Privacy Policy

For information about the New Zealand Privacy Act and how it protects all personal information in New Zealand, click here.

Your privacy on the Internet is important to us. Because the Internet offers the ability to collect certain types of information about users, we want you to understand the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of any information we gather. To that end, this privacy policy sets out what information we gather, how we may use it, and how to correct or change it.

Collection
Disclosure of Information
Use
Content Providers, Advertisers and Partners
Cookies Clear Gifs and Tracking
Analytics
Nielsen NetRatings
Omniture
Third Party Ad Servers
Opting in and Opting Out
Changes to Policy
Holding, Correcting and Updating

Collection

APN Holdings NZ Limited or our related companies ("we" or "us") may gather the following types of information about users including you ("you"):

personal information provided by you when you interact with us, such as when you use or purchase our products or services, when you subscribe or register to use our products or services, and when you provide us with your feedback or respond to surveys you are asked to participate in;
aggregated information generated by our systems or third party systems we use, which track traffic to and from our sites but does not relate to you personally; and
other information that does not personally identify you.

Failure to provide necessary personal information when requested may result in certain products or services not being available to you.

Disclosure of Information

We may disclose:

all information that we gather, including your personal information to our related companies;
aggregated tracking information and other information that does not personally identify you, to third parties such as our advertisers;
your personal information to third parties when we believe in good faith that we are required to do so by law;
your personal information to other third parties provided we have your prior authorisation, which we will usually obtain at the time of collecting the information from you.

Use

We may use the personal information we collect:

for verification of your identity and assisting you in case you forget your password or login details where these are necessary to access any of our products or services;
for authorising and processing credit card transactions which you enter into online;
to assist in providing the products and services requested by you;
to provide information to you about other websites, products and services, which we consider may be of interest to you;
for future marketing, promotional and publicity purposes, including carrying out direct marketing, market research and surveys;
for ensuring that you are shown the advertising and information that is most relevant to you and your interests; and
for any other uses that you authorise.

Content Providers, Advertisers and Partners

We do not control the practices of content providers, partners and advertisers connected with our sites and to whom you provide personal information whilst using one of our sites or services. Our sites contain links to other sites, which may not follow the same privacy policies as us. We recommend that you check any relevant privacy policies before providing your personal information to any third party.

Cookies, Clear GIFS and Tracking

We may use a cookie file containing information that can identify the computer you are working from. The cookie file is anonymous as it only gives us details of your IP address, PC platform (Windows, NT or Mac), Browser (e.g. Microsoft, Netscape or other, plus the version of Browser) and domain (whether you are accessing the site from NZ or elsewhere). We may use the information generated by "cookies" to:

track traffic patterns to and from our sites such as the pages you visit, the time you spend on each page, the date and time of your visit, and referring pages (pages you came from or go to);
ensure advertising is being shown to the most appropriate person and limit the frequency of display for certain ad formats; and
enable you to use certain services as a member without having to log on each time and to visit member-restricted areas of the site.

You can choose to refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser and/or deleting them from your hard drive. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use our websites, but you may need them for customisable areas of sites we may develop in the future. If your cookies are turned off we will not have any control over the frequency of display of certain ad formats. This could effect your reading experience.

Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. Clear gifs may ping or alert an advertiser's server about the online movements of Web users. For instance, advertisers may place a clear gif allowing them to recognise an existing cookie on your browser if from the same service. The main difference between cookies and clear gifs is that clear gifs are invisible on the page and are much smaller. We do not have access to any information collected by these clear gifs nor additional information they may be tied to by the advertiser.

Analytics

APN Holdings NZ Limited or our related companies currently contract with two online measurement companies (Nieslen/NetRatings and Omniture) to manage and optimise our Internet business and communications. These companies collect non-personally identifiable information about visits to our site to assist us in analysing the site's performance and advertising effectiveness and optimising the site for readers and marketers.

Nielsen NetRatings

We use Nielsen NetRatings website measurement software and system to assist in tracking traffic patterns to and from our sites, aggregating anonymous information about visits to our sites, and randomly and anonymously surveying users of our sites. Nielsen NetRatings is a leader in the Internet industry in interactive measurement technologies and market research and its system is an accepted standard amongst major New Zealand Internet sites. The system is used to collect information on our network such as the number of pages viewed, the number of unique visitors, how long these visitors spend on the website when they do visit, and common entry and exit points into and from the website. Random anonymous surveys are also used to collect further information about our users.

This non-personal information is aggregated by Nielsen NetRatings and provided to us to assist in our analysis of our websites. The Nielsen NetRatings data is also accessible by media organisations and research companies for the purpose of conducting industry comparisons with other websites. All our pages are coded with a small piece of Nielsen NetRatings code that is transparent to you when you read that page. The software stores a cookie in your browser (if you have enabled cookies) which contains a unique identifier to allow us to track the number of unique visitors to our websites. This information is collected and aggregated by Nielsen NetRatings and in no way can you be identified personally and no personal information is stored about you. For further information about Nielsen NetRatings, click here, and for details of Nielsen NetRatings' privacy policy and how to opt out, click here.

Omniture

Omniture is a leading global web analytics software service used by many of the top international websites. Omniture software, also collects anonymous data using transparent code placed on each of our pages and is used to help track visitor behaviour. It sets cookies on behalf of APN Holdings NZ Limited and its related companies.

The system is used to collect information on our network such as:

number of pages viewed;
the number of unique visitors;
how long these visitors spend on the website when they do visit; and
common entry and exit points into and from the website.

For more information about Omniture's privacy policy, including how to opt out, go to www.omniture.com/policy.html

Third Party Ad Servers

Some of our advertisers use third party companies to serve advertisements when you visit our websites. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites, including information gathered by cookies, in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. We do not control the practices of these companies and they may not follow the same privacy policies as us. We recommend that you check any relevant privacy policies before providing your personal information to any third party.

Opting in and Opting Out

If our intended collection, use or disclosure of your personal information is outside the collection, use or disclosure set out in this Privacy Policy we will give you the option to:

opt out and not receive certain services or participate in certain interactive areas; or
opt in, for example agreeing to be contacted by us in relation to certain matters such as notification of new features to this website, beta testing or promotional activities.

Changes to Policy

We reserve the right to change this policy at any time by notifying site users of the existence of a revised privacy policy.

Holding, Correcting and Updating

Any personal information that you provide to us will be collected and held by us at 46 Albert Street, Auckland, New Zealand. Under the Privacy Act 1993 you have rights of access to and correction of personal information that we hold. We offer the ability to correct or change the information collected at any time and as often as necessary. If you have any questions about how our services work or regarding this policy, contact us by email or by mail to NZ Herald, 46 Albert Street, PO Box 32, Auckland, New Zealand.

For information about New Zealand's Privacy Act 1993 and how it protects the personal information of individuals in New Zealand, click here.