Our Privacy Policy
Our Privacy Policy - Effective from 27 February 2024
1 Introduction
1.1 At Harvey Bowler Funeral Services Limited (we, our, etc) we take privacy seriously. This privacy policy explains why we collect personal information, how we store, share and use that personal information, and how you can exercise your privacy rights.
1.2 If you have any questions about anything relating to your privacy, or wish to exercise any of your privacy rights, please contact our Privacy Officer at support@harveybowler.co.nz (0800 33 22 13), or write to us at:
Privacy Officer
Harvey Bowler Funeral Services Ltd
284 Oxford Street
Levin 5510
2 Our business
2.1 We provide funeral services including funeral direction, embalming and cremation (our Services) operating out of three locations in the Horowhenua/Kapit region. With a team of professional and caring registered funeral directors and embalmers, we have been providing funeral services for over 100 years.
2.2 In providing our Services, we work with a number of third party service providers (our Service Providers) in order to cater for the wishes and the needs of the family of the deceased, provide guidance during a difficult time, and operate our business. Our Service Providers including florists, caterers, crematoriums, cemeteries, counselling and other professional bereavement service providers, and professional services providers like accountants, lawyers and IT providers.
3 Your choices
3.1 Right to Opt-Out: You can opt-out of the recording of certain information including the particular details of a funeral.
3.2 Right to Access and Correction: You have the right to know what personal information we hold about you, and you have the right to access, correct or update this information if it is incorrect.
3.3 Right to Erasure: You have the right to request deletion of your personal information. To the extent permitted by law and our policies we will delete your personal information on request.
3.4 Right to Data Portability: You have the right to request a copy of your personal information and we will provide it on request in an agreed format.
4 What personal information we collect
4.1 Personal information means information about an identifiable individual, as defined by New Zealand’s Privacy Act 2020. In this privacy policy we use “personal information” to also describe personal data as that term is defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the GDPR).
4.2 You cannot opt out of providing this information if you want us to provide our Services, but you can opt out of certain uses and disclosures of your personal information (more information below).
4.3 We collect the following information from you directly:
4.3.1 Your name, address, and contact information;
4.3.2 Payment information; and
4.3.3 Information about a deceased:
(a) Information required by law for Births, Deaths & Marriages;
(b) Medical certificate of cause of death;
(c) Certificate of medical practitioner for cremation;
(d) Instructions for the funeral arrangements.
4.4 Where you are engaging our Services on behalf of someone, we will collect information about your relationship to that person and your authority for acting on their behalf (including your authority to provide their personal information to us, such as a copy of any Enduring Power of Attorney you are acting under).
4.4 We may collect personal information from you indirectly from third parties in the following situations:
4.4.1 If someone is engaging our Services on your behalf, that person will provide us with the information described in clause 4.3 on your behalf; and
4.4.2 If you have contracted with a third party they may provide information to us in order to carry out their contract with you. For example: a contract for repatriation of the deceased.
4.4.3 We may also collect information from third parties in your specific circumstances, with your consent.
4.4.4 We may collect information from hospital or hospice care regarding cause of death and authority to cremate.
5 How we use your personal information
5.1 We use your personal information to provide our Services to you.
5.2 We use your personal information to communicate with you about those Services including retaining your contact details in order to communicate with you from time to time. You may choose to opt-out of this communication from us by contacting us at the contact details listed above at clause 1.2.
5.3 We use your personal information to perform credit checks and collect payment.
5.4 We use your personal information to make a historical record:
5.4.1 We have often received requests from family members to retrieve old documentation of the funerals of their ancestors. Sometimes, people like to replicate funeral details as a measure of their connectedness with family members. Others are able to find out details about their heritage and background.
5.4.2 For this reason, we retain detailed information about each funeral service, including the particular wishes of the deceased.
5.4.3 You can opt-out of this historical retention practice by request and, except where otherwise required by law, we will erase the details of the funeral from our records as soon as reasonably possible after we have completed our Services.
5.5 We use your personal information to comply with our obligations at law:
5.5.1 In accordance with our accounting and tax obligations, we will maintain our tax records for 7 years. If you choose to opt-out of any personal information of the funeral being recorded, we will record only the invoice details.
5.5.2 We are required to record the information for Births, Deaths and Marriages about the cause of death for the deceased.
5.5.3 We maintain records about whether ashes have been collected by next of kin. We are obligated to keep a record of this as it allows us to maintain an accurate register of ashes stored safely in our care.
5.6 Our grounds for processing and disclosing your personal information are:
5.6.1 To fulfil our contract with you;
5.6.2 To comply with our legal obligations; and
5.6.3 Otherwise, only with your consent.
6 How we share personal information with others
6.1 We do not disclose your personal information to any person except as described in this privacy policy, or with your consent.
6.2 We disclose your personal information to our third party Service Providers involved in the provision of our Services to you, for example to:
6.2.1 Catering companies;
6.2.2 Florists;
6.2.3 Crematoriums;
6.2.4 City or regional council (for example, for making cemetery arrangements);
6.2.5 Web service or other publisher in connection with publishing a death notice or online tribute services;
6.2.6 Legal and other professional advisors (yours and ours);
6.2.7 Professional bereavement counselling service or after care support for next of kin, if required; and
6.2.8 Insurers.
6.2.9 Livestreaming and AV Companies
6.2.10 Locations where venue hire is required
6.3 In the case of an international or domestic repatriation of a deceased, your personal information will be shared with those third parties necessary in order to facilitate the transport and in order to comply with international and national security or law enforcement requirements. Who those parties are will vary on a case by case basis. If you wish to receive a list of all parties that your personal information will be shared with in your individual circumstances, we can provide a list to you upon request.
6.4 To Government agencies as required by law, for example to register a death with the Department of Internal Affairs or to arrange a burial.
6.5 We disclose your personal information in the course of providing our Services to:
6.5.1 Debt collection services undertaken by Funeral Debt Recovery, where necessary; and
6.5.2 To service providers who provide, maintain, service and securely back-up our business information systems and applications, including our website.
7 Website
7.1 We do not use cookies on our website nor do we have plans to implement such technology in the future.
8 Storage and security of your information
8.1 We take appropriate steps to keep your information safe. Access to personal information is only provided to authorised staff. Most personal information will be held in our applications. Some personal information will be held physically at our offices. Appropriate security is utilised at our physical sites to ensure hardcopy information is secure and stored appropriately.
9 Transfer of personal information out of the European Economic Area (EEA)
9.1 We sometimes collect personal information from you as an EU-residents, for example where you require repatriation our other Services. For EU-residents, we comply with our obligations under the GDPR. We transfer such personal information to New Zealand in order to provide you with Services as described in this privacy policy. When we transfer personal information out of the EEA, we take steps to ensure that your information is as equally protected as it would be in the EEA. New Zealand has adequacy status for the purposes of the GDPR.
10 Changes to this policy
10.1 We may change this policy from time to time. All updates and amendments to this policy will be effective when we post a revised version of this policy on our website.
11 Questions and concerns
11.1 If you have any questions about anything relating to your privacy, please be in touch with our Privacy Officer at support@harveybowler.co.nz.