Have your Say - Terms of Use

The following terms govern your use of the Have your Say website:

1. Have your Say membership terms
2. Have your Say acceptable use policy
3. Intellectual property statement
4. Records and disclosure statement
5. Disclaimer
6. Applicable law
7. Privacy Policy

In using the website, you agree to be bound by these terms. If you do not accept these terms, you must refrain from using the website.

We may change these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy, at any time by posting changes online. Please review our terms and policy regularly to ensure you are aware of any changes made. If you continue to use this website following any modification of the terms or policy, you will be considered to have accepted the modification.

1 - HAVE YOUR SAY MEMBERSHIP TERMS

Have your Say is our online public consultation tool, available to New Zealand citizens and organisations who have completed the Have your Say membership registration process. You may not have multiple memberships.

Under 16s need consent

If you are under 16-years-old, you must get your parent's or guardian's consent before joining Have your Say.

Access and passwords

Panel members access Have your Say with a user name (your email address) and password. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and for any activities that occur through the use of your password, and we recommend you change your password at regular intervals. You must notify us immediately of any actual or suspected unauthorised use of your password. We may remove your access to Have your Say if you breach any of the website terms of use.

Contributions are non-confidential

The content of your contributions to Have your Say will be treated by us as non-confidential and may be made available on the website (unless you specifically state otherwise).

Contributions are moderated

A moderator is responsible for reviewing all contributions to Have your Say and ensuring that published responses meet the Have your Say Acceptable Use Policy. The moderator may decline to publish contributions or modify contributions if there is any doubt about whether they comply with the policy.

If the moderator decides that your contribution is to be modified, not published or removed, you will be sent an email (to the address you provided) explaining the reasons.

Your intellectual property obligations

You grant us a royalty-free, irrevocable licence to do any act protected by copyright (including reproducing, publishing, performing or communicating to the public) in relation to your panel contributions.

If your contribution includes material in which the copyright or other intellectual property is owned by another person or entity, you warrant that you have the right to contribute such materials to the website and agree to indemnify us against any loss, liability, claim, demand, damage or expense (including legal fees) asserted by any third party (including yourself) arising out of a breach of that warranty.

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2 - HAVE YOUR SAY ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

In making contributions to Have your Say you agree:

• to keep your contributions relevant to the themes currently being consulted on
• not to use the website to invade the personal privacy of any person or group and not to include any personal information (such as names, private addresses or phone numbers), including your own
• not to impersonate any other person or falsely claim to represent any other person, whether living, dead or fictitious
• not to abuse, stalk, harass, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights of others
• not to make a contribution to the website that is misleading, deceptive, false, defamatory or libellous
• not to use insulting, threatening or provocative language or language that is hateful towards any person or group
• not to incite hatred on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality or sexuality or other personal characteristic
• not to transmit any information which is indecent, obscene or pornographic
• not to use the website to conduct any illegal activity or solicit the performance of any illegal activity
• not to contribute to the website any text or other material that infringes the intellectual property rights of others
• not to spam your contribution to the website by sending multiple copies or versions of it
• not to contribute material to the website that contains or links to any commercial advertising material, and to otherwise comply with these website terms of use.

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3 - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY STATEMENT

All intellectual property rights in the website (including text, images, software, logos, icons, HTML code, software) are owned by or licensed to us. Except as permitted by law, you may only copy, download, print or reproduce that material if you:

• attribute to us any of such material that you redistribute
• do not make or sell copies of it for commercial gain, and
• do not include it as part of any product or service that you create or distribute.

For any other uses of the material, you must obtain our express permission by emailing enquiries@thecouch.org.nz

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4 - RECORDS AND DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

As we are a Crown Entity, we treat your emails and contributions to our website as public records and retain them as required by the Public Records Act 2005. We may also be required to disclose those materials under the Official Information Act 1982.

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5 - DISCLAIMER

The website is provided on an 'AS IS' and 'AS AVAILABLE' basis and without warranties or representations of any kind, expressed or implied.

You use the website and any linked website at your own risk, and we are not liable for any loss resulting from any action taken or reliance made by you on the website or any information or material on it.

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6 - APPLICABLE LAW

These terms will be governed by New Zealand law, and you agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the New Zealand Courts.

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7 - PRIVACY POLICY

Use of personal information

All personal information that you give us via this website will be kept confidential as required under the Privacy Act 1993. Your personal information will only be used for the purpose for which it was given, including for our own research or reporting and as otherwise specified on the website. Except with your consent or as required by law:

• you will not be identified in our research or reports
• we will not pass on your personal information to any other person or organisation, other than our agents or contractors who will deal with it on the same basis as us.

Updating personal information

You can update your personal information by sending an email, including your old and new details, to enquiries@thecouch.org.nz

How we use cookies

We use cookies on the website to allow users to carry information across different pages. Cookies are not used to track or identify users for any other purpose. When you visit the website, our web server makes a record of your visit and logs the following information for statistical purposes only:

• your server address
• your top level domain name (for example .nz, .govt, .com, etc)
• the date and time of your visit to the website
• the pages accessed and documents downloaded
• the previous website visited
• the type of browser used.

We do not identify users or try to identify users or their browsing activities except as required in the unlikely event of an investigation by a law enforcement agency.

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