Privacy statement

Why should you read this privacy statement?

In using the PPSR, you’ll be required to, or in some cases may choose to, provide us with personal and contact details.

This privacy statement sets out what information we’ll ask you for, when we’ll collect it, and what we’ll do with it.

It’s our commitment to keeping your personal information safe and secure, and explains your rights, and our responsibilities.

What information is collected when you use the PPSR?

When you set up an online services account with the PPSR – using either your RealMe or social media login – you’ll be required to provide your name, email address, telephone number (where you have one), physical address and postal address. Providing a mobile number is optional.

Once you’ve set up your online services account, you may also choose to provide us with your personal and contact details: when submitting feedback, contacting us by email, or requesting such things as a lost PIN or password. While you are not obliged to provide this information, not doing so may affect the services we can offer you.

Your personal details may also be shared with a third-party service provider (for example, Campaign Monitor) to enable us to send you important news updates.

In registering a financing statement on the PPSR, you’ll be required to provide specific details, as set out in section 142 of the Personal Property Securities Act 1999.

Statistical information about your use of the register may also be collected, but will not identify you personally. 

Who holds your information?

When you submit personal information, it is held by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

Where appropriate, however, information may be stored or accessed by authorised third parties who are providing services to MBIE (such as IT contractors). We’ll keep your personal details secure in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 and any authorised third parties will be subject to our information security and privacy requirements.

How will we use your personal information?

The information we collect about you enables us to:

• manage your account with us, including payments
• provide you with updates on the PPSR
• alert you to any serious outages
• communicate with you on matters relating to the PPSR
• determine how the PPSR is used so we can deliver, evaluate and improve our services to you.

We’ll generally only use personal information obtained through the PPSR for the purpose for which it was collected. However, we may use or share your personal information for some other directly related purpose, as otherwise permitted by the Privacy Act 2020, or as required by some other legislation.

We may also be required to share personal information under the Official Information Act 1982, or to a Parliamentary Select Committee or Parliament, in response to a parliamentary question.

Who has access to your personal information?

The personal details you provide will be viewable by MBIE staff (where appropriate) and sometimes third-party contractors and suppliers authorised to administer or work on the PPSR, or the PPSR website.

How long will your personal information be held?

Where your personal information constitutes a public record, it will be retained as required by the Public Records Act 2005.

How do you know information about you is secure?

MBIE holds your personal details securely, ensuring we have procedures for staff to follow to keep your information safe, appropriate technology in place to prevent unauthorised access, and external experts available to check that the PPSR remains secure.

We’re obliged to keep your personal information secure, as required by the Privacy Act 2020, and any authorised third-party will be subject to our own security and privacy requirements.

When you phone us, why are the calls recorded?

As part of our commitment to providing the best possible service to our customers, we record all telephone calls answered by our contact centre.

Recording your calls helps us to:

• simplify and improve our customer service to you, by using call information to train our contact centre staff
•  have an accurate record of your call, which may be needed to support any transactions that take place over the phone and/or if there’s a dispute.

We store the recordings securely for a maximum of two years, after which time they are deleted.

Unless we have lawful reason for withholding the information, you can obtain a transcript of a telephone call by writing to the Privacy Officer at the following address:

Privacy Officer
Companies Office
Private Bag 92061
Victoria Street West
Auckland 1142

What are your rights when it comes to your own information?

You have the right to know whether we hold personal information about you, to access that information, and to request changes to information if you believe it to be incorrect.

If you want to check personal information that we hold, please write to:

Privacy Officer
Companies Office
Private Bag 92061
Victoria Street West
Auckland 1142

If we have a good reason for refusing a request to correct information, you’re entitled to ask that a statement be attached to the information to show that a correction was sought, but not made. 

For more information on the privacy laws in New Zealand, and contact details for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, visit the website for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner .

What are cookies, and what do they do?

Browser cookies are small text files sent by a website and stored on your computer’s hard drive. They are generally used to improve your experience of a website, for example, by remembering the preferences you have set.

MBIE uses cookies to collect statistical information, such as trends in PPSR usage, and to enable your browser to maintain a session with the PPSR.

We don’t use cookies to gather any information that will identify you personally.

You can read Google’s privacy statement and access a Google Analytics opt-out tool on Google’s website.

When you log in using social media, is personal information shared?

Individual users of the PPSR wishing only to search the register have the option to log in using their Google or Facebook username and password. Access to the full range of PPSR services requires a RealMe login.

Should you choose to log in through social media, we’ll use only the login ID allocated by Facebook and Google to provide access to your online services account.

We do not request or store any profile or personal details from RealMe, Google or Facebook.

MBIE accepts no liability for the way an authentication provider, such as RealMe, Google or Facebook, uses the personal information it collects, as a result of a user having chosen that log-in option.

How is your information kept safe?

Our websites have security measures in place to prevent the loss, misuse and alteration of the information we hold. To maintain the effectiveness of our systems, they undergo regular monitoring, including activity logging, analysis and auditing.

Information about your use of the PPSR website, API’s and other IT systems may be used to prevent unauthorised access or attacks on these systems, or to resolve such events – even if you’re not involved in such activity yourself.

We may also use third-party services to monitor or maintain the cyber security of our systems and information. These third-party suppliers have access to monitoring and logging information as well as information processed on MBIE websites and other IT systems.

What statistical information is collected when you use the PPSR?

We may collect statistical information about your visit, to help us improve this site. This information won’t identify you personally, and includes:

• the search terms you used
• the pages you accessed on the PPSR website and the links you clicked on
• the date and time you visited the PPSR website
• the referring site (if any) from which you navigated to the PPSR website
• the device you used to access the PPSR website
• your operating system (for example, Windows 10, Mac OSX)
• the type of web browser you use (for example, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox)
• other things like screen resolution, the release of your installed Flash version and the language setting of your browser.

The statistical information referred to above can be viewed by certain MBIE staff. It may also be shared with other government agencies.

Last updated 1 December 2020