Your privacy

Purpose

The purpose of this privacy policy is to let users of the Death Documents Website https://deathdocs.services.govt.nz (Death Documents) know when Health New Zealand (HNZ) – Te Whatu Ora, acting on behalf of the Ministry of Health (MOH), and the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) may collect personal information and what we do with this information. We do not use, share or transfer personal information in connection with Death Documents except as set out in this policy, or as otherwise required by law. This privacy statement applies to personal information collected through Death Documents.

Collection, storage and use of information

Death Documents supports the process for a health practitioner (medical practitioner, nurse practitioner or midwife) to document a person's death and for others to access the information they require to dispose of a body according to the requirements of the Burial and Cremation Act 1964 and the Cremation Regulations 1973.

Other select groups of people are permitted to view documents as required for the work they do in relation to medicine, health administration and death registration.

Death Documents is operated by HNZ and DIA.

Death Documents requires that you register in your role to access and use the site.

Role of the Health Practitioner

A health practitioner who certifies the death or reports the death to the coroner, will record the details of the deceased person’s death. This information includes personal identifying details of the deceased, the cause(s) of death, and the circumstances surrounding the deceased's death which will be made available to the funeral director, medical referee, mortuary technician and government agencies that have a legal right to access this information.

Role of the Funeral Director

A funeral director who makes the funeral arrangements, including disposal of the deceased person’s body, will search for and view documents for the deceased person. The information retrieved from the documents will be used only in a professional capacity, including for; collecting, transferring, embalming and disposing of the deceased person’s body, gaining permission to cremate from a medical referee (if the body is to be cremated), and registering the death with DIA as required by legislation.

Role of the Mortuary Technician

A mortuary technician taking care of the deceased person’s body at a mortuary, will search for and view documents on Death Documents to confirm the identity of the deceased; establish whether the deceased person had an infectious disease; establish whether a post-mortem examination needs to be completed; and pass the documents to the family or funeral director with the release of the deceased person’s body.

Role of the Hospital Administrator

Hospital staff search and view documents in Death Documents in their role of assisting with the transfer of the deceased’s body and documentation to the funeral director or family and recording details about the death in the deceased patient’s clinical notes.

Role of the Cemetery Administrator

City Council Cemetery Administrators who assist families arranging a funeral without a funeral director will search for and view documents for the deceased person. They will print the documents for the family, so they can arrange the disposal of the body and register the death with DIA as required by legislation.

Role of the Body Bequest Coordinator

Body Bequest Coordinators who arrange for the transfer of donated bodies to the medical school will search for and view documents to learn the nature of the cause of death to ensure the body is suitable to be used for medical science and research.

Role of the Health NZ Administrator

HNZ administrators in their role of gathering mortality statistics, overseeing the legislative requirements of the Burial and Cremation Act 1964, and helping maintain the Death Documents app, will search for and view documents to ensure the cause of death information is complete and accurate, and log in on occasions when a problem is reported to ensure the app is functioning correctly.

Role of the DIA Administrator

DIA administrators are Department of Internal Affairs staff who assist funeral directors and families to complete the registration of deaths. They will search for and view certificates where appropriate to ensure complete and accurate information is recorded on death registrations and death certificates issued to families. The information retrieved from Death Documents will be used only in a professional capacity to fulfil legal obligations.

Collection of personal information from a:

Health Practitioner

As part of registering as a health practitioner with Death Documents, you are required to provide personal information in your professional capacity. This is to ensure that only genuine health practitioners are using Death Documents to record and certify deaths. Health practitioners are authorised against HNZ's Health Provider Index (HPI)

Registration requires the following information:

• Details about yourself (i.e. your name, HPI-CPN, qualifications, job title, work setting and contact information.)

Documenting the deceased person’s death information requires the following:

• Details about the deceased’s identity
• Details about the deceased's cause of death
• The circumstances surrounding the deceased's death
• In the case of a fetal or neonatal death information about the deceased’s mother, pregnancy and delivery.

Completing the cremation certificate requires the following information:

• Details about the deceased and your relationship to the deceased
• Details about the deceased's cause of death
• The circumstances surrounding the deceased's death.

Funeral Director

As part of registering as a funeral director with Death Documents, you are required to provide personal information in your professional capacity. This is to ensure that only genuine funeral directors are accessing Death Documents. Funeral directors are authorised using their Customer/Debtor Number issued by DIA.

Registration requires the following information:

• Details about yourself (i.e. your name, professional roles, and contact information.)
• Details about your organisation (i.e. your Customer/Debtor Number and any alternate trading names)

Mortuary Technician

As part of registering as a mortuary technician with Death Documents, you are required to provide personal information about yourself in your professional capacity. This is to ensure that only genuine mortuary technicians are viewing death documents. Mortuary technicians are authorised against HNZ's Health Provider Index (HPI).

Registration requires the following information:

• Details about yourself (i.e. your name, HPI-CPN, and contact information.)
• Details about the organisation in which the mortuary is located.

Other Roles

As part of registering with Death Documents, you are required to provide personal information in your professional capacity. This is to ensure that only authorised users are accessing Death Documents. Your access is authorised using a number issued to your organisation by DIA or HNZ.

Registration requires the following information:

• Details about yourself (i.e. your name, professional role or job title, team and contact information.)
• Details about your organisation (i.e. your organisation’s access number)

Access to your information

Any information we collect from you remains under your control. You may add to it, edit it or delete it up until you submit the information to the National Initial Investigation Office (Coroner), HNZ and DIA. Your information is held by the Coroner, HNZ and DIA in Death Documents for the sole purpose of documenting the death of a person according to the legislation, or for viewing Death Documents to assist with your work.

HNZ and DIA may use the contact details you provide to inform you of changes to the website or to ask for feedback about improvements to how Death Documents works.

For Health Practitioners, the contact details you provide may also be used to contact you about documents you have completed.

The information that you provide is protected by your RealMe login and secured by New Zealand Government approved security.

Security and storage of information

HNZ and DIA take information security seriously. Our systems, including any information provided through Death Documents and by other methods is monitored for security purposes. This may include monitoring and access by third parties that provide services to HNZ and DIA. This monitoring ensures that your information and the information and systems in HNZ and DIA are kept safe.

Your personal information will be held in encrypted form in our storage system. HNZ and DIA will protect your information so that it is not accessed or shared with others without your consent.

RealMe password log on is required when entering information, or for reviewing stored information.

Data is collected and stored on the Amazon AWS cloud service. Information may be viewable by site administrators, staff (as appropriate) and third-party contractors who may administer or work on the site. Third party contractors are subject to DIA's and HNZ's information security and privacy law requirements.

If your device uses location services to provide your address or location, in order to access a list of locally available services, you need to know we use a Google Maps service to filter service options. Use of Google Maps is subject to Google’s privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy) and the Google Maps Terms of Service (https://developers.google.com/maps/terms).

Statistical information collected

We may collect statistical information about your visit to help us improve the Death Documents site. This information is aggregated and doesn't identify you personally. We use Matomo Analytics on our cloud service to collect and analyse details about the use of Death Documents. The information Matomo collects includes:

• your IP address (a reference to the computer/device you are using)
• the pages you accessed on our site and the links you clicked on
• the date and time you visited the site
• the referring site (if any) through which you clicked through to this site
• your operating system (e.g., Windows XP, Mac OS X, iOS 8.1, Android 6.0)
• the type and version of web browser you use (e.g. Internet Explorer11, Mozilla Firefox v47, chrome v48)
• other things like your screen resolution and the language setting of your browser.

The statistical information referred to above will be viewable by website administrators, HNZ and DIA staff. It may also be shared with other government agencies.

Records and disclosure statement / Rights of access and correction

Your rights

Under the Privacy Act 2020, you have the right to access and to request correction of any of your personal information provided to HNZ or DIA in connection with your use of Death Documents. If you would like to see or change your personal information that HNZ or DIA has stored, or if you have any concerns regarding your privacy, please contact us at one of the addresses below. We may require proof of your identity before being able to provide you with any personal information.

Disclaimer

All information on the site is correct and accurate at the time it is published, to the best of HNZ and DIA’s knowledge. However, HNZ and DIA assumes no liability for any losses suffered by any person relying directly or indirectly on information included on the Death Documents Website.

The information on the Death Documents Website shouldn’t be used as a substitute for legal and financial advice. It’s recommended that you consult a lawyer and/or financial adviser before acting on any of this information.

Any links and references to other websites, organisations or people are provided for users’ convenience only and should not be taken as endorsements of those websites, their content or those organisations or people.

Privacy Commissioner

If you're not satisfied with our response to any privacy-related concern you may have, you can contact the Privacy Commissioner: