Our Promise to Protect Your Information

Jacob Milne and NCSG are deeply committed to protecting the privacy of everyone we work with. This policy explains how we collect, use, store, and share the personal information you give us when you request a quote or book a stump grinding job. We use a transparent structure that aligns with modern digital usability standards, even though NCSG is a small private business. This ensures that customers can clearly understand both how we, as an organisation, handle personal data and how the website functions in that process. Our commitment is to manage your information responsibly and to always comply with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020.

We Only Collect What We Need

We, NCSG, only gather information that is directly necessary for providing you with a safe, accurate, and efficient stump grinding service in North Canterbury. We collect this data primarily when you use our website contact form, call Jacob, or send us an email to get an estimate.

The data we collect is transactional, meaning we strictly limit our collection to the details required to fulfil the specific request you make. This adherence to purpose is mandated by Privacy Principle 10, which requires that we only use your information for the specific reason we collected it.

The table below clearly defines what information NCSG collects and the specific, legitimate purpose behind that collection.

Table 1: Privacy Policy: What We Collect and Why

Accuracy and Retention: We Keep Things Up-to-Date and Only for as Long as Necessary

We Check for Accuracy (Principle 8)

We recognise that using incorrect personal information is not helpful and can lead to wrong decisions about the job or the pricing. Therefore, Jacob Milne makes every reasonable effort to ensure the personal information we use—such as your address or contact number—is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant, and not misleading before we rely on it to make a decision, like issuing a quote or scheduling the work.

We rely on you to help us maintain accuracy, particularly when you submit details like the job address or file uploads through the contact form. If you notice an error in the initial quote or scheduling confirmation, you must tell Jacob immediately. We then correct the information promptly in our system. This collaborative approach ensures the integrity of the data we hold, which is essential for efficient service delivery.

How Long We Keep Your Data (Principle 9)

We do not keep your personal information for longer than necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it. We balance the requirement to minimise data retention with our legal and business obligations.

For accepted and completed jobs, we keep essential records (name, address, invoice details) for a minimum of seven years. We maintain this period to comply with standard New Zealand tax and accounting regulations. Retaining this key information is also useful if you return for future service or have subsequent warranty queries, allowing us to quickly recall the history of the work performed. For quotes that you do not accept and jobs that do not proceed, we safely delete or de-identify specific job details, such as address specifics and photos, after six months.

Secure Disposal: How We Say Goodbye to Your Data

Managing privacy risk involves secure disposal once the data is no longer needed. When the required retention period ends, we permanently and securely dispose of your personal information so no one can retrieve it.

This involves several practical steps to prevent retrieval, including removing identifying details like names, addresses, and birthdates from documents before destruction. For digital files, we use secure deletion processes, ensuring that back-up files related to the originals are also deleted. If NCSG ever decommissions or sells any computing equipment, including photocopiers or hard drives, we securely wipe the hard drives first.

When We Might Share Your Information (Principle 11)

We exercise caution when disclosing personal information. We only share or disclose your personal information if we have a very good, legal reason to do so, adhering strictly to Principle 11 of the Privacy Act.

Disclosure is permitted only in defined situations. For example, if we need to share information with a third party, such as a specialist arborist subcontractor, to perform the job you requested, we will always ask for your explicit permission first. We may also share information if a legal obligation exists, such as when a law or a government agency like the NZ Police or a court requires us to disclose it. Finally, we sometimes share generalized data (e.g., statistics about job frequency in North Canterbury), but we always ensure this information is in a form that does not identify you personally.

Sending Information Outside New Zealand (Principle 12)

Like many small businesses, NCSG uses standard commercial digital tools for operations, such as cloud hosting for our website and email services. If these tools store data overseas, this constitutes an international disclosure. We must comply with Principle 12 by confirming that the receiving organisation outside New Zealand adequately protects the data.

Jacob Milne is responsible for mitigating this international data transfer risk. We select providers who are either subject to privacy laws that offer comparable safeguards to the NZ Privacy Act (such as those conducting business within New Zealand or in prescribed countries) or who guarantee protection via adequate contractual clauses. We prioritize NZ-based services where practical to further minimize this risk and ensure your information remains secure, regardless of its storage location.

Access and Correction: Your Rights Over Your Data

You have fundamental rights regarding the information we hold about you. You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold, and you have the right to ask us to correct that information if you believe it is inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading. We respond to such requests promptly, upholding your control over your personal data.

Privacy Policy