contact Ms Jo Farron de Diaz (Senior Research Ethics Administrator) on:
Phone: +64 3 479 8956
Email: jo..farrondediaz@otago.ac.nz
Our Policy
The University of Otago is committed to protecting the privacy of our website users. This policy sets out how we, the will treat your personal information.
The Spiritual Care in Healthcare Research Project is collecting comments from individuals to conduct research for its research programme (the Research Project). Any comment you post on the Website (a Comment) may be used by The Spiritual Care in Healthcare Research Project for that purpose. We will not post your personal details on our website and may edit your comment to remove any information which could be used to identify you.
We may change this policy by uploading a new policy onto the website. This change will apply from the date that we upload the revised policy.
This policy was last updated on 3 July 2024.
Collecting Personal Information
You are not required to provide personal information (including in your blog comments) to us.
In some cases, we collect personal information about you from you to make certain sections of the website available to you. For example, we may need to have your contact information in order to subscribe you to our newsletter. We may also collect, store and use information about your visits and use of the website (see the section on Cookies).
When you provide personal information to us, we will comply with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020.
How we use your Personal Information
We may use the information in your Comment to carry out the Research Project.
We may use your personal information:
To send you newsletter communication when you subscribe
To respond to communications from you
To improve our site and user experience
Disclosing your Personal Information
Generally, we do not disclose personal information to third parties for them to use for their own purposes. However, some of the circumstances in which we may do this are:
To service providers and other persons working with us to make the Website available or improve or develop its functionality (e.g. we may use a third party supplier to host the Website); or
Where required by applicable law or any court, or in response to a legitimate request by a law enforcement agency.
Any personal information you provide to us may be stored on the secure servers of our trusted service providers, which may be located outside New Zealand. This may involve the transfer of your personal information to countries which have less legal protection for personal information than New Zealand.
Protecting your Personal Information
We will take reasonable steps to keep your personal information safe from loss, unauthorised activity or other misuse.
We will not sell, trade or exchange your information without your permission.
We will hold your Comment for so long as it is required to carry out research.
Accessing and correcting your personal information
Subject to certain grounds for refusal set out in the Act, you have the right to access your readily retrievable personal information that we hold and to request a correction to your personal information. Before you exercise this right, we will need evidence to confirm that you are the individual to whom the personal information relates.
In respect of a request for correction, if we think the correction is reasonable and we are reasonably able to change the 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.
If you want to exercise either of the above rights, email us at spiritualwellbeing@otago.ac.nz. 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).
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 post your personal information on social media pages [for example, Facebook, Instagram], you acknowledge and agree that the information you post is publicly available.
If you follow a link on our website to another site, the owner of that site will have its own privacy policy relating to your personal information. We suggest you review that site’s privacy policy before you provide personal information.
Cookies
We may also collect technical information whenever you log on to, or visit the public version of, our Website. This may include information about the way users arrive at, browse through and interact with our Website. We may collect this type of technical information through the use of cookies and other means. We use cookies (an alphanumeric identifier that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive so that we can recognise your browser) to monitor your use of the website. You may disable cookies by changing the settings on your browser, although this may mean that you cannot use all of the features of the website. We use the technical information we collect to have a better understanding of the way people use our Website, to improve the way it works and to personalise it to be more relevant and useful to your particular needs.
Contacting Us
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, our privacy practices, or if you would like to request access to, or correction of, your personal information, you can contact us at spiritualwellbeing@otago.ac.nz.