This privacy statement will explain how the New Zealand Border Agencies will collect, access, and use the personal information you will provide through the New Zealand Traveller Declaration (NZTD) online form to manage the lawful entry of a traveller and their belongings safely and securely into New Zealand.
This statement applies to those selected individuals who have volunteered to participate in the pilot programme. For any other person, personal information provided using the NZTD online form will be deleted.
What is privacy
Privacy is the right to have your personal information used and managed fairly and transparently.
Personal information is defined in the Privacy Act 2020 (the Act) as “information about an identifiable individual”. All of the information collected through the NZTD online form is personal information.
Privacy Act 2020 – New Zealand Legislation
The Act establishes the rules for how personal information must be managed by agencies. This privacy statement describes how the New Zealand Border Agencies comply with the Act, and where other legislation that these agencies are subject to creates an exception to the Act.
Authority to collect, access, and use your personal information
By volunteering to participate in the pilot programme and submitting your personal information using the NZTD online form, you authorise the Border Agencies to collect, access, and use your personal information to manage the lawful entry of you and your belongings to New Zealand, and to test the NZTD systems and related processes to confirm they are operating as intended.
Each Border Agency will collect and use your personal information in accordance with their statutory powers, as described below, and the requirements of the Act. They may access your personal information when testing NZTD systems and processes, which may include personal information which will not be available to that agency as the NZTD systems are developed.
Who is collecting your personal information
The New Zealand Border Agencies are:
New Zealand Customs Service (NZCS) Te Mana Ārai o Aotearoa
NZCS is responsible for the security of the New Zealand border and the collection of revenue on taxable goods crossing the border.
The Customs and Excise Act 2018 establishes NZCS and its roles and responsibilities. For NZCS questions in the NZTD online form for these pilots, this form will be a legal document for the purposes of the Customs (Arriving Passenger and Crew Declarations) Rules 2018. These rules set out the prescribed information travellers arriving in New Zealand must provide for their personal baggage or other effects to be deemed entered under section 75(1) of the Customs and Excise Act.
Customs and Excise Act 2018 – New Zealand Legislation
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) Te Ratonga Manene, a part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) Hīkina Whakatutuki
INZ administers the Immigration Act 2009 and is responsible for the granting of visas, of permission to enter New Zealand, and for confirming the right to reside in New Zealand.
A condition of participation in the pilot programme is a requirement to be a New Zealand citizen travelling on a New Zealand passport, which will limit INZ collection and use of your personal information during this pilot programme to confirming your right to reside in New Zealand and testing NZTD systems and processes.
Immigration Act 2009 – New Zealand Legislation
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Manatū Ahu Matua
MPI manages biosecurity risks to New Zealand.
The Biosecurity Act 1993 authorises MPI to exercise powers and duties to manage biosecurity risks and keep harmful organisms out of New Zealand. Section 30(1B) and section 41G authorise MPI to collect information from persons arriving in New Zealand for the purposes of assessing goods in their possession.
Biosecurity Act 1993 – New Zealand Legislation
How your personal information will be managed during your participation in this pilot
NZTD provides a digital form alternative to the existing New Zealand Passenger Arrival Card, which is the current method by which the Border Agencies collect information from arriving passengers.
The purposes of collecting personal information through NZTD are:
- To provide the traveller with targeted information about how they can expect to proceed into New Zealand upon arrival based upon their responses.
- To conduct risk assessments and analysis of the information provided in advance of the traveller’s arrival in New Zealand.
- To confirm lawful entry of an individual and their belongings into New Zealand.
- To evaluate and manage any duty owed on incoming goods.
- To evaluate and manage any biosecurity risks presented by incoming goods.
Answers to the following questions are used by NZCS and INZ officials for validating the identity of a traveller, risk assessment, and to verify the information a traveller has provided:
- Given name(s)
- Surname
- Full contact or residential address in New Zealand
- Your occupation or job
- How long do you intend to stay in New Zealand?
- What is the main reason for your trip?
- List the countries you have been to outside New Zealand in the last 30 days (including in transit)
Please note some questions are only asked based on answers already given and may not appear when you complete your declaration.
Answers to the following questions are used by NZCS and MPI officials for risk assessment, and to verify the information a traveller has provided:
- Preferred name
- Given name(s) - if preferred name has not been provided
- Surname
- Port of departure
- Your occupation or job
- How long do you intend to stay in New Zealand?
- What is the main reason for your trip?
- List the countries you have been to outside New Zealand in the last 30 days (including in transit)
Please note some questions are only asked based on answers already given and may not appear when you complete your declaration.
Sharing information with other agencies
Information collected through the NZTD online form may be shared with other agencies to administer health, wildlife, police, fine enforcement, justice, benefits, social service, electoral, inland revenue, and currency laws. Information may be shared under exceptions in the Act for the purposes of law enforcement or to address a threat to public health or public safety.
Your access to your information
During the pilot programme you may access and amend your declaration using the online form at any time before you arrive in New Zealand and present your passport to a Border Official or an eGate system. Should you wish to access your personal information submitted in your declaration after this time you may contact NZCS using the details below.
Under the Act you are entitled to request access to any information an agency holds about you, and to request correction of this information if you believe it to be incorrect. You may do this by contacting the relevant agency directly using the details below. You may be asked to provide proof of your identity when you do so.
Contacting Border Agencies
You can contact NZCS to request access to or correction of any of your information held by NZCS using the details found on their website:
Privacy – New Zealand Customs
You can contact INZ to request access to or correction of any of your information held by INZ using the details found on their website:
Request or change your personal information – Immigration New Zealand
You can contact the MPI to request access to or correction of any of your information held by MPI using the details found on their website:
Access rights to information about you – Ministry for Primary Industries