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Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board (ODOB) Privacy Statement

Your Privacy

At the Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board (ODOB) we respect your privacy. We are committed to protecting any personal information we collect about you. This includes information collected when you interact with our website odob.health.nz or when you communicate with us by other means. The ODOB complies with all aspects of the Privacy Act 2020 and associated legislation.

This Privacy Statement relates to all personal information collected when you communicate with us via the website, in person, by phone or through the myODOB portal.

Purposes for which we collect and may use your information

The ODOB is a regulatory authority under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 (HPCA Act). The overarching purpose of the ODOB is to protect the health and safety of members of the public by ensuring optometrists and dispensing opticians are competent and fit to practise within their registered scope of practice.

To achieve this purpose and comply with our obligations and functions under the HPCA Act we collect, retain, use and may share personal information (including health information) for the following purposes:

  • Receiving, verifying and processing information related to registration, maintaining registration, undertaking audits, and applications for an annual practising certificate.
  • Responding to notifications and communications made by or about an optometrist or dispensing optician
  • Assessing, investigating, and managing complaints or concerns made by or about an optometrist or dispensing opticians competence, conduct or fitness to practise.
  • Dealing with requests and verifying your identity.
  • Maintaining a public register of optometrists and dispensing opticians as required under the HPCA Act.
  • Providing relevant information to the Ministry of Health (or its agents such as Te Whatu Ora) necessary for it to administer and maintain the Heath Practitioner Index database.
  • Providing relevant information directly to an overseas regulatory authority if requested because a practitioner has applied for registration with that authority.
  • Quality improvement activities and maintaining and improving our services.
  • Comply with our obligations (including reporting obligations) to the Ministry of Health, Te Whatu Ora, the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) and any other bodies.
  • For administrative purposes, which may include audits, surveys and research.
  • To comply with any relevant laws and regulations.

How do we collect your information?

We may collect your personal information when:

  • You interact with the practitioner portal (myODOB) to update your personal information.
  • You apply for your annual practising certificate or non-practising status.
  • You access our website, make enquiries through our website or complete forms available on the site or through the practitioner portal (myODOB).
  • You communicate with us for any other reason in person, by phone or through this website.
  • We may also collect information about you from persons or organisations who notify us of a concern or complaint about you or from persons or organisations you have authorised to provide information to us.

If you choose not to provide your personal information we may not be able to perform some of our functions such as renewal of your annual practicing certificate.

How do we use your information?

We may use your personal information for the purposes set out in this Privacy Statement, including to:

  • Respond to your questions, comments, or correspondence.
  • Provide you with information about our functions and role, and to perform our functions under the HPCA Act.
  • To enable us to meet our statutory obligations and functions under the HPCA Act, including reporting obligations to the Ministry of Health, Te Whatu Ora, and the Health and Disability Commissioner.
  • Analyse your usage of our website for regulatory purposes.
  • Carry out research and development, quality improvement, audit, or surveys relevant to the functions of the ODOB.
  • Customise and improve our website to suit your preferences and interests.
  • Reduce the need for you to repeatedly enter the same information.
  • Send messages you have created using this website.
  • Analyse website usage, trends, and statistics.
  • Enforce our rights under our terms of use.
  • Carry out any other action authorised by you or advised to you at the time of collection.
  • As required or authorised by any law or regulations.

When we may share your information

  • We may share your information for the purposes set out in this Privacy Statement, including:
  • To meet our obligations under the HPCA Act and if we are required or authorised by any law or regulation.
  • You have authorised us to do so or we have told you about the intended disclosure.
  • We provide information required for the national Health Practitioner Index database administered by the Ministry of Health and Te Whatu Ora. This includes the practitioner’s name, gender, date of birth, qualification for registration, scope(s) of practice, practising status and, if any, condition(s) of practice.
  • Where we believe it is necessary to ensure the protection of the health and safety of the public including where competence, conduct or fitness to practise concerns have been raised.
  • We are required or permitted by law or any regulation to disclose the information.
  • We provide information relating to a practitioner’s scope of practice including any conditions if relevant, fitness to practise and any formal investigations, processes or disciplinary or competence actions directly to an overseas regulatory authority if requested by the authority because a practitioner has applied for registration with that authority.
  • For research or audit purposes.
  • We use a data or communications service provider (Our agreements with them protect your details against unauthorised use). We do not store any credit card details.

We may also disclose your information if we believe it is necessary to:

  • Protect the rights, property, or safety of you, ODOB (including, without limitation, our employees, or contractors), or others.
  • Enforce any legal rights we may have.
  • Avoid prejudice to the maintenance of the law by any public sector agency including for the conduct of proceedings before any court or tribunal.

Aggregated data (not your personally identifiable information) may also be shared with third parties.

How do we protect your information?

All personal information in electronic form is stored by ODOB in a secure, password-protected database and/or server. All ODOB employees and Board members sign a confidentiality agreement.

We will take reasonable efforts to protect the personal information we hold from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, please note that there are some inherent risks associated with internet technologies that are outside our control.

Technical information

We also collect some technical information about the equipment you use to contact us including:

  • server addresses
  • top-level domain names
  • dates and times of website visits
  • pages accessed.
  • documents downloaded.
  • links clicked on
  • search terms used.
  • previous websites visited.
  • the type of browser and operating system used.
  • the type of device used.

We use this information to improve our website and to provide a personalised user experience.

We use ‘Cookies’

The ODOB also uses ’cookies’. Most web browsers are set to accept them. A cookie is a small file that is stored on your device. When you access odob.health.nz the cookie acts as a record that enables us to provide you with customised functionality and helps us to analyse site usage more accurately.

You can opt out of receiving cookies

If you do not wish to receive cookies from odob.health.nz, you may set your browser to refuse them or to warn you when you are about to receive one. However, some features and services may not function properly if you disable cookies.

Your rights to access and correct your information

The Privacy Act 2020 gives you the right to access and seek correction of any personal information we hold about you.

If you would like to access any of your information or believe any information held by ODOB should be corrected simply email the Registrar of the ODOB, also the Privacy Officer at registrar@odob.health.nz or post it to:

The Privacy Officer
Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board,
PO Box 9644
Wellington 6141

Third party websites

This website may contain hyperlinks to third party websites. The ODOB is not responsible for the content of such websites, or for the manner in which those websites collect, hold, use, and distribute any personal information you provide. When visiting a third-party website from hyperlinks displayed on this website, we encourage you to review the privacy statements of those websites so that you can understand how the personal information you provide will be will collected, held, used and disclosed.

We update our Privacy Statement regularly

The ODOB may update or revise this Privacy Statement at any time. Changes to this Privacy Statement will take effect immediately once published on our website. Please check this Privacy Statement regularly for modifications and updates. If you use this website or if you provide any personal information after we post changes to this Privacy Statement, this will indicate your acceptance of any such changes. This Privacy Statement was last updated on August 2023.

Feedback

We welcome your feedback. If you have any comments, questions or complaints about this Privacy Statement don’t hesitate to contact us. Alternatively, you also have the right to complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Information on this process may be found at www.privacy.org.nz/your-rights/complaint-form.