Legal and privacy

This privacy statement and disclaimer apply to ethics.health.govt.nz. This website is owned by the Health and Disability Ethics Committees and administered by the Ministry of Health on their behalf.

Privacy and security

No need to disclose personal information

You may browse and access information contained within ethics.health.govt.nz without providing personal information.

Information provided when you contact us

Where you voluntarily provide personal information (eg, through online forms or email requests), we will only use your personal information for the purposes for which you gave it to us.

This information will be held by the Health and Disability Ethics Committees and the Ministry of Health. Your information may be shared with, and held by, third-party contractors to the extent necessary for those contractors to provide website hosting and maintenance services. We will not disclose your personal information to other government agencies or other organisations without your consent, unless required by law.

We will hold your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. The Privacy Act 2020 regulates us through the Information Privacy Principles as to how we collect, use, hold, disclose, access, correct, manage and dispose of your personal information. For more information visit the Office of the Privacy Commissioner website(external link).

Viewing or changing your information

To view any personal information held by us, or if you have any concerns about personal information that we hold and wish to request its correction, please write to:

The Privacy Officer
Ministry of Health
PO Box 5013
Wellington

Statistical information

Some information is automatically retrieved about your visit, such as:

• your IP address
• the search terms you used
• the pages you accessed on the website and the links you clicked on
• the date and time you visited the website
• the referring website (if any) through which you clicked through to this website
• your operating system (eg, Windows XP, Mac OSX)
• the type of web browser you use (eg, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox)
• other incidental matters such as screen resolution, the release of your installed Flash version and the language setting of your browser.

This information is aggregated and non-personally identifying. No effort is made to identify individual visitors.

Use of statistical information

The statistical information referred to above is used to help improve the ethics.health.govt.nz website. The information will be viewable by website administrators and certain other Ministry staff. It may also be shared with other government agencies.

Cookies

This website uses cookies for the purpose of monitoring website usage. The cookies do not collect personal information. You can disable them or clear them out of the web browser you are using to view this website without affecting your ability to use the website.

Disclaimer

The information available on or through ethics.health.govt.nz is intended to provide general information to the public, and is not intended to address specific circumstances of any particular individual or entity. All reasonable measures have been taken to ensure the quality and accuracy of the information available on this website.

If you find any information on this website that you believe may be inaccurate, please email hdecs@health.govt.nz.

Those accessing this website are advised:

• The Health and Disability Ethics Committees are independent committees established by the Minister of Health. The information on this website is the work of the Health and Disability Ethics Committees and is published on this website by the Ministry of Health on behalf of the Health and Disability Ethics Committees, but does not necessarily represent the views of the Ministry of Health.
• The Health and Disability Ethics Committees and the Ministry of Health make no warranty, express or implied, nor assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, correctness, completeness or use of any information that is available on or through this website.
• The information on this website may be changed, deleted, added to, or otherwise amended without notice.
• The Health and Disability Ethics Committees and the Ministry of Health are not responsible for the content of other websites linked to, or referenced from, this website. The Health and Disability Ethics Committees and the Ministry of Health neither endorses the information, content, presentation, or accuracy of such other websites, nor makes any warranty, express or implied, regarding these other websites.
• Nothing contained on this website is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation by the New Zealand government or the Health and Disability Ethics Committees.
• The contents of this website should not be construed as legal or professional advice and visitors to this website should take specific advice from qualified professional people before undertaking any action following information received from this website.
• Any reference to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacture, or otherwise does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the New Zealand government or the Health and Disability Ethics Committees.

Each page on this website must be read in conjunction with this disclaimer and any other disclaimer that forms part of it.