Data Principles & Corrections

The Charities Register is a public register established by section 25 of the Charities Act 2005. Annual returns lodged on the register are public records by design — Parliament chose transparency as the regulatory bargain in exchange for charitable tax status.

Tier 1 and Tier 2 registered charities (revenue ≥ $2M) must disclose key-management-personnel remuneration as a line-item in their audited statutory accounts under PBE IPSAS 1. Tier 3 charities ($140K–$2M) disclose remuneration in broad bands under PBE SFR-A. Tier 4 charities (≤$140K) report on a cash basis under PBE SFR-C; KMP-comp line items are typically not required.

Republication of information from a publicly available publication is expressly permitted under Privacy Act 2020 section 7 and IPP 11(e)(iii) / IPP 12(d). We treat this as the floor of what we may publish, not the ceiling.

What we surface scales with the regulatory disclosure regime that applies to the charity. Tier 1 / 2 disclose under the strongest regime, so we surface exact figures. Tier 3 discloses bands, so we surface bands. Tier 4 disclosure is minimal, so we restrict comp display to verified researchers.

Person profiles are excluded from search-engine indexing when all of the following are true:

• The person holds no NZX-listed-company directorship, no public-sector role, no MP role, and no iwi-board role.
• All charity appointments are at Tier 4 charities (or charities with no current financial filing).
• The person sits on fewer than three charity boards.

The intent: a long-tail community-board volunteer should not have their name surface in Google or AI-assistant search results purely because they appear on this site. Anyone deliberately researching the charity still sees the trustee list on the charity profile, and direct links to the person profile still work — the person is excluded only from name-based search discovery.

The following are not statutorily-public-by-design and we will remove them within 24 hours of a verified request, no debate:

• Photographs of an individual
• Personal email addresses or direct phone numbers
• Home addresses (where these have leaked from a source we did not vet)
• Any data point about a minor or a person with a current protective order
• Data about anyone with suppressed identity grounds under Privacy Act ss 24-25

Submit a request via our public dispute & right-of-reply form. Every submission goes to our editorial review queue with a 5-business-day response target. Outcomes:

• Factual error
  We correct it within 24 hours of verifying against the underlying register record. We do not amend records inside the source register itself — that requires the charity to refile with Charities Services.
• Right of reply
  You may submit a brief contextual statement (e.g. role scope, hours, comparator basis) and we will publish it on the relevant profile alongside the data point it addresses.
• Statutorily-public data
  We do not remove information that is on the public register by statutory design (name, role, charity, appointment date, disclosed remuneration band or figure within the tier rules above). The right answer for that information is right-of-reply, not removal.
• Truly-personal data
  Removed within 24 hours per the list in the previous section.

The dispute form accepts user-submitted content (right-of-reply statements, contextual notes) that we publish alongside the data point it addresses. Where you believe such user-submitted content, or any other content posted by another user, is harmful to a third party under the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015, you can ask us to take it down via the dispute form by selecting “Harmful content posted by another user (HDCA takedown)” as the dispute type.

We follow the §23–24 safe-harbour process. Within 48 hours of receiving the notice we will either (a) forward the complaint to the content author with your personal details redacted (unless you tell us we can share them), or (b) remove the content if the author cannot be reached. The 48-hour clock runs from when the notice arrives, not from when it is read.

The HDCA takedown path is for content posted by other users. For corrections to information we ourselves publish (charity facts, ratings, analytical observations), use the standard editorial dispute path with its 5-business-day SLA — see the previous section.

If you believe our handling of personal information falls short of the Privacy Act 2020, you can raise a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz. We cooperate fully with any OPC inquiry and abide by determinations.

Exact remuneration figures for Tier 3 and Tier 4 charities are restricted to verified researchers and Pro subscribers — the cohort of journalists, funders, academics, philanthropic advisers, and regulatory bodies for whom the data is load-bearing. This is the same access model used by Companies Office paid extracts, BizFile Singapore, and Candid (US).

Verified researchers receive Pro-level access at no cost — see pricing & access tiers for credentials we recognise.