Privacy statement

Drive Privacy Policy

Last updated: 20 August 2024

Overview

‘Drive’ when used in this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use means this website drive.govt.nz and the Drive Go mobile app. For you to get the most out of this website, drive.govt.nz (Drive), we NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) and the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) need to collect some information from you. We think it is important for you to know when we will collect information from you, what we will collect and why we collect it, how we will store it, and how we will use that information. Most importantly, we want you to know that we will protect your information, and we will only collect, use and store it in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020.

Drive Terms of Use
Privacy Act 2020

This Privacy Policy applies to Drive and it forms part of Drive’s Terms of Use. Your use of Drive means that you accept and agree to this Privacy Policy and any revisions or updates.

We may change or update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we do, we will post the updated Policy on Drive and change the date at the top of the Policy. If we are significantly changing the Policy, we will display a notice on our home page, and will, if practicable, give all registered account holders reasonable warning via email.

How we collect information and what we collect

We do not collect personal information about you on Drive unless you choose to give it to us.

The amount and type of information we will collect from you depends on:

  • the type of Drive user you are (eg, you may or may not have a registered account with us)
  • what services you would like to access and how (eg whether you access Drive through the website or Drive Go mobile app).

The table below sets out the kind of information we may collect and when we will collect it:

Information collected from you When we will collect it Where we collect it
Name When you register an account or submit an order for Drive Community resources Website and mobile app
Preferred name When you register an account or submit an order for Drive Community resources Mobile app
Email address When you register an account or submit an order for Drive Community resources Website and mobile app
Date of birth When you register an account Website and mobile app
Gender If you choose to provide this when you register an account Website and mobile app
Ethnicity If you choose to provide this when you register an account Website and mobile app
Phone number If you are a Community Provider of driver education classes, when you submit an order for Drive Community resources Website
Address If you are a Community Provider of driver education classes, when you submit an order for Drive Community resources Website
Organisation you work/volunteer for If you are a Community Provider of driver education classes, when you submit an order for Drive Community resources Website
Drivers licence stage (eg learners, restricted, full) When you register an account, if you have a current New Zealand driver licence Website and mobile app
Driving tracking information During a driving session when you are logged into Drive and opt to save the tracking data from that drive Mobile app
Other information provided in answers to questions You may voluntarily include personal information about yourself in answers to questions we ask you while you are using the website or Drive Go app Website and mobile app

 

When you register for an account, you will be able to click the ‘why’ button alongside each information field in your account settings to see why we are asking for certain information, and decide whether or not to provide us with that information.

You may register for an account using your Facebook, Google or Apple account. This is called social login. When you use social login, you are authorising the social network to send us your name and email address. We do not collect any other information from your social media account, nor will we share any information about you with the social network.

If you create your Drive account using your Apple ID, Apple gives you the option to hide your personal email address from Drive. If you choose this option, Apple will share a uniquely-generated address with Drive instead of sharing your personal email address. This is called a private relay email address. To view the private relay email address associated with your Drive account, go to your Apple device’s account settings.

You can see what information we hold about you on your user dashboard, and you can correct that information at any time. We request that you keep this information up to date. If you have any trouble accessing or correcting this information, please contact us at drive@nzta.govt.nz or 0800 772 284.

Driver tracking information

When you use the Drive Go mobile app we will ask you to allow us to track your in-car location, speed and distance travelled using GPS sensors in your mobile device. This is so that you can track your driving experience and we can provide you with helpful feedback and insights. We will only use the information collected to improve your experience and for evaluation purposes. Unless required by law we won’t share this information with any other person, and in particular, your speed data will not be shared with any enforcement agency or be used for enforcement purposes.

Analytics tools

When you use the Drive website we use cookies and other tools to analyse non-identifiable web traffic data. In particular, we may collect your IP address so that we can understand the number of unique and/or repeat visits to Drive, the type of device and browser you are using to access Drive, and how you use the site.

Cookies are small text files that are stored by your browser on your device to save certain information. The next time you visit the Drive website on the same device, the information saved in the cookies will subsequently be accessed on your device so that the Drive website can recognise that you have already accessed and visited it with the browser you use on that device. We use this information to design and display the website in an optimum way in line with your preferences.

We use Google Analytics’ DoubleClick Cookie and demographic and interests reporting features to do this. We also use online tools Campaign Manager and Search Ads 360 by Google to understand whether you complete certain activities on the Drive website, the content with which you have interacted with and to display relevant content to you.

Campaign Manager uses Google Floodlight tags to recognise users by a cookie ID or device ID which becomes a user ID. User IDs are associated with browsers, not people. If you use multiple devices, such as a phone, a tablet and two different browsers on a laptop each device or browser is identified separately. Similarly, if people share a computer or device, a single user ID might represent multiple people. We make no effort to associate this information with your identity except in rare situations where we need to respond to a security or safety issue.

You can opt out of these Google Analytics features through ‘Google Ad settings’ or by downloading the ‘Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on’.

Google Analytics – types of cookies used
Google Ad settings
Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on

When you use the Drive Go mobile app we analyse anonymous and aggregated information about your use of the mobile app (including visits to screens within the app) and your IP address. In particular we may collect information about which app screens and features you use so that we can analyse, evaluate and improve the mobile app. We use Google Analytics for Firebase to do this. We do not use cookies within the mobile app.

We may also collect and use anonymised information about your device, systems and application software to provide app upgrades, product support, statistical analysis, research and other services related to the app, including any of its features or tools.

We collect information about what stage of your learning you are at and your progress towards ranks and achievements within both the Drive website and Drive Go mobile app. This is so that we can provide you with content and communications that are directly relevant to you and that will assist you on your Drive journey. 

How we store your information

We take your privacy seriously and will store the information we collect about you securely. You can also help keep your information safe by not disclosing your password to anyone.

We use Okta, a cloud-based identity management service based in San Francisco to manage access to some NZTA services, including Drive. Okta provides a secure single sign-on service that allows users to log in to NZTA systems and apps connected to Okta with a single ID and password. When you sign-up to use Drive the email address you provide and the password you create will be stored in Okta. You will register with your email address and you will not be able to change or update this. We recommend therefore, that you use an email address that is unique to you and is not used by anyone else. You will be able to reset your password if you have forgotten it or wish to change it for security reasons, without needing to contact the Drive administration team.

Other information you provide through Drive will be encrypted and stored within the Drive database for a maximum of five years from the date your account was last active.

Deleting your account

You may request deletion of your account at any time in your account settings. If you choose to delete your account, your information will be deleted from our system. However, please be aware that your email address and password, while deleted from Drive, will be retained within Okta so that you can continue to use this with other NZTA services connected to Okta if need be. If you wish to delete your email address and password from Okta you may do so by contacting NZTA.

NZTA contact information

Uninstalling the Drive Go mobile app from your device will not delete or deactivate your Drive account. You will need to delete or deactivate your account through account settings within the app before you uninstall it.

Deleting your account means that the following information about you will be immediately deleted from the Drive database (if held):

  • First names
  • Last name
  • Email address
  • Date of birth
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • Preferred name

Anonymised information from deleted accounts will be retained for five years, after which it will be securely deleted.

Information about you we may use for evaluating Drive

To evaluate and improve the Drive programme, NZTA and ACC conduct an ongoing evaluation of Drive to monitor the following:

  • the demographic profile of people who sign up to Drive
  • the licence test pass rates of people signed up to Drive compared to other young drivers
  • the traffic and licence offence rates of people who signed up to Drive compared to other young drivers
  • the number of crashes involving people who signed up to Drive compared to other young drivers
  • the number of people who signed up to Drive who made ACC motor vehicle-related claims compared to other young drivers

As part of this evaluation, each month NZTA and ACC match data from people who signed up to Drive with the following data sources:

  • The New Zealand Driver Licence Register (for licence test and offence data)
  • The New Zealand Crash Analysis System (CrashHub)
  • ACC motor vehicle claims register

The information about Drive users we match to these data sources includes:

  • First name
  • Last name
  • Gender
  • Date of birth
  • Physical town
  • Drive sign-up date
  • Drive ID (a unique identifier created for data matching purposes)

This information may only be used for evaluation purposes and must be kept confidential by the people and organisations (NZTA and ACC) conducting the evaluation. Any information collected about you as part of this evaluation will not affect any current or future ACC claims or any current or future driver licence applications and it will not be used for enforcement purposes. No individual will be identified in any reports, summaries or other documents that are produced as a result of the evaluation, whether they are published or not.

Why we collect your information

We will collect information from you for the following purposes:

  • to allow you to create a registered account in order to log in to and use Drive
  • to respond to any questions or correspondence from you
  • to communicate with you about your Drive account and to send you other messages, as detailed below
  • to send you push notifications related to the operation and functionality of Drive
  • to help us assess what content to provide you with, based on the stage of your driver education and your progress through the Drive programme
  • to calculate the date you’re eligible to sit your next practical driving test
  • to help you track and evaluate your driving experience and receive helpful feedback and insights
  • to calculate and record your achievements (such as your total driving time at different speeds and during certain weather and environmental conditions) and display these to you
  • to help us evaluate the effectiveness of the driver education programme made available through Drive. This will include, for example, undertaking statistical analysis (which will not be published in a form that would identify any individual) of information:
    • about how long it takes users of Drive to progress through the graduated driver licence system, compared with other learner drivers; and
    • whether Drive users are more likely to pass licence tests first time compared with other learner drivers; and
    • to see if Drive users are more or less likely to be driving a vehicle in an injury-causing accident, compared with other learner drivers.
  • to help us evaluate and improve Drive. This may include conducting market research (but you will not be able to be personally identified by any information we use for research).

How we may use and disclose your information

We may disclose the information we collect about you to the following people for the following purposes:

  • we will need to give our respective employees, contractors, agents and advisers (including our web and mobile app developer and our web and mobile app hosting providers) limited access to the information you provide us in order to run Drive. This access includes managing and storing your information and undertaking statistical analysis. All these people have agreed to deal with your information in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 and this Privacy Policy; and
  • we may disclose anonymised information used for market research or statistical analysis to internal or external analysts and then publicly in the form of aggregated, anonymised results.

Otherwise, we generally do not share your information with others unless this is necessary for one of the purposes for which you gave us the information. Occasionally, we may be required by law to disclose your information – for instance, to investigate a criminal offence, or there may be safety reasons for disclosing it.

Sometimes we may ask you if we can collect more information or use your information in another way.

When we send you messages

If you are a registered account holder, we may sometimes need to send you messages directly related to your Drive account, for example, a reminder if you have not logged into your account in a while. By using Drive, you agree to us sending you messages of this type.

We may also ask you if you want to receive other messages from us, such as newsletters. We will only send you messages that are not directly related to your Drive account if you agree to this. If you have agreed to us sending you this type of message, you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link in any message, by updating the settings on your user dashboard, or by contacting us: drive@nzta.govt.nz