Terms & conditions, privacy policy, disclaimer

The website www.thyroid.nz is owned by the founder of Thyroid New Zealand (Thyroid NZ; referred to in this document as "we", "our", or "us"). Your use of this website is governed by these Website Terms and Conditions (Terms & Conditions), our Privacy Policy and the Disclaimer.

By using this website (whether by your mobile phone, tablet, smart phone, PC or any other means), you are deemed to have agreed to be bound by these Terms & Conditions. If you do not accept these Terms & Conditions, you must refrain from using this website.

We reserve the right to change these Terms & Conditions from time to time without prior notice. By continuing to use the website, you agree to be bound by the amended Terms & Conditions. We encourage you to check this document from time to time to ensure that you are aware of the current Terms & Conditions.

Intellectual property

All intellectual property on this website, including without limitation the text, logos, icons and graphics, is owned by us or by third party content suppliers. We are the exclusive owner of all rights in the compilation, design and layout of this website. Nothing on this website may be reproduced or used in any way without our prior written approval.

Unless otherwise indicated, all photographs/images on this website (other than logos, icons and graphics) are obtained from copyright free image providers under their licence. The reproduction or use (including copying, modifying and distributing) of these images is subject to these providers' licence, not our Terms & Conditions.

The information provided on this website is for general information only and is not a substitute for medical advice. This website is not designed to, and does not, provide medical advice. Never disregard professional medical advice, or delay in seeking it, because of something you have read on this website.

All information on our website is provided in good faith. Thyroid New Zealand does not guarantee the accuracy of the information on this website, or on any of the external websites listed. Your use of, or reliance on, any information on these websites is solely at your own risk.

All external links (links to websites outside of www.thyroid.nz) are provided for the benefit of visitors to the Thyroid NZ website. Thyroid NZ does not support or approve, and cannot vouch for the quality of any commercial product or service mentioned or advised on any of these external websites.

This privacy policy describes how Thyroid New Zealand (Thyroid NZ; referred to in this document as "we", "our", or "us") deals with your personal information, and how we protect your privacy.

By using any of our services, including our website (whether by your mobile phone, tablet, smart phone, PC or any other means), you are deemed to have agreed to be bound by this privacy policy.

We reserve the right to change this policy without prior notice. By continuing to use our services, you agree to be bound by the amended policy. We encourage you to check our website from time to time to ensure that you are aware of the terms of our current privacy policy.

1. Your privacy

Our commitment to your privacy

We respect your right to privacy and your right to view and update the personal information we hold about you. We are committed to protecting your privacy when you visit our website or contact us in any way.

We will only deal with your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1993 and this privacy policy.

2. Your personal information

2.1 Collecting your personal information

If you access any of our services (including contacting us with a question or request for information, or - in future - signing up to our newsletters or supporting our campaigns), you will need to provide us with some or all of the following information:

• Your name.

• Your email address.

• Your residential or postal address.

• Your (cell) phone number.

• Your age and sex.

• Any other information that is necessary to enable us to respond to your queries.

Collectively, this is known as your “personal information".

2.2 Who do we collect your personal information from?

We collect personal information about you from:

• You, when you provide that personal information to us, including via the website and any related service OR through any other contact with us (e.g. telephone call, email or social media post).

• Third parties where you have authorised this or the information is publicly available (for example, online).

If you do not want your personal information to be collected, please do not submit it to us. Please note that if you elect not to provide certain personal information to us, we may not be able to provide you with the services or information you would like to receive.

2.3 Protecting your personal information

We will take reasonable steps to keep your personal information safe from loss, unauthorised activity, or other misuse.

We remind you, however, that if you send information to our website, social media accounts or via email, the Internet is not a secure environment and although all reasonable care is taken, we cannot warrant or guarantee the security of information you provide to us via electronic means.

2.4 Changing or removing your personal information

You have the right to view any personal information we hold about you, and request a correction of that information in case of any inaccuracies. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information in some circumstances, such as where we no longer need it or if you withdraw your consent (where applicable).

Before you exercise these rights, we will need evidence to confirm that you are the individual to whom the personal information relates.

In respect of a request for correction, if we think the correction is reasonable and we are reasonably able to change the personal information, we will make the correction. If we do not make the correction, we will take reasonable steps to note on the personal information that you requested the correction.

In respect of a request for deletion of your personal information, we will comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. Please note that we may have to retain some personal information for recordkeeping purposes, for compliance with our legal obligations, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

If you want to exercise either of the above rights, contact us via our contact page.

2.5 Disclosing your personal information

We will not sell or rent your personal information to any third party (i.e. anyone outside Thyroid NZ). We may disclose your personal information only to:

• any person authorised by the Privacy Act 1993 or another law

• any other person authorised by you.

3. Your privacy and the use of our social media pages

If you provide us with personal information over the internet, the provision of that information is at your own risk. If you post your personal information in comments to posts on our Facebook or Twitter pages, you acknowledge and agree that the information you post is publicly available.

4. Your privacy and the use of our website: cookies and analytics

We may gather information about users of our website. This information includes:

• information collected through click tracking in relation to your use of the website, including the content you download and access; and

• aggregated data, which tracks traffic to the website; and

• cookies.

Please, note that no personal information (as defined under 2.1 above) is collected.

4.1 Cookies 

Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored in a browser-related file on your computer’s hard drive when you use our website. Cookies are widely used on most major websites to record how you navigate a website on each visit; they enable sites to access some of your stored browsing history. Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to visitor needs. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you other than the data you choose to share with us.

We and any of our third party analytics service providers may use information contained in cookies to make assumptions about the users of the computer and to provide users of that computer with targeted advertising that we believe may be of interest, based on that information.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of our website.

4.2 Google Analytics - tracking software

In addition to cookies, we may use Google Analytics and other tracking software (such as that used by Google, Facebook and Twitter) on our websites to understand and optimise user experience and to improve advertising. This tracking software collects and analyses certain types of information, including cookies, IP addresses, device and software identifiers, referring and exit URLs, onsite behaviour and usage information, and similar information.

Information gathered from users of our website by means of click tracking or cookies may also be shared with anyone who hosts or maintains data centres, service platforms and other infrastructure and systems on behalf of us, where your information is processed and/or stored.

Please note that some of the persons to whom we disclose this information may be situated outside New Zealand. Our website and systems may also be based on servers located outside of New Zealand.

You can opt-out of Google Analytics in Google's My Ad Center (https://myadcenter.google.com/).

5. Links to other websites

Our website contains links to enable you to visit other websites of interest easily. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy policy. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy policy applicable to the website in question.