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Privacy policy

PRIVACY POLICY
The Theosophical Society in New Zealand Inc.

The Theosophical Society in New Zealand Inc. (TSNZ) (we, us or our) is committed to protecting and maintaining the privacy, accuracy and security of your personal information. This privacy policy sets out details of how we collect, use, store and disclose your personal information.

By:

  • accessing and using our website;
  • becoming a member of TSNZ or one of our branches;
  • signing up to receive our newsletters or other communications;
  • accessing our events, products and services; or
  • otherwise engaging with us,

you consent to the collection, use, storage and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this policy.

WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We will only collect personal information relevant to our relationship with you. The personal information we collect will generally include your name, date of birth, address, telephone numbers, email address, bank account details, signature of guardian if joining and under 18, information relevant to your actual or potential membership (including your status e.g. date of joining/rejoining/departure, diploma number, branch or lodge membership and conduct), newsletter subscription details (including your name and email address),  information relevant to your actual or proposed attendance at any of our events (including your dietary requirements), CCTV footage at our premises, and video footage from any of our events. You may choose not to provide us with any of this personal information, but not doing so may affect our ability to offer you membership or provide you with our products and services.

HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We will collect this personal information directly from you when you:

  • apply for membership, and subsequently in connection with your membership;
  • register to receive our newsletters, products or services;
  • attend any of our meetings and/or events;
  • use any of our products and services; or
  • communicate or interact with us, whether by email, telephone, social media or otherwise.

You are required to keep us informed of changes to your personal information to enable us to have proper administrative processes.
We may also collect aggregated information, including information generated by our system, which tracks your use of our products and services but does not identify you personally.

WHERE WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may collect your personal information directly from you, your representatives or information you have made public, for example, on social media.

We may also collect your personal information from other persons or organisations, for example:

  • credit reference and/or fraud prevention agencies;
  • law enforcement agencies;
  • referees for tenancy applications.

COOKIES
Our website uses server logs and web analytic tools (such as “cookies”). Cookies are small text files that are downloaded to your device by websites that you visit. When you use our website, these tools collect information such as the browser and operating system that you use, the internet protocol address of the device you use to access the site, search terms, your location and the content that you view when visiting the website.

You can set your browser to block all cookies, including cookies associated with our website, or to indicate when a cookie is being set by us. If you set your browser to reject cookies you may not be able to access all the features of the website.

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We may use your personal information to:

  • identify you, so we can ensure that we are dealing with the correct person and verify your membership status;
  • provide our products and services to you;
  • communicate with you, including providing you with details of our events and copies of our magazines and newsletters;
  • carry out the business of our organisation which includes assessing and maintaining your membership, collecting subscription and other fees, planning, hosting events and meetings, sending you voting slips and other TSNZ election related information, research and analysis;
  • protect and/or enforce members’ legal rights and interests;
  • conduct any disciplinary or other proceedings in accordance with our Constitution or applicable legislation;
  • fulfil our legal requirements (for example, compliance with legal obligations, disclosure to law enforcement agencies or the courts); or
  • for any purpose related to or in connection with the above.

We may use any information that we collect from you that is not personal information (so you cannot be personally identified from it) for our purposes, including:

  • to assess how our members or potential members access our events, products and services;
  • to evaluate visits to our website;
  • to improve our events, products and services; or
  • for marketing and promotional purposes.

MARKETING

We may use your personal information to offer you events, products and services that we believe meet your needs. You can notify us at any time if you do not wish to receive these offers by emailing us at office@theosophy.nz or writing to us at 18 Belvedere Street, Epsom, Auckland 1051. We will act promptly on any such request.

WHO WE MAY DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION TO
We may disclose information we retain about you, including your personal information, to the following persons or their agents:

  • our employees, contractors, and any relevant Theosophical Society branch or lodge within New Zealand;
  • the Theosophical Society’s International Headquarters in Adyar, Chennai, India;
  • third parties engaged by us to perform specific functions for our business, such as contracted database and website developers;
  • service providers engaged by us, such as for data storage, IT and software management, legal, accounting and auditing purposes;
  • Government departments or law enforcement agencies (including the Police);
  • debt collection services or credit reporting agencies;
  • mediators, arbitrators, or anyone else involved in a dispute resolution process.

Some of the persons listed above may be located overseas. We will only transfer your personal information to a foreign person or entity in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020.

We will not otherwise disclose, sell or transfer to third parties any of your personal information.

YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IS SECURE
We will take reasonable steps to keep your personal information secure and confidential. This includes the following:

  • only our staff and those who perform services on our behalf, and are authorised to handle your information, will have access to your personal information;
  • we will not retain any of your personal information for any longer than it is required by us except to fulfil our legal obligations or where you have consented; and
  • we will, with your help, keep your personal information accurate, complete and up-to-date.

ADVERTISING AND THIRD PARTY LINKS
Our website may contain links to a variety of third party website sources. Some of these links may request or record information from users or use cookies or other methods
to collect information from you.

We have no control over the content or privacy policy practices of those sites and encourage you to review the privacy policies of those sites before using them.

YOU MAY REQUEST ACCESS TO AND CORRECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
You can access most of the personal information we hold about you and request corrections. This right is subject to some exceptions, for example, you may not be able to obtain access to information relating to existing or anticipated legal proceedings.

You can request access to or correction of your personal information by emailing us at office@theosophy.nz or writing to us at 18 Belvedere Street, Epsom, Auckland 1051. We may charge a reasonable fee for providing you with our assistance (where personal information is made available), for making information personal available, and for correcting your personal information.  We may require all or part of the fee to be paid in advance.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU THINK WE HAVE MADE AN ERROR
We are committed to protecting your privacy and our policies, processes and systems have been developed with this in mind. However, if you think we have made an error, please email us at np@theosophy.nz or write to us at: National President, The Theosophical Society in NZ, 18 Belvedere Street, Epsom, Auckland 1051 to let us know. Where we have made an error, we will endeavour to correct the error as soon as reasonably practicable.

QUESTIONS AND COMPLAINTS
If you have a question or complaint about the way we have dealt with your personal information, please contact us by email or in writing at the addresses above. We will endeavour to respond promptly to your question or complaint.

BREACHES OF YOUR PRIVACY
We take our privacy responsibilities seriously. In the unlikely event that a suspected or actual breach of your personal data occurs, we will investigate the breach. We will notify you and the Privacy Commissioner if we reasonably believe that the breach has caused you serious harm or is likely to cause you serious harm.

CHANGES TO POLICY
We may change this policy at any time by publishing the amended policy on our website. We will endeavour to inform you of any changes to the policy by email or on the website.

- March 2025

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