New Zealand Traveller Declaration – Privacy statement
This privacy statement will explain how the New Zealand Border Agencies will collect, access, and use the personal information provided through the New Zealand Traveller Declaration (NZTD) online form (the declaration) to manage the lawful entry of a traveller and their belongings safely and securely into New Zealand.
This statement applies to those individuals who have chosen to participate in the trial programme and will submit a declaration using the NZTD online form.
This statement uses ‘you’ and ‘your’ to refer to the person travelling to New Zealand whose personal information is included in the declaration.
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.
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 the trial programme, 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.
Immigration Act 2009 – New Zealand Legislation
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Manatū Ahu Matua
MPI administers the Biosecurity Act 1993 and is responsible for managing biosecurity risks and keeping harmful organisms out of New Zealand.
Biosecurity Act 1993 – New Zealand Legislation
Authority to collect, access, and use your personal information
By volunteering to participate in the trial 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 for testing NZTD systems and processes, in accordance with their statutory powers, as described below, and the requirements of the Act. They may collect and access your personal information when testing NZTD systems and processes, which may include personal information which that Agency does not have any other lawful purpose for other than testing NZTD systems.
As with the existing paper arrival card, Border Agencies will only use information for a lawful purpose connected to the role they are undertaking.
How your personal information will be managed during your participation in this trial
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 test the operation of NZTD systems and processes.
- To provide the traveller with targeted information about how they can expect to proceed into New Zealand upon arrival based upon their responses.
- To confirm the traveller holds an applicable Visa or other authorisation for entry in New Zealand.
- To provide the traveller with direct information about their declaration through correspondence and phone calls with contact centre operators.
- To conduct risk assessments and analysis of the information provided, both in advance of and upon the traveller’s arrival in New Zealand.
- To facilitate 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.
All of the information included in your declaration will be accessible to NZTD contact centre operators when you request support with your declaration. Contact centre operators are unable to amend or delete declaration information or to make a declaration submission on behalf of a traveller.
Contacting you to request feedback on your experience using NZTD
Programme staff members may contact you using the email address you provide in your declaration to ask that you complete a short survey about your experience with the NZTD website, declaration form, contact centre, and how your entry into New Zealand was managed when you arrived.
You will only be contacted once, and completing the survey is voluntary.
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.
Under section 26 of the Data and Statistics Act 2022, NZCS is making a mandatory request for data from you via the NZTD on behalf of Statistics New Zealand. The data to which this request relates includes:
- If you live in New Zealand:
- What country you spent the most time in while overseas
- The main reason for your trip overseas
- Which country you will mostly live in for the next 12 months;
- If you do not live in New Zealand:
- Whether you intend to stay in New Zealand permanently (and if so, for how long)
- Your main reason for coming to New Zealand
- In which country you last lived for 12 months or more.
The information you provide contributes to important international travel and migration statistics for New Zealand. This is why you have a legal obligation to answer all questions as requested. It is an offence to fail or refuse to respond. For more information, call 0800 809 464 or visit the Statistics New Zealand website.
Retention and disposal of your information
The NZTD systems are managed and operated on behalf of the Border Agencies by NZCS and MBIE, who are responsible for the security of the information held in these systems. They are hosted in New Zealand and in Australia.
Information collected through the NZTD online form will be retained in a non-identifiable format for system performance and reporting purposes.
Information arising from interactions with Border Agencies upon arrival in New Zealand will be retained by the appropriate Agency and may include information submitted through the NZTD online form.
Completing a declaration on behalf of another person
A person may complete a declaration for another person who is travelling to New Zealand. It is the responsibility of the person completing the declaration on behalf of a traveller to obtain the consent of the traveller before doing so. It is the responsibility of both the person completing the declaration and the traveller to ensure the information provided in the declaration is correct and accurate.
When completing a declaration on behalf of another traveller, the name and contact information of the person completing the declaration will be collected and may be used as described in this statement.
Your access to your information
During the trial 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