Privacy Policy

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award Online Services Privacy Statement.

The Duke of Edinburgh's Hillary Award (the Award) appreciates the importance of keeping personal information private and protected for its participants, Award Leaders and supporters. You can be assured that we do our best to ensure that our websites are secure so that your confidentiality is maintained. As you would expect we adhere to the provisions of the Privacy Act 2020 (the Act), which controls how we collect, use, disclose, store and give access to 'personal information'. Personal information is information about an identifiable individual, as defined by the Act.

This statement explains how we achieve these goals and gives details of our privacy practices, including what information we collect about people using our website (including mobile versions of the site and mobile applications) and other online services, how the information will be used or disclosed, and rights with respect to our collection and use of personal data.

For additional information about your relationship with the Award please email [email protected].

By using our online services, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Statement.

Why we collect personal information
There are two types of information you provide us with when using our online services:

  • personal information provided when completing personal information fields, and
  • information collected by us as you interact with our services.

We do not collect your email address unless you freely provide this to us. We collect your personal information because it helps us to support our Licenced Organisations, the Award Units and Accredited Award Providers and participants in undertaking their programmes. It enables us to give convenient access to our online services and support mechanisms. In addition, personal information helps us to continue to develop and improve the way the Award operates and supports its network.

What Information does the Award collect and why?
The information is used to provide you with the service you have registered for or to answer an enquiry. This information will be used for the purposes outlined at the time of collection. In particular, you may be asked to provide the following information:

Website:
Name, address and contact details to enable us to fulfil the order(s) for goods and services requested;

The Award:
To use the Online Record Book System offered by the Award you will need to provide personal information including, but not limited to, personal details, contact details (including a valid email address) and, for young people, detailed information about your award programme and activities. Providing this information saves you time and allows for easier use of our services. If you are registering online you will fill out a registration form, choose a password (which can be changed) your email address will be your username and this cannot be changed. The system saves your information. The next time you access all you need to do is enter your username and password and the system looks up the information it needs to assist you. We keep records of your activity on the system; this helps us understand how you use the system so that we can make it a more effective tool for you. Information on ethnicity, disability and personal circumstances are collected and used anonymously for statistical purposes by the Award to make sure we are making the Award programme accessible to all, and used locally to help meet your personal needs;

Keeping in touch:
The Award e-newsletters and other operational emails contain vital updates and useful programme information, so all participants, Award Leaders, Managers, Co-ordinators and Assessors will receive those appropriate to their roles;

Promotional offers from partners:
From time to time, we may also have promotional opportunities, specially negotiated offers, free prize draws and privilege discounts from our partners. Please let us know if you do not want to receive promotional opportunities from our partners. You can also use the ‘unsubscribe’ function at the bottom of emails sent by us;

Online surveys:
If you want to participate in any of our online surveys you may be asked to provide personal information. The nature of the information may vary depending upon the type of survey that is being conducted, but it is likely to include contact information and demographic information. We will use this information to determine which products and services are likely to be of interest to you and to improve our service to you;

Competition information:
If you enter any of our competitions online you will be asked to provide personal information. The nature of the information may vary depending on the competition, but it will include contact information. We will use this information to inform our competition winners. We may publicise the winners, but will not give enough information to personally identify you to anyone else without explicit permission;

Applications for financial support:
The Award provides access to funds for participants. The nature of the information we will ask for will usually include general personal information, including contact details (such as your name and address), and information about your Award activities;

If you are unhappy with your experience with any part of the Award or wish to provide feedback on our services or programmes you may do so using our Complaints, Feedback and Enquiries procedure found on the Award website. You may be asked to provide contact information and details of the incident. You will need to authorise us to share this information with the parties involved to act on your feedback.

How does The Duke of Edinburgh's Award use the information that it collects from its online services?
All contact from the Award using personal data will communicate useful and relevant information to either help participants complete their Award programme, Award Leaders and Licensed Organisations to run the Award programme more effectively. We may therefore use this personal data for the following purposes:

To send you information about the programme and changes to the Online Record Book and/or the Award website
To send you information about the Award, promotional material about our products and services, and products and services offered by our partner organisations and companies, that we think may be of interest to you, if you have not opted out as described above;
To monitor interest in our range of products and services and to assist us in tailoring the content of the website to our online visitors' it collects information about your preferences through tracking patterns of page-viewing, downloads and uploads; or
To create a profile relating to you to show you the content that we think you might be interested in.

Does the Duke of Edinburgh's Award disclose information that it collects from these sites to other parties?
The Award will not provide any information collected from the Award website or from the Online Record Book that personally identifies you to any other company or organisation without your authorisation, unless we believe disclosure is one of the purpose for which the information was obtained or directly relates to the purpose for which it was obtained, or is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to your life or health or that of another individual, or otherwise in accordance with the Act. Data collected on the online registration system is shared with the relevant Licensed Organisation and Award Unit, as a necessity to enable young people to complete their Award programme and achieve their Award and for Award Leaders to manage our programme effectively. Participant personal information is never shared with other participants.

Use of cookies:
As is standard practice on many websites and online services, the Award online services may use ‘cookies’ and other technologies to help us understand which parts of our services are the most popular, where our visitors are going, and how much time they spend there. We may also use cookies and similar technologies to see if our online advertising is bringing people to our resources and services and other online training and downloads. We may use cookies and other technologies to study traffic patterns on our website, to make it even more rewarding as well as to study the effectiveness of our participant and network communications. We may also use cookies to customise your experience and provide greater convenience each time you interact with our services. If you prefer not to enable cookies, you can disable them on your PC and laptop. Please note that certain features of the website and the Online Record Book may not be available once cookies are disabled.

As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp and clickstream data. We use this information, which does not identify individual users, to analyse trends, to administer the site, to track movements around the sites and to gather statistical information about our user base. In some of our email messages we use a "click-through URL" linked to content on the Award website. When a customer clicks one of these URLs, they pass through our web server before arriving at the destination web page. We track this click-through data to help us determine interest topics and measure the effectiveness of our communications. If you prefer not to be tracked simply avoid clicking text or graphic links in the email or website.

Opting-out of receiving promotional information:
If you do not opt-out of receiving promotional information from our partners or you are not currently using the Online record Book but later decide that you do not wish to receive future communications of this nature then you should send an email message to [email protected] with the subject ‘Unsubscribe Direct Marketing and promotional offers from partners’. Remember though that all programme emails and information is compulsory for all participants undertaking their Award programme and for all Award Leaders, Manager and Co-ordinators running the Award programme. This is to ensure everyone is getting consistent information at the same time.

Access and correction of your personal information:
You have a right to know about the personal information that the Award holds about you and to receive a copy of that information provided upon request. You also have a right to correct, amend or delete the information that the Award holds about you if it is incorrect. If you wish to exercise these rights and you are not currently using on line registration, please contact us by post or email at the address shown in the ‘Contact’ section below. Within the Online Record Book you can view these details at any time by signing in with your personal username and password. Please note that there are some exceptions to your right to gain access to your information, including (but not limited to) where:

  • providing access would have an unreasonable impact upon the privacy of other individuals; or
  • the request for access frivolous or vexatious; or
  • providing access would be unlawful.

Security:
We take all reasonable safeguards to keep all your personal information as secure as is possible. In addition to a rigorously enforced data handling policy, all our staff members are made aware of their obligations to keep the information for authorised use only. It is recognised no technology is fail-safe, but we have made every reasonable effort to keep our systems up to date with the relevant protocols.

Children:
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award programme is open to 14 to 24 year-olds. Some 13 year-olds can start the programme with their peers. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award does not knowingly solicit information from any child under the age of 13. Should a child whom we know to be under 13 send personal information to us, we will use that information only to respond directly to that child to inform him or her that we must have parental consent before receiving his or her personal information. The Award requires all under 18s to obtain parental consent on registration forms or before they register in the Online Record Book before the Award Leader can approve the registration.

External links:
The Award’s online services provide links to various websites that we do not control as well as to websites of our sponsors. When you click on one of these links, you will be transferred out of our websites and connected to the website of the organisation or company that you have selected. Even if an affiliation exists between our websites and a third-party website, we exercise no control over linked sites and are not responsible for the privacy practices of other organisations and their websites. Each of these linked sites maintains its own independent privacy and data collection policies and procedures. If you visit a website that is linked to our site, you should consult that site's privacy policy before providing any personal information.

This Privacy Statement applies solely to the information gathered by the Award.

Future policy:
We may need to update or modify this privacy statement at any time, and modifications are effective upon being posted on the Award websites and on the Online Record Book. You are responsible for reviewing this privacy statement periodically to ensure that you are aware of any changes to it. Your continued use of the Award websites and the Online record Book constitutes acceptance of any updated or modified privacy statement.

Contacting the Award:
If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement, the privacy practices of the Award or, if you want to exercise any of the rights that you are given under this Privacy Statement you can contact the Award Privacy Officer:-
By Email: [email protected]
or Post:
PO Box 38189,
Wellington Mail Centre,
Lower Hutt 5045

Although every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information on this website is accurate at the time of publication, visitors who use this website and rely on any information do so at their own risk. The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award does not warrant its accuracy and disclaims any liability to any third party anywhere in the world for any injury, damage, loss or inconvenience arising because of any use of or the inability to use any information on this website fully permitted at law.