Privacy policy

This privacy policy sets out the basis on which Ballance Agri-Nutrients Limited (“Ballance”) collects information from you and also the basis on which any such information collected from you is dealt with.

This Privacy Policy sets out the basis on which Ballance Agri-Nutrients Limited and/or its related companies (Ballance) collects information from you and also the basis on which any such information collected from you is dealt with. 

When you:

  • provide us with your personal information (whether directly or indirectly);
  • access:

  (a) Ballance’s website at www.ballance.co.nz, the Seales Winslow site at www.sealeswinslow.co.nz, the MyBallance site, or any associated website or microsite (collectively referred to as the Website); or

  (b) any other social media website, online chat forum or page, containing pages or content established by or associated with Ballance, including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn (Social Networking Sites),

 (together (a) and (b) are the Internet Sites and any one of them is an Internet Site); or

  • visit any Ballance workplace or site (any such place is referred to in this Privacy Policy as a Work Site and collectively the Work Sites),

you are deemed to have read this Privacy Policy and to accept and consent to the provisions of this Privacy Policy without qualification.  If you do not accept the terms of this Privacy Policy, you must not:

  •  enter our Internet Sites or Work Sites; or
  • otherwise provide us with your personal information.

It is important to note that, if we are unable to collect, use, hold, disclose and otherwise process your personal information in the manner authorised by this Privacy Policy then we may not be able to provide you with the full benefit of our products, services, offers or online and digital platforms.

References to the “Privacy Act” means the Privacy Act 2020 as amended or re-enacted from time to time.

1. Amendments: Ballance reserves the right to amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. Amendments will be effective immediately upon being placed on the Website. Your continued use of the Internet Sites and/or entry onto any Work Site following such amendments being placed on the Website will represent an agreement by you to be bound by the Privacy Policy as amended.

2. Automatically Collected Information: Whenever you access any of the Internet Sites Ballance will, and is entitled to, automatically collect the following types of information from you: (a) the IP address of your machine when connected to the internet; (b) the operating system and the browser your computer uses and any search engine you are using; (c) the date and time you are visiting; and (d) the URLs of the pages you visit.  Ballance also operates camera monitoring systems at its Work Sites. Whenever you enter onto a Work Site, Ballance will automatically collect recordings of you (which may be in visual and/or audio form) from its camera monitoring systems (Video Surveillance). To the extent our Video Surveillance captures visual images (whether still or moving) and/or audio recordings of you on its camera monitoring systems, and you are identifiable by those images and/or recordings, this Privacy Policy applies to that information.

3. Submitted Information & Further Collection: Additional to automatically collected information dealt with by clause 2 (above), we may collect information directly from you either in person, over the phone, by email, or when you post information on the Internet Sites. This includes information such as: (a) your name, gender, email address and other personal details such as a telephone number; and (b) any other comments, statements or interactions posted as a Post, or relevant to you being on a Work Site (such as your reason for being there), or otherwise. Ballance also reserves the right to collect more extensive information where it deems such action is appropriate, such as in the case of providing any services or products requested by you or anywhere safety or security concerns arise. Where possible, information will be obtained directly from you. However, you acknowledge that by accessing our Work Sites and the Internet Sites, information may be collected from you as a result of the workings of the Internet Sites and the attached systems and software and due to Video Surveillance at Work Sites. You also acknowledge that information may be collected from your employer or other third parties.

4. Social Networking Sites: Ballance’s Social Networking Sites allow you to share content with other users.  Importantly, any personal information that you contribute to Ballance’s Social Networking Sites can be read, collected and used by other Social Networking Site users.  In particular, Ballance’s Facebook page is set to the “everyone” setting in accordance with Facebook’s terms and conditions. This means that information you post is publically available and may be accessed by everyone on the internet, be indexed by third party search engines and be imported, exported, distributed and redistributed by us and others, without privacy limitations. We have little or no control over these other users and, therefore, we cannot guarantee that any information that you contribute to any Social Networking Site will be handled in accordance with this Policy.

5. Use of Information: Ballance uses the information provided by you, or otherwise collected, to support the operation of our business and the safe provision of products and services. Some of the specific purposes for which Ballance collects, holds, uses and discloses such personal information include (a) to assess the performance of the Internet Sites to ensure that the Internet Sites serve your needs in the most efficient manner possible; (b) for Ballance’s marketing purposes; (c) to ensure that Ballance is aware who is on our Work Sites at any given time; (d) to enable Ballance to uphold safety standards consistent with the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 or otherwise monitor the operations on our Work Sites; (e) for other purposes which are disclosed to you, and to which you consent, whether expressly or by implication by providing Ballance with your personal information with knowledge of how Ballance intends to use it; and (f) without your consent for purposes that are required or authorised by or under any applicable law or contract to which Ballance is bound.  In posting a Post (as defined in clause 6 of the Website Terms of Use) on any of the Internet Sites, you are deemed to consent to Ballance publishing or otherwise using that Post for marketing and other purposes.

6. Cookies: Ballance may also place cookies on your computer. Cookies are alpha numeric identifiers which are transferred to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser to enable Ballance to recognise you whenever you access the Internet Sites and therefore better personalise your access of the Internet Sites. A cookie does not identify you personally but it does identify your computer.

7. Data Transmission: Any personal information that falls within the scope of this Privacy Policy is collected and held by Ballance or trusted third parties Ballance may engage to store information on its behalf.  Unfortunately, no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed as totally secure. Whilst Ballance strives to protect such information, we do not warrant, and cannot ensure complete security of any information which you transmit to us. Accordingly, any information which you transmit to us is transmitted at your own risk.  Nevertheless, Ballance will take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, corruption, loss or unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, including through physical, electronic and procedural safeguards.  If Ballance becomes aware of any breach involving your personal information, it will comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act relating to the reporting of privacy breaches.

8. Accessing Information: You are entitled to access any information which Ballance may hold about you and Ballance is obliged to provide this information to you as long as (a) it has such information; (b) such information can be readily retrieved; and (c) it is not required or entitled to refuse such access by law.  If you wish to seek access to any or all personal information that Ballance maintains about you, you may do so by submitting a written request.  All such enquiries should be directed to:

Privacy Officer
Ballance Agri-Nutrients Limited
John Paxie
161 Hewletts Road, Mount Maunganui 
Email: John.Paxie@ballance.co.nz 
Phone: 027 742 7733 

Please quote your name and address and, if possible, provide brief details of what information you want a copy of (this helps us to more readily locate your information).  If you wish to access video images, you must identify the specific date and time and the Work Site on which the relevant personal information was collected.  Ballance may not be able to provide you with access to Video Surveillance footage if such access may unreasonably breach the privacy of another individual. You are also entitled to request Ballance correct any inaccuracies in any information which Ballance holds about you.  In some cases, there may be a charge associated with retrieving and providing a copy of your personal information to you. If so, we will advise you of this prior to sending your information.

9. Disclosing Information: Ballance may disclose your personal information to third parties if required in connection with the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. This may include disclosure to the following persons: (a) Ballance’s employees, officers, contractors and third party service providers; (b) Ballance’s related or affiliated companies and their respective employees, officers, contractors, service providers and agents; (c)  Ballance’s accountants, insurers, lawyers, auditors and other professional advisors; (d) your employer or any other third parties to whom you provide services as an independent contractor; (e) any other third parties to whom you direct or permit Ballance to disclose your personal information; and (f) without your prior permission if Balance believes that such disclosure is necessary to conform to legal requirements, comply with legal process or help to maintain the law, protect the rights or property of Ballance or its related companies, or enforce the Terms of Conditions of access to the Website.  You also agree that Ballance may provide any personal information it collects about you to debt collection and credit reference agencies and any other parties it deems necessary in relation to providing you access to the Internet Sites, for any services you access or products you purchase from the Website, to recover any money you owe to Ballance and to exercise any lawful right Ballance, its related companies or debt collection and credit reference agencies may have. You also authorise any person to provide Ballance with such information as Ballance may require in response to credit enquiries.

10. Storage: You should be aware that information which Ballance collects from you may be stored or processed outside of New Zealand where the relevant Internet Site is hosted on a server located outside New Zealand (e.g hosted in the “cloud”).  When we disclose personal information to third parties based offshore, we will comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act that relate to the transfer of personal information offshore.

11. Retention: Ballance will keep your personal information for as long as is required for the purpose for which it was collected. When the personal information that Ballance collects is no longer required and is not required to be retained by law, it will destroy, delete or permanently anonymise it (except for any personal information located on an off-site server or which is stored as electronic back-up data that cannot be readily accessed).

12. Privacy Breach: If your personal information is affected by a privacy breach that, in our opinion, has or is likely to cause you serious harm, we will notify you and the Privacy Commissioner as soon as practicable after becoming aware of that privacy breach.

13. Severability: If any provision of this Privacy Policy is held to be invalid, void, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, such provision shall be deemed to be severed from this Privacy Policy and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force.

14. Privacy Act: This Policy does not affect your rights under the Privacy Act.

15. Contact Us: If you have any questions or complaints about the handling of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer in the first instance using the contact details set out above and we will do our best to assist.   If you are still not satisfied, you can make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner. Further details on how to do this are available on the Privacy Commissioner website at www.privacy.org.nz.