This site is owned and operated by Masterton District Council using software licensed from Social Pinpoint. For details on how Masterton District Council collects and protects your personal information, refer to their Privacy Policy below. For details of how Social Pinpoint may access personal information, please refer to Social Pinpoint’s Privacy Policy.

Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to Masterton District Council. Our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as well as our obligations and your rights as set out in the Privacy Act 2020. You can find more information about your privacy rights on The Office of the Privacy Commissioner website.

This privacy statement applies to “What's Up, Whakaoriori?” only. For information about the broader collection and use of personal information by Masterton District Council, please refer to the Council’s wider Privacy Policy.

Engagement and consultation

We are committed to the local community being involved in making decisions that affect their lives. To do this, we aim to genuinely engage the community in a way that reflects the importance of issues, proposals or decisions being considered. This is done using a variety of methods and channels to gather opinions, which helps us develop options for decisions. The approach used is determined by the Council’s Significance and Engagement Policy.

Consultation is a formal participation process where Council seeks and considers public submissions, including those made under the Local Government Act 2002 for Annual and Long-term Plans. When providing formal feedback through a submission process please refer to the Council’s Submission Policy for further information.

We use engagement where a project needs early input from identified stakeholders or the wider community. Engagement starts and continues throughout projects as required, with subject matter experts and project leaders helping us determine and support effective engagement approaches. Ongoing engagement lets us test initial thinking to see whether we’re on the right track. Engagement activity may include community drop-in sessions, workshops, suggestion boxes, online surveys and quick polls.

Regardless of the approach use the same principles of privacy apply.

How we will use and disclose your information

We use the personal information about you provide on “What's Up, Whakaoriori?” to:

• send you newsletters and information on topics that you have opted in to receive communication about
• respond to queries that you have contacted us about
• attribute content that you post on the site to you
• analyse use of the site to inform ongoing improvements, enhancements, account activity, and administration
• inform policy decisions by Masterton District Council
• for any other purposes that we indicate to you when we request your personal information.

Who has access to your information?

• Content that you post on the site publicly (such as in a public forum) will be able to be viewed by everyone who uses the site. You will be notified of this before you provide feedback. Each post will contain your chosen username, in the case of informal feedback this does not need to be your real name (you may choose to use an alias, penname, or pseudonym). Please refer to our Submission Policy for minimum criteria for submissions.
• Consultation and engagement reports will be uploaded as part of the reports provided at Council and committee meetings. Information provided on the Reports page is accepted as public record.
• These publicly available reports from consultations or engagements will include your name (if provided) but not your personal details (such as phone number or email address). If you have a completed a Submission your full submission will be provided as per our Submission Policy. For other informal engagement approaches quotes from participants in forums, surveys and other consultation tools may be shared.
• Your feedback, including all demographic details you choose to submit (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, suburb), will be forwarded in the first instance to the relevant Masterton District Council project team with responsibility for administering the subject matter or project to which your feedback relates.

While Masterton District Council takes multiple measures to protect the anonymity of survey respondents for informal engagement approaches, we ask that you help us reduce the risk of inappropriate information access and exposure by not including other information in your responses that could possibly identify you or others.

How to make a complaint

To make a complaint about anything regarding your privacy or that of others, please visit our Complaints and Disputes webpage.

How to contact us

If you would like to contact us about anything in this Privacy Statement, including if you would like to request access to or correction of your personal information, please contact us at:

Masterton District Council
Email address: mdc@mstn.govt.nz
Postal Address: PO Box 444, Masterton 5840, New Zealand
Phone: (06) 370 6300
In-person at our Customer Service Centre: 161 Queen Street, Masterton

You can also log into your What's Up, Whakaoriori? account at any time to update your username, email address, subscription preferences, notifications and password. For any queries, please contact mdc@mstn.govt.nz.

The following Terms and Conditions govern the use of "What’s up, Whakaoriori?" (“the site”). The software platform is owned by Social Pinpoint Pty Ltd and operated by us, Masterton District Council.

By accessing and using this site, you are choosing to accept and comply with the Terms presented throughout this agreement as well as the Privacy Policy and Moderation Policy. These Terms apply to all visitors and users of this site. Linked sites, affiliated services or third party content or software have their own Terms that you must comply with. If you disagree with any of the Terms presented in this agreement, you may discontinue using the site immediately.

If you are under 18 years old, please ensure that your parent or guardian understands and accepts these Terms and Conditions (including the Privacy Policy and Moderation Policy).

What are the conditions with a user’s account?

While using the site, you must not violate any applicable laws and regulations. It is our duty to protect the confidentiality of content you provide on our site in accordance with our Privacy Policy. When you create an account with us, you must always provide us with accurate information. Failure to provide accurate information violates the Terms, which may result in immediate termination of your account on our service. You are responsible for protecting your own password you use for this site and for any activities done under that password. Unauthorised use of your password or account must be immediately reported to us. In some cases, we or our agents may require access to your user accounts to respond to technical issues.

We are not responsible for the content on the site that has been provided by the users of the site. Any content posted by you is subject to the rules of our Moderation Policy. Your contribution to the site may be edited, removed or not published if we consider it inappropriate (refer to Moderation Policy). Contributors should also be aware that their posts may remain online indefinitely. Where practical, you may choose not to identify yourself, deal with us on an anonymous basis or use a pseudonym.

What do we require from our users?

You must understand and agree that, without limitation:

• all information, data, images and other materials are the sole responsibility of the person from whom the content originated;
• you are prohibited from advertising or offering to sell or buy any goods and services
• you cannot transmit Content that contains software viruses or programs designed to change or destroy the functionality of any computer software or hardware; or
• you cannot collect or store personal data about other users of the site
• you cannot impersonate any person or entity, including without limitation to a Masterton District Council representative
• you cannot interrupt or interfere with the site or servers or networks connected to the site
• you cannot attempt to gain unauthorised access to the site or other use accounts

Can your account be suspended or terminated?

We may terminate or suspend access to your site and/or account immediately, without prior notice, including without limitation if you breach the Terms. We may immediately deactivate or delete your account and all the related files and information in your account. After your account has been terminated, the content you have posted may also remain indefinitely on the site.

If you want to terminate your own account, please send an email to mdc@mstn.govt.nz.

Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed in accordance with the laws of New Zealand, without regards to its conflict of law provisions.

Indemnification

Masterton District Council, its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, licensors and other partners are not responsible for any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including legal fees, made by any third party due to or arising from a breach of this agreement and/or any breach of your representations and warranties set forth above.

What content do we own?

This website contains the copyrighted material, trademarks, patents, trade secrets and other proprietary information (“Intellectual Property”) of Masterton District Council and its suppliers and licensors. Masterton District Council owns and retains all proprietary rights in the intellectual property. All intellectual property in the content of this site including without limitation to text, software, source code, pages, documents and online graphics, photographs, sounds, audio, video and other interactive features are owned by or licensed to us.

Any original content that you submit or post on our site may be made available to the public and allows users to share your content (with the end user acknowledging your contribution) under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Australian License.

Except for Intellectual Property which is in the public domain or for which you have been given written permission, you may not copy, alter, transmit, sell, distribute any of the Intellectual Property on this site.

We are not responsible for your communications or dealings, including payment and delivery of goods or services, with a third party found via our website. Any loss or damage incurred from those communications or dealings are solely between the user and the third party.

Disclaimer and Warranties

Users must agree that you use of the site is at your own risk. We make no warranty that the site will meet your requirements or be uninterrupted or error-free. Any material that the user downloads through the site is done at their own risk and are responsible for any damages to their computer system or loss of data.

What happens if these Terms change?

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time without notice. The most recent version of the Terms can be seen on this page. By continuing to access or use our site after those revisions become effective, you agree and will comply to the revised terms. If you do not agree to the revised terms, please discontinue using our site.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at mdc@mstn.govt.nz.