Privacy

Privacy statement · Updated 17 September 2026

Small Business Work NZ investigates what it takes to run a small business in Aotearoa New Zealand and publishes what it learns. This statement explains how information shared through our website, research and email is intended to be handled.

Our approach: collect only what the research needs, keep identifiable information restricted, separate evidence from analysis tools, and publish findings without exposing identifiable response records.

Who to contact

For privacy questions, requests or concerns, email research@smallbusinesswork.nz. This is the contact for Small Business Work NZ at smallbusinesswork.nz.

Information you choose to share

Our research asks about your business context, everyday administrative and coordination work, and recent experiences. The questions shown in each survey explain what is requested. Written answers can identify you or someone else even when no name is requested. Please avoid including customer or employee names, account details, passwords or confidential business records.

If you email us, we receive your email address and the information in your message. Any optional follow-up contact details requested in research should be explained separately at the point of collection.

Why we collect information

Research responses help us understand experiences, examine patterns and differences, assess the limits of the evidence and decide what deserves further investigation. Contact information is used to respond to enquiries or arrange follow-up you have agreed to.

Campaign codes attached to recruitment links help distinguish where responses came from and which survey version was used. These codes are recruitment metadata and do not make a response anonymous.

Your participation and choices

Participation is voluntary. You can choose not to participate and can leave a survey before submitting. Required questions, if any, are marked in the survey; leaving them unanswered may prevent submission. Only submitted responses are treated as research evidence. If the survey platform retains an unfinished response for technical or form-recovery purposes, it will not be included in research analysis unless a future participant notice explicitly says otherwise.

You can ask us about withdrawing a submitted response. Whether we can locate and remove it depends on the identifiers retained and whether it has already been irreversibly de-identified or incorporated into published aggregate findings. The applicable withdrawal arrangements must be stated in the survey notice.

Survey tools, storage and access

The current survey uses Tally. Tally states that its service is hosted in the European Union and that form data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Its handling of information is described in Tally’s privacy policy. Submitted responses may also be exported into private research working files for quality checks and analysis. Research records are kept separate from the public website.

Access to identifiable research responses is limited to people authorised to work on the research and the service providers needed to operate the tools. Because Tally is hosted in the European Union, survey responses are processed outside New Zealand. Exported research files must remain in private, access-controlled storage and must not be placed on the public website.

How research will be published

We intend to publish findings and methods openly, rather than publish identifiable response records. Reporting should use grouped results and carefully reviewed, de-identified examples. In a small community or an unusual business, removing a name alone may not prevent identification.

Quotations, examples or small-group findings that could reasonably identify a person or business will not be published without separate permission. Optional follow-up contact details will be kept separate from analytical working data wherever practical and will not be published.

AI-assisted analysis

Any AI assistance that materially affects research will be explained in the relevant methods disclosure. A methods disclosure alone is not permission to send personal information to an AI service.

Identifiable or confidential research responses will not be sent to general-purpose AI services. If AI materially assists analysis, data must first be minimised and de-identified to the extent reasonably possible, and the relevant research publication will describe that use. AI-assisted synthesis is treated as an analysis tool, not as evidence in its own right.

Website information and cookies

Website hosting and security services can process technical information such as IP addresses, requested pages, browser details and timestamps. WordPress uses cookies for administrator login.

Small Business Work NZ has not intentionally configured behavioural advertising pixels or a separate visitor analytics service on the public research site at launch. The survey is linked to Tally rather than embedded on the website. Hosting, caching and security services may retain technical request logs for operational and security purposes. If analytics, embedded services or additional tracking are introduced, this statement will be updated.

Retention

Identifiable information should be kept only for as long as it is needed for the purpose for which it was collected. De-identified research outputs may need a different retention period from contact details and raw responses.

Identifiable research responses, follow-up contact details and correspondence will be reviewed at least annually and deleted or de-identified once they are no longer reasonably needed for analysis, verification, agreed follow-up or legal obligations. Deletion will be applied to working exports where practical; backup copies may persist temporarily until overwritten through the normal backup cycle.

Access, correction and concerns

You can ask for access to personal information we hold about you and ask for it to be corrected. Email research@smallbusinesswork.nz and describe your request. We may need to verify your identity and locate the relevant record. Avoid sending unnecessary identity documents in your first message.

Please raise privacy concerns with us first so we can address them. You can also find information about privacy rights and complaints through the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Changes to this statement

This page will be updated when our research or information handling changes. Each survey should provide the notice that applies when you participate.

Prepared with reference to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s privacy statement guidance.