This privacy statement relates to:

• Te Tari Pūreke – Firearms Safety Authority website (www.firearmssafetyauthority.govt.nz)
• MyFirearms portal
• the Firearms Registry
• firearms licensing application forms hosted on the NZ Police website
• our social media channels. 

Te Tari Pūreke is a business unit of New Zealand Police. We are committed to ensuring your privacy is protected and we strive to uphold best practice privacy and security standards.

Te Tari Pūreke is committed to:

• collecting personal information in a fair manner
• using and sharing information for clearly understood purposes
• ensuring information is safeguarded against inappropriate access, use or disclosure.

Since our email-based privacy breach in July 2023, a new email policy has been introduced for all staff. Te Tari Pūreke is moving to a two-minute delivery delay for sending external emails along with a range of email technology settings designed to prevent any further privacy breaches.

Keeping people’s information secure is fundamental to the trust the public and the firearms licence holder community have in us.

Te Tari Pūreke collects personal information in its role as the regulator for firearms in Aotearoa New Zealand to fulfil its statutory functions and responsibilities under the Arms Act 1983.

Arms Act 1983 – legislation.govt.nz

You can find detailed information about what information you must record in the Firearms Registry section of our website.

Firearms Registry

We need to collect relevant personal information so that we can record and track licence holders’ possession of arms items and promote the safe possession and use of firearms and other weapons.

We record phone calls and chat messages:

• for staff training purposes, to help us improve the quality of the service we provide and to ensure the information we give you is consistent and accurate
• to ensure we have an accurate record of your call, which we may need if you have unresolved concerns.

Te Tari Pūreke collects your personal information when you:

• use the MyFirearms portal
• fill in an online form
• communicate with us, including online (for example, through our social media channels) and with our Registry and Services team over the phone, by email or chat.

As a business unit of New Zealand Police, Te Tari Pūreke will use personal information to manage firearms and other arms items in New Zealand. Where necessary, Police may also use your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 to enable it to carry out its lawful functions, including the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of offences.

Privacy Act 2020

Te Tari Pūreke will only share or disclose information about you where that is permitted or required by law.

Te Tari Pūreke maintains secure physical and electronic environments to protect your personal information and records from unauthorised or accidental access to, or disclosure, alteration, loss, or destruction of your personal information.

Police annually reviews how it manages personal information and submit assessment reports to meet Government Protective Security Requirements and Privacy Maturity Assessment Framework requirements.

Since the email-based privacy breach in July 2023, we have introduced a new email policy for all Te Tari Pūreke staff. This includes a 2-minute delay for sending external emails, and a range of other technology settings designed to prevent further privacy breaches.

Te Tari Pūreke is required under the Public Records Act 2005 to retain certain types of information for prescribed minimum periods in accordance with a ‘disposal schedule’ issued by the Chief Archivist.

Firearms licence applications are kept for 10 years after the death of the licence holder, whereas the records in the Registry will be kept for 3 years after the death of the licence holder, even if their licence was not valid at the time of their death. 

You have the right to request access to, and correction of the personal information we hold about you.

We will usually provide access to the information in the way that you prefer but this is not always possible – we will discuss the options with you.

We will require proof of your identity before being able to provide you with any personal information.

You can browse our website without disclosing your personal information.

We do not automatically record personal information or automatically link recorded information with personal information about specific individuals. We do not attempt to identify you unless you choose to give us personal information.

We collect the following non-personal information about your use of our website:

• your IP address
• the type of website browser you use
• the type of operating system you use
• the screen resolution of your device
• the date and time you access our site
• the pages you accessed, the links clicked on, and the documents downloaded
• the search terms you used to find content on our website
• the last site you visited from which you accessed this website.

We use Google Analytics to collect and view non-personal visitor statistics. This is so we can discover what information is most and least used, determine technical design specifications, and help make our site more useful to visitors.

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect internet log and visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form. Our website uses cookies to temporarily store information to enhance your browsing experience.

You can accept or decline cookies by changing the settings on your browser. Disabling cookies will not stop you from using our website but you will not get the improved browsing experiences that the cookies enable. 

If you would like to access the personal information relating to you that Te Tari Pūreke has stored, or to update that personal information, or if you have any concerns regarding your privacy, please contact us:

Phone: 0800 844 431 (8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday)
Mail: Firearms Safety Authority, PO Box 722, Paraparaumu 5254

If you have any queries or concerns about this privacy statement, please contact:

Webmaster Media and Communications
Police National Headquarters
PO Box 3017
Wellington 6140

Contact Police online using our secure online form

If you are not satisfied with our response

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

Phone: 0800 803 909
Email: enquiries@privacy.org.nz
Website: www.privacy.org.nz

For more general information: Privacy – police.govt.nz