Introduction
We’re really happy to see you here. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully before you use our systems. By using them, you are confirming that you have read, understood, and agreed to the Policy. Because it’s so important, we’ve tried to make it as easy as possible to understand, and so at the start of each section we have included a short non-legal (and non-binding) summary.
If you have questions about this policy, how we collect or process your personal data, or anything else related to our privacy practices, we want to hear from you. You can contact us at any time.
Definitions
Summary: We use these terms throughout the Policy as a shorthand, and when we do so, we mean these specific things:
Anonymised Analytics Data (AAD)
This term includes information such as your browser type, operating system, the referring web page, pages visited, your location, your mobile carrier, device information (including operating system and screen sizes), and search terms.
It does not include any information that could be classified as “Personally Identifiable Information” under the Privacy Act 2020.
Data
Any electronic information that is stored, transmitted, or processed.
Electra, Us, Our, and We
These terms refer to Electra Group Limited, as well as our affiliates, directors, Board, the Electra Trust, and our employees.
Privacy Policy, Policy
This refers to this document – and any of the associated links within it referring you to more information.
Service, System, Systems
This refers to this document – and any of the associated links within it referring you to more information.
Website
The “Website” refers to all content and services provided at the www.electra.co.nz website, including any subdomains, or information provided by us via the internet.
You, Your
These terms refer to the individual person, company, or organisation that has visited or is using the Website or Service.
What do we collect?
We receive certain information when you use our services, websites or mobile applications that include our content, and from third parties. Like the information you share with us, we use the data below to operate our services.
Cookies
Summary: We use tiny bits of anonymous data to help provide you a better experience on our websites. You can opt out.
A cookie is a small piece of data that is stored on your computer or mobile device. Like many websites, we use cookies and similar technologies to collect additional website usage data and to operate our services. Cookies are not required for many parts of our services. Although most web browsers automatically accept cookies, many browsers’ settings can be set to decline cookies or alert you when a website is attempting to place a cookie on your computer. However, some of our services may not function properly if you disable cookies.
When your browser or device allows it, we use both session cookies and persistent cookies to better understand how you interact with our services, to monitor aggregate usage patterns, and to personalise and otherwise operate our services such as remembering your language preferences.
We do not support the Do Not Track browser option at this time.
Anonymised Analytics Data
Summary: We monitor how our websites and services are used, so that we can perform better in the future by seeing where people using our things get stuck.
We receive information when you view content on or otherwise interact with our services, which we refer to as “Anonymised Analytics Data” or AAD. For example, when you visit our websites, interact with our emails, Facebook (or other Social Media) posts, we may receive information about you.
We also receive AAD when you click on, view, or interact with links on our services, or download, install, or uninstall our mobile applications, or visit our Social Media channels.
Electra uses Google Analytics to help us understand traffic volumes, pathways, and usage patterns on our websites. The data collected is anonymous.
Device Location Information
Summary: We try to tailor our mobile application to where you are.
We use information about your current location, which we get from signals such as your IP address or device settings, to securely and reliably provide our services to you.
Subject to your settings, we may collect, use, and store additional information about your location – such as your current precise position – to operate or personalise our services.
Personal Information
Summary: We also collect information specific about you, your house, or your contact details in certain circumstances.
We collect data about the electricity connection points in our region, which may include:
- your name;
- your address;
- your phone number;
- your email address;
- if anyone at your address has a medical condition that requires constant power supply;
- technical information about the power use at your property, for example, outages or other network issues at your address;
- information about power that has been consumed or produced at your property; and
- details of communications we have had with you, including communications about network issues at your property and any requests, enquiries and complaints that you make to us.
We may also record and store:
- calls you make to our Customer Contact Centre for training and/or fraud detection purposes (in which case we will notify you at the start of the call that the call will be recorded, and the purposes for recording the call);
- CCTV footage at our sites for the purposes of monitoring the safety and security of our staff and our sites. If you are visiting any of our sites which have CCTV cameras installed, signage at the site will notify you that CCTV is operating at the site; and
- your social media username, if you interact with us through those channels, to help us respond to your comments, questions or feedback.
How do we collect it?
Details of your interactions with us
Summary: We also collect information specific about you, your house, or your contact details in certain circumstances.
When you use our services, even if you’re just looking at the website or our outage map viewer, we receive some personal information from you, such as the type of device you’re using and your IP address. You can choose to share additional information with us like your name, email address, phone number, and comments when you use the Contact Us form, the Report Outage form, or by phoning our Contact Centre.
We also receive information from electricity retailers, and from our field crew and contractors while they are carrying out work on our network, and from central government sources, such as the Electricity Registry and the New Zealand census.
- When you engage with us on social media, for instance by contacting us on Facebook.
- When you contact us for any reason, such as with queries, complaints etc.
- When you engage in other promotional activity with us.
- When you choose to complete any surveys we send you
- When you fill in any forms in relation to our business.
For example, we collect notes from our conversations with you, details of any complaints or comments you make, and how and when you contact us.
Other Sources
Summary: The company that you pay for your electricity also send us some of your information, and occasionally (such as in accidents etc) so do organisations like the Police.
Data may also be collected from other sources, such as:
- information relating to power consumption or production at your property;
- data collected automatically from your smart meter (if you have one);
- information about you which is provided to us from other organisations involved in the supply of electricity to you, for example, your electricity retailer;
- during an accident investigation involving our equipment (your car hitting one of our power poles for instance); and
- We may collect personal data about you from publicly available sources (such as the New Zealand census).
Where possible, we will collect the information directly from you. However, the method of collecting this information may vary depending on which one of our services you are using (for example our contractors can collect information on our behalf when fixing faults).
We also use CCTV cameras to record footage at some of our sites. This footage may constitute ‘personal information’ as defined in the Privacy Act.
Electra retrieves data from electricity retailers from the Electricity Authority concerning usage and charges across our network.
Why do we collect it?
Law and the Public Interest
Summary: Some things we legally need to store, or we store to help later investigations if they are required.
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Privacy Policy, we may preserve, use, or disclose your personal data or other safety data if we believe that it is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request; to protect the safety of any person; to protect the safety or integrity of our services, including to help prevent spam, abuse, or malicious actors on our services; to address fraud, security, or technical issues; or to protect our rights or property or the rights or property of those who use our services.
However, nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to limit any legal defences or objections that you may have to a third party’s, including a government’s, request to disclose your personal data.
Electra has obligations to the Electricity Authority under the Electricity Industry Act 2010, requiring the transfer of some information about connection points to the Electricity Registry. This information is also used in the calculation of the discounts paid by the Electra Trust. You can find out more information about this at www.ea.govt.nz.
CCTV footage specifically may be used for the following purposes:
- Detecting and deterring criminal behaviour on our sites; and,
- Monitoring the safety and security of our staff and our sites and completing incident investigations.
To provide you with the service you want
Summary: To answer your questions, provide services to you, and to make sure we comply with our legal requirements.
We use information that we collect about you and your property to help us provide services to you and to help us run our business more efficiently, for example:
- supplying you with services;
- managing, maintaining and improving our network;
- dealing with your requests, enquiries and complaints about our network including fault resolution and power quality issues and other customer care related activities;
- setting the correct tariff for electricity consumption at your property;
- informing you about the network, for example planned outages and scheduled maintenance;
- carrying out activities required by law or regulatory requirements;
- for specific purposes notified to you at the time of collection;
- charging you for services provided;
- processing your orders or applications and administering your account;
- billing you (unless you pay by another agreed method) and collecting any debt owed to us by you;
- carrying out any activity in connection with a legal, governmental or regulatory requirement on us or in connection with legal proceedings, crime or fraud prevention, detection or prosecution;
- calculating and paying your discount from the Electra Trust;
- administration or business purposes including staff training, quality control, network monitoring, and testing of our systems and processes;
- providing you with information related to your use of the network;
- monitoring safety and security of our staff and our sites;
- with your consent, providing you with information about any new services that may become available and may be of interest to you; and
- For general administrative and business purposes.
We collect personal information about you when:
- it is necessary to provide services you have requested;
- you have expressly consented to us collecting that information, for example when you apply for an account with us, or enter a competition or promotion run by us;
- it is necessary to protect or enforce our legal rights or interests (including to protect our IT systems or to improve cyber security), or to defend any claims made against us by any person (including you); or,
- it is required by law.
Anonymous amalgamated data
Summary: We make reports and graphs to judge how well we’re doing, to find ways to improve our service, and to monitor the security of our services.
We may use cookies and other interactive techniques to collect AAD about how you interact with our website, and web-related products and services, to:
- Understand what content is popular on our services;
- Understand what people do not like and do not use;
- Understand when people are likely to use the services, and with what purpose;
- Provide a more enjoyable, customised service and experience;
- Allow us to analyse attacks and illegal behaviours in order to avoid them in future; and,
- Help us develop and deliver better services tailored to our customers’ interests and needs.
We also collect IP addresses. IP addresses are assigned to computers on the internet to uniquely identify them within the global network. We collect and manage IP addresses as part of the service of providing internet session management and for security purposes.
We may use a persistent cookie to record details such as a unique user identifier and general registration details information on your device. This helps us recognise you on subsequent visits to our websites so that you don’t have to re-enter your registration details each time you visit us and allows us to carry out the activities mentioned above.
Any information automatically retrieved, such as website browsing patterns, will be used only in aggregate form, (so that no individual visitors are identified).
Who has access to the data?
Within Electra
Summary: All your information is protected in our systems, and only people with a requirement to interact with it can access it.
Contact centre staff have access to call recordings, emails, and other electronic messaging formats for training purposes, and for reviews as part of our complaint’s management process. Later in this process, other senior staff members may get involved, if there is a requirement to do so.
Reports about faults or maintenance required on Electra equipment will be passed to our technicians to investigate and/or resolve, which may include contact details for the person(s) reporting the issue.
Additionally, our Finance department accesses some personal details, including address, ICP and usage information to calculate the yearly discount amounts.
Sharing your information with third parties
Summary: Occasionally we need to share your information with other companies for legal purposes or to complete a process. We won’t sell it or give it away for advertising though.
We may need to disclose information about you to third parties. We will only disclose your personal information to:
- our agents, contractors and service providers so that they can provide services on our behalf, including installing your meter, maintaining our network and resolving faults;
- your electricity retailer;
- anyone you have authorised us to disclose information to; or
- other parties, in order to comply with a legal or regulatory requirement or where we are permitted to do so by applicable law.
There may be times when we need to disclose your personal information to third parties. You authorise us to disclose your information to:
- Our Group companies who may use and disclose your information for the same purposes as us;
- Those who provide us or our Group companies with products or services that support the services that we provide, such as (but not limited to) our suppliers, field service providers and contractors;
- Credit reference agencies (unless we have agreed otherwise), who may share your information with other organisations and who may keep a record of the searches we make against your name;
- If someone else pays your bill, such as your landlord, that person;
- Anyone we transfer our business to in respect of which you are a customer or a potential customer;
- Anyone who hosts or maintains data centres, service platforms, cloud-based solutions and other infrastructure and systems on behalf of us and our Group companies, where your information is processed, hosted or stored; or,
- Any person or organisation as authorised by the Privacy Act 2020.
Except as provided above, we will not share your personal information with any other third parties and will not sell, license or rent your personal information to third parties. Otherwise, we will only disclose your personal information without your consent if doing so is:
- Necessary to protect or enforce our legal rights or interests, or to defend any claims made against us by any person (including you);
- Necessary in order to report a cyber incident or for cyber security purposes (including to prevent unauthorised access to, or attacks on, our systems);
- Necessary to lessen a serious threat to a person’s health or safety; or,
- Required by law.
We comply fully with the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007. We will not share, sell, rent, swap or authorise any third party to use your email address without your permission. If you feel you have received an email from us in error, please contact us.
Non-Personal Information
Summary: Anonymous data (think pie charts) is frequently used to produce reports to assess our past performance and focus future improvements.
We share or disclose non-personal data, such as aggregated information like the total number of times people engaged with a service, demographics, the number of people who clicked on a particular link, traffic patterns, device types, or the number of reports about an outage in a particular location to various interested parties, but these statistics will include no personally identifying information.
We do not use any data collected by Google for advertising purposes or share it with any other third parties. Follow this link to see how Google uses the data collected from our website www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners.
AAD is frequently used to produce reports to assess our performance and focus future enhancements and improvements within the organisation.
Protecting your personal information
Summary: Your data is as important to us as it is to you. We do our best to keep it safe.
We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete, up to date and stored in a secure environment protected from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
We make every effort to maintain the security of our internet connections; however for reasons outside of our control, security risks may still arise. Any personal information transmitted to us or from our online products or services will therefore be at your own risk, however we will use our best efforts to ensure that any such information remains secure.
Changes to our privacy policy
Summary: Occasionally we change things or offer more features. We’ll update this page when we do, rather than email you yet another thing.
We may change this privacy policy from time to time and we will tell you about a change in the policy by posting an updated policy on our website. Any change we make applies from the date we post it on the website.
