Identity Verification Service Privacy Statement

Introduction

Protecting your privacy when you use a verified identity is very important to the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).

This privacy statement addresses:

• how your verified identity relates to the RealMe service
• what information we collect for your verified identity
• what the consequences are of not providing the required information
• how we use the information we collect
• how we keep your information secure
• how we use cookies
• how you can access and correct your personal information.

Information collected for the issuance, renewal, cancellation, or amendment of verified identities is done so in accordance with the Electronic Identity Verification Act 2012 (the Act). In the Act, a verified identity is referred to as an “electronic identity credential”.

In this privacy statement, we use the term “verified identities” to refer to an electronic identity credential issued under the Act.

A verified identity is part of the RealMe service and gives you a secure way to prove who you are to organisations that use RealMe (known as participating service providers).

When you apply for a verified identity and agree to the terms of use, you will be asked to give consent for the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information for the purposes explained in this statement.

Verified identities and the RealMe service

The RealMe service consists of several systems operated by DIA and other providers.

The Identity Verification Service is one of the services provided through RealMe. It provides an authoritative source of identity that enables you to confirm who you are online to participating service providers.

Information we collect for your verified identity

Application process

We collect personal information from you when you apply to have a verified identity issued to you, amended, renewed, or cancelled.

We collect your personal information for these purposes.

• To verify your identity.
• To ensure you do not have more than one verified identity.
• To keep your verified identity accurate and up to date.

To apply for the issue of a verified identity, you must start an application online.

The online form includes information about the identity and eligibility checks required during the application process.

You will be asked to give certain information, depending on the identity record you choose to supply.

• If you are relying on your New Zealand passport, we will collect your passport number and full name.
• If you are relying on your New Zealand citizenship record, we will collect your citizenship certificate number and full name.
• If you are relying on your Immigration information, we will collect your overseas passport number, visa or permit number, full name, date of birth, place of birth and gender.
• If you are relying on your New Zealand birth registration, we will collect your full name, date of birth, place of birth, gender, parent 1/mother’s name and your parent 2/father’s name (if applicable).

Application photo and identity check

We will collect a digital photograph of you either:

• where you choose to complete an identity check online, or
• when you have your photo taken at one of the RealMe partner stores.

This photograph:

• will appear in your credential, and
• may be shown to an identity referee to confirm your identity.

If you choose to complete the online identity check, your photos and video/frames of your identity check will be captured, used, and securely stored in accordance with the Privacy statement – identity check.

Your digital photograph will be used for automated facial recognition matching, referenced by DIA for assessment of your application, quality assurance, and other activities to support the Identity Verification Service.

Your image and check may also be reused to retest biometric facial recognition thresholds to better improve our service.

Use of biometric processing

Facial recognition technology is used by DIA for the purpose of verifying your identity and to check if you have other identity records in our systems. We will compare your photograph against the images of people who have a verified identity or New Zealand passport. These checks help protect your identity and prevent fraud.

Your photograph will be securely stored in our system for future matching. Your verified identity and photograph are held for 11 years from the date your verified identity is cancelled or expires, as required by legislation.

Identity referee

You must provide your referee’s New Zealand passport number, full name, date of birth, address, phone number, email address, and how long they have known you.

This information will be used to verify the identity referee against our travel document database.

This will:

• check if they meet our requirements to act as a referee for your application, and
• allow us to contact them to verify your identity, if necessary.

We may share details from your application with your referee to verify your identity.

Documents

If you are required to provide original documents or photo ID, you will be asked to provide these at a RealMe partner store. These documents will be photographed by the RealMe partner store on our behalf and provided to us with your application.

Information sharing

As noted in our terms of use, we may retrieve personal information relating to you from DIA or external agencies.

• These checks are undertaken using identity-confirmation and approved information sharing agreements, authorised by the Electronic Identity Verification Act and the Privacy Act 2020.
• We will retrieve and check your personal information held by DIA and other agencies to verify your identity, keep your verified identity accurate and up to date, and ensure you do not have more than one verified identity.
• Information may be obtained from DIA’s passports and citizenship databases; the Birth, Death, Name Change, Marriage and Civil Union registers; and immigration records held by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) under the Customer Nominated Services Approved Information Sharing Agreement. This can include your name, any name changes, date and place of birth, gender, photograph, application documents, and unique identifiers such as passport, citizenship, immigration, or birth registration numbers.
• We may access alerts or warnings from DIA and MBIE immigration databases to confirm whether they relate to your identity.
• If you supply a Kiwi Access card, firearms licence or driver licence, we will verify your details against records held by Hospitality New Zealand, the New Zealand Police or the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA). These agencies will confirm only whether information provided matches their records and may also advise us of the status of those records, such as whether a driver licence has expired. For driver licences, NZTA will provide us with a copy of your driver licence image for comparison.
• We may obtain information at any time from DIA’s registers to ascertain whether changes are required to your identity, such as whether you are recorded as having died. In addition, the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages may release restricted name change and restricted sex information to us for the express purpose of checking that you do not already have a verified identity issued to you in a different identity.
• We will use your contact details for the purpose of communicating with you, either in relation to the application process or subsequently. We will remind you to renew your identity using the most recent application email address the Department holds for you from an application for either a New Zealand passport, New Zealand citizenship, or verified identity.

Your verified identity attributes

When we create your verified identity, we store your name(s), gender, date of birth, place of birth, and photograph.

When you choose to use the RealMe service with a participating provider, some or all of these details are released – but only with your consent.

Photo

As part of your application, your photo will be taken and stored with your application.

We use this photo to assist in the confirmation of your identity by matching it with the photo we retrieve from DIA’s passports or citizenship databases, MBIE’s immigration databases, the identity document you provide, or against your previous verified identity photo.

The photo taken during the application process will be stored for future one-to-many matching. We do not store the photo we retrieve from the passport, citizenship, or immigration databases beyond the period required for photo matching. RealMe partner stores will capture and store your image only for as long as required for the purpose of supplying this image to us.

Consequences of not providing the required information

If you do not provide the required information referred to above, you will not be able to get a verified identity to verify your identity online.

You do, however, remain free to transact with and receive services from participating service providers in the offline environment. Your use of a verified identity is optional.

Please note that it is an offence to make false or misleading statements, or to provide false, forged or falsified means of identification when applying for a verified identity.

Use of the information we collect

We use the information collected:

• to provide your verified identity
• for statistical purposes
• to prevent as well as manage the issuance of no more than one verified identity for any individual
• where relevant, to verify individuals’ details provided with applications for issuance, renewal, amendment or cancellation of a verified identity, and
• to detect and prevent fraudulent or other unlawful uses of verified identities or related services.

Collection of statistical information

When you visit the RealMe website, we may collect statistical information about your visit to help us to improve our service. This information is aggregated and anonymised. It includes:

• your IP address
• the search terms you used
• the pages you accessed on our service and the links you clicked on
• the date and time you visited the service
• your operating system (e.g. Windows XP, Mac OS X)
• the type of web browser you use (e.g. Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox), and
• other incidental matters, such as screen resolution and the language setting used.

Use of statistical information

The statistical information referred to above will be viewable by website administrators and certain members of our staff via analytical tools like Google Analytics.

The information collected in your application may be used in statistical analysis and reporting for service improvement and business management purposes. Personal information will only be used where necessary for those purposes.

Using your verified identity online

If you choose to use your verified identity with a participating provider’s online service, you will be redirected to RealMe to login.

When you login with the RealMe service, it sends a unique number to us. We use that number to automatically check if your verified identity exists.

The RealMe service then retrieves your verified identity and asks you whether you consent to your identity information being sent to the participating service provider. The RealMe service will then redirect you to the participating service provider, and your identity information will have been sent to them.

If you consent to share your verified identity information with a participating service prior to completing your application for the identity, the RealMe service will automatically share your identity with the participating service once your verified identity is approved.

DIA will not otherwise disclose your personal information to any other organisation, unless required or permitted by law. We will not use your information for marketing or any other purpose.

Your activity record

As part of your RealMe information, we record where you have used your verified identity, including the time and date that your attributes were disclosed to a participating service provider.

Access to this information is strictly controlled by the Act. We do not hold information about the transaction that you performed with any service provider.

When your verified identity is active or expired, you are able to view your activity record through your RealMe account, unless technical or other practical reasons prevent this.

Your activity record will also include information about instances where our staff or other authorised persons have accessed your verified identity record or activity record (except in limited circumstances, such as where providing access to that information may prejudice an investigation, or for technical reasons).

Security

We have procedures in place to prevent your information from loss and unlawful access, use, modification, disclosure or other misuse, consistent with good practice and as required by relevant law and policy.

We also ensure that only authorised people with specific roles and access permissions can view your identity or transaction-related information, and only for specific related purposes.

Use of Cookies

Using your verified identity generates a session (non-persistent) cookie that you can find on your device. It has the name: JSESSIONID.

This cookie expires when you close your browser and does not store any personally identifiable information.

Accessing and correcting your personal information

When your verified identity is active, you are able to view and manage your verified identity details via the RealMe website.

Once logged in through the RealMe login service, you are able to:

• view your verified identity attributes held by us
• view your transaction history/verified identity activity (except in limited circumstances, such as where providing access to that may prejudice an investigation, or for technical reasons)
• cancel your verified identity
• renew your verified identity, and
• apply to have your verified identity name or gender changed.

Rights of access and correction

Under the Electronic Identity Verification Act, you have the right to access and ask us to correct your personal information.

If you wish to see the personal information we hold in connection with your use of your verified identity, or if you wish to request a correction and cannot do this via the RealMe website, please contact the RealMe Help Desk.

The Help Desk will refer you to our staff, who may require proof of your identity before being able to provide you with this information.

If you discover that one or more of your verified identity attributes are incorrect, please contact our Help Desk as soon as possible. The Help Desk may need to refer you to the relevant part of DIA, or the agency that originally provided the information.

If you have any concerns regarding your privacy, please contact us.

The Privacy Office
Department of Internal Affairs
P O Box 805
Wellington 6140

Email: Privacy@dia.govt.nz

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Privacy Commissioner.

Office of the Privacy Commissioner
PO Box 10 094
Wellington

Email: enquiries@privacy.org.nz

Disposal of your verified identity records

When your verified identity expires or is cancelled, we will retain your verified identity records (including your verified identity attributes, photograph, and activity record) for a prescribed period under the Electronic Identity Verification Act and its regulations.

When this period ends, we will delete your identity records.

If you renew your verified identity within that period, we will reactivate your previous verified identity so you can continue to use it with participating service providers you have previously interacted with.

If you apply for a new identity after the retention period has ended, we may need to carry out additional steps to verify your identity.