Privacy Policy

Effective from 8 January 2022

 

Welcome to Business Studio’s Privacy Policy

 

1.0  Background

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This Privacy Policy is not intended to override the terms of any contract you have with us, nor any rights you may have under other applicable data privacy laws.

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Business Studio cares deeply about the privacy of its clients, prospects, visitors and users (collectively, “Clients”, “Users”, “you”, or “your”).

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This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes how Business Studio Innovators Limited (“Business Studio”, “we”, “our”, or “us”), collect, use, store and protect your Personal Information when we are providing services (collectively identified as “Services”), examples include:

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• We provide services to our clients, including use of our client portal;

• You use our website or our social media platforms;

• You provide information to us as a non-client; or

• We perform any other activities that form part of our operation of business.

 

Prior to accessing or using our Services, please read this policy and make sure you fully understand our practices in relation to your Personal Information.

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If you read and understand this Privacy Policy, and remain opposed to our practices, you must

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• Immediately leave our website or social media platforms. 

• For our clients or non-clients, if you are opposed to our practices, please contact us immediate so we can discuss your concerns. 

 

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this policy, please contact us here.

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This policy describes our privacy practices – what Personal Information we collect about our Users, what we do with it, how we share it, and your rights regarding that Personal Information.  By accessing or using any of our Services, you acknowledge that you have read this Privacy Policy.

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2.0  Meaning of terms

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In this Privacy Policy

• Personal information – means any information or an opinion about you (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), by which you may be identified directly or indirectly, whether on its own or in combination with other information, whether true or not, and which is submitted to and/or collected by us in an accessible form. 

• Sensitive Information - means personal information about things such as your race, ethnic origin, political affiliation, religion, sexual orientation, biometric information and health information.

 

3.0  What laws apply to us and when will we share your personal information?

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3.1 When handling Personal Information, we will comply with

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• The New Zealand Privacy Act 2020

 

3.2  As an accounting practice Business Studio has compliance obligations under a variety of legislation, including but not limited to:

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• the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (“the AML/CFT Act” or “the Act”) from 1 October 2018;

• the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”)

  • FATCA is a reporting regime that ensures US persons (and New Zealanders with accounts in the US) meet their tax obligations. It requires all foreign financial institutions that are not exempt, including New Zealand financial institutions (NZFIs), to register with the IRS. They must report on US citizens and tax residents who have specified foreign financial assets that exceed certain thresholds.

• the Common Reporting Standard (“CRS”).

  • New Zealand has made international commitments with foreign jurisdictions to implement the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) about foreign tax residents, under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS).

• To meet these requirements, we may be required to conduct customer due diligence on you, persons acting on your behalf, and other relevant persons such as your beneficial owners or persons who have effective control of you as a client. Depending on the service we are providing, we may not be able to act or continue acting for you until this is completed to the required standard.

• At the start of us engaging with you we will advise you of what information and documents are required for these purposes. This information could include formal identification, address confirmation, source of funds, transaction details, ownership structures, tax identification details, and any other information considered relevant.

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3.3  Membership of CAANZ

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Business Studio is a member of CAANZ.As such we are bound to comply with the professional standards, rules and ethical requirements of CAANZ. Information we obtain in the course of our services with you are subject to confidentiality requirements, in addition to our obligations under the Privacy Act 2020. We will not disclose that information to other parties, without your express consent, except as required by law or for professional obligations.

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As members of CAANZ, we are subject to and bound by their disciplinary procedures and rules and our work and files are subject to their practice review rules under which compliance with professional standards by members is monitored. These procedures and rules require us to disclose to CAANZ, their reviewers and/or its disciplinary bodies our files and work papers including client information.

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By allowing us to undertake services for you, you acknowledge that, if requested, our files relating to each engagement will be made available to CAANZ, their reviewers and/or its disciplinary bodies. The same ethical standards regarding confidentiality that we adhere to, apply equally to CAANZ reviewers.

 

3.4 You have consented to the processing of your personal information;

 

3.5 We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal information, which may be to:

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• provide services to you and/or to the entity that has engaged us to provide the services;

• support the management of our client engagements;

• evaluate, develop or improve our services or products; or

• protect our business interests.

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3.6 We are subject to legal, regulatory or professional obligations.

 

3.7  The processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

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4.0  We collect personal information in order to

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4.1 Provide services to our clients

We use the personal information we collect to provide you our client with an agreed service.Our Engagement Agreement, Services Agreement and Terms of Business govern the provision of our services, and set out the purposes for which we may use this information.  We do not use the information for any other purposes, unless it is necessary to comply with a legal or professional right or duty.

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We provide a wide variety of services, as a result the way we use information varies.  Examples of how we might use your personal information which has been collected in the ordinary course of business include:

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• Helping clients to manage their tax affairs;

• Helping clients to manage their systems and processes, which may include looking at the software they use;

• Helping clients to understand the services they provide and improve the quality of services they offer; and

• Helping clients with a transaction which may involve the restructuring of their business.

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4.2  Perform other activities that form part of our business operation

When we collect personal information as part of performing other activities, that form part of our business operation, we will take reasonable steps to provide clear information about the nature of those activities, and how we will use any personal information collected.

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We may aggregate your information; and use and disclose that informationin a de-identified form as part of surveys, research and advice, including, without limitation,benchmarkingservices, and thought leadership.

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4.3  Provide information for those who use our Website or Social Media Platforms

We may collect personal contact details from you when you use our Website or Social Media Platforms. For example, if you sign up to receive promotional materials, thought leadership or communications about services provided by us.

 

5.0  What ‘Personal Information’ do we collect?

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Business Studio collects, holds and processes personal information from clients, suppliers, employees, job applicants, contractors and other individuals. We collect and hold this information for business purposes.

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We collect information in a variety of ways, including:

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• From You​​

  • If you contact us, we may keep a record of that contact.

  • Due to the nature of our business, it is generally impracticable for us to deal with individuals on an anonymous basis or through the use of a pseudonym.

  • Examples of personal information collected directly from you include

    • We collect most information directly from you when we are working with you or responding to an enquiry from you.  The personal information we collect may be provided in forms filled in by you, face to face meetings, email messages, telephone conversations, enter into a competition, register for a programme or activity, when you use our website, our social media, or third parties.

    • The contact details and organisational roles of our actual and prospective clients, suppliers and other business contacts. Typically, this information includes names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and job titles.  We may hold information about third-parties which you rely upon, such as your solicitor, banker, trustees, independent directors.

    • Personal information collected in the course of providing products and services to our clients (for instance financial details if we are engaged to perform accounting services, or credit information).

    • Personal information collected in relation to persons who attend seminars or other events we run, sponsor or are otherwise involved in. 

    • Personal information collected when individuals communicate with us (including via email).

    • Personal information collected from job applicants when they apply for a job with us and individual contractors when performing a role for us (in some instances this may include sensitive information such as health information if related to the role being applied for or being performed).

    • Personal information collected from our employees during the course of carrying out our duties and activities as an employer (in some instances this may include sensitive information such as health information if related to the employee’s role).

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• From our website or social media platforms​

  • Our Website allows us to promote our services to you.  Your data may be stored through our website host data storage, their databases and general applications.  They store your data on secure servers behind a firewall.

  • We might also collect general user information such as users internet protocol addresses, browser type and internet service provider details and other technical information when you visit our associated websites and social media platforms.

  • We use cookies (small text files stored in a user’s browser) and Web beacons (electronic images that allow our Website to count visitors who have accessed a particular page and to access certain cookies).

  • We may collect personal information from you when you visit, use or register on our Websites or Social Media Platforms, join (or request to join), post in or otherwise contribute to a Business Studio Social Media Platforms, or when you complete a survey.

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• From third parties

  • We may receive your personal information from other sources, such as public databases, acquired contact lists, professional bodies, your employer (for example when your employer registers you in an activity or course), regulators, government and statutory bodies, and our service providers.

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6.0 Sharing Personal Information

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​6.1  We will share your personal information with third parties we engage

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• To assist us in providing professional services to our clients or in the operation of our business (i.e. our subcontractors, advisors and suppliers).

• Where there is a legal or professional right or duty to disclose.

• We may share aggregated information; and use and disclose that information in a de-identified form as part of surveys, research and advice, including, without limitation, benchmarking services, and thought leadership.

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6.2  How do we use information collected via our Website or Social Media Platforms?

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• Information Collected

  • We do not use your personal information collected from our Website or Social Media to market the goods and services of third parties to you without first notifying you and seeking your consent.

  • We may use your personal information collected via our Website or Social Media Platforms:

    • To provide you with promotional materials, thought leadership or communications about services provided by us that we feel may be of interest to you;

    • To manage and improve our Website or Social Media Platforms;

    • To tailor our content to provide you with a personalised experience and draw your attention to information about our services which may be of interest to you;

    • To seek feedback on our services; and

    • For market or other research purposes (however, we will only ever report aggregated results of any research we undertake, and will never include your personal information in those results unless you explicitly give us your consent).

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• Contributed / Shared Information - Blogs, forums, and Social Media Platforms

  • Our website and social media platforms or services may allow you to share content with other users (collectively ‘social media platforms’).  That content will include personal information which you contribute to these social media platforms, this information can be read, collected and used by other users of the platform. We have little or no control over these other users and, therefore, we cannot guarantee that any information that you contribute to any social media platform will be handled in accordance with this Policy.​

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• Unsubscribe

  • If you do not want to receive marketing materials from us, you can click on the unsubscribe function in the communication.

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7.0  How do we protect your information?

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We hold personal information in electronic formats. We use a range of physical, operational and technological security measures to protect this information. These measures include:

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• Staff education and training to ensure our staff are aware of their privacy obligations when handling your personal information;

• Administrative and technical controls to restrict access to personal information to only those people who need access;

• Technological security measures, including fire walls, encryption and anti-virus software;

• Physical security measures, such as laptop cable locks and the use of privacy screens where appropriate.

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8.0  Breach notification

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If there is a breach of privacy involving your personal information, we will comply with any legal obligations in the Privacy Act.

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9.0  What is our process for making changes to this Privacy Policy?

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We may modify or amend this Privacy Policy from time to time.

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Our Privacy Policy will apply from the Effective From date at the start of this Privacy Policy. We recommend you periodically review this Policy to be informed about how we are protecting your information.

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10.0  How can you access your personal information, or seek to have it corrected?

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You may access your personal information, or seek to have that information corrected if you believe that it is incorrect, at any time.

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• If you wish to make any changes to your personal information, you may contact us by emailing our Privacy Officer at privacyofficer@businessstudio.co.nz.

• It is your responsibility to ensure the information we hold about you is accurate.

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11.0 Contacting us

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If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please reach out to us:

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Attention: Privacy Officer

Business Studio Innovators Limited

10 Arnold Savage Place

Richmond

Nelson 7020

+64 21 164 8493

privacyofficer@businessstudio.co.nz