Respecting your information

Principles for collecting and using information

The Ministry has a Privacy, Human Rights and Ethics framework. This is called the PHRaE.

The PHRaE gives us guidance on how to collect, use and distribute your information in a safe, respectful, and legally compliant way. It makes sure we:

• protect and value your privacy,
• recognise your human rights and treat you fairly, and
• helps us take an ethical approach in what we do with your information.

The PHRaE focuses on legislative and ethical considerations relating to the collection, use or disclosure of personal information including the application of the Privacy Act 2020, specific legislative provisions under which the Ministry may collect, use or disclose personal information, and the discrimination provisions of the Human Rights Act 1993. It also incorporates guidance relating to Te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi, the Data Protection and Use Policy, and the Algorithm Charter for Aotearoa New Zealand.

Principles for data and analytics

We are committed to the following principles when dealing with your information:

• the Algorithm Charter of Aotearoa New Zealand, and
• the Privacy Commissioner and Government Chief Data Steward (from Statistics NZ) principles for the safe and effective use of data and analytics.

We have an openness and transparency programme. This makes sure that we are as open and transparent as possible about how we collect and use your information.

We've put information on our website, including this page, to explain how we collect, use and share your information.

We have a Research and Evaluation Ethics Committee. This Committee looks at all of our research and evaluation methods. It makes sure that all the research we do meets research ethics standards.

We make sure staff in the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) don't see your information if they don't need to. We do this by using data protection techniques.

This means we can focus on using your information in the best way to get the best outcome for you.

Our systems are secure and only people that need to use your personal information will have access to it. This includes when we store your information electronically in cloud computing systems.

We have a security certification and accreditation process that:

• helps us keep information safe and secure in our systems
• picks up any security risks in our systems and the way we use information
• makes sure the risks are managed well.

We regularly make backups of the information we have in our systems.

If you find a security issue

If you identify a security issue with our systems, please tell us so that we can get it fixed.

We train our staff so they know what is an appropriate and fair use of information. We do this when standards and expectations change.