These terms apply to existing Mercury customers until 31 July 2023. From 1 August 2023, these terms apply.
In accordance with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, Mercury maintains high standards for the protection of data to ensure that customer information remains private and is only used for the purpose it was collected. As required by the Privacy Act 2020, Mercury follows strict security procedures in the storage and disclosure of your personal information. Our security procedures mean that we may occasionally request proof of identity before we are able to disclose sensitive information to you. This policy is regularly reviewed and if necessary updated to meet requirements for internet privacy. You can always find the most recent version of the policy right here. Collection of data and information from website and app visits Collection Personal information about you (e.g. your name, contact details, electricity usage data) may be collected by Mercury (and/or its subsidiaries) during the course of your use of our website or app, or when you speak to someone in our contact centre. Rest assured, we’ll only gather your data when you supply this to us voluntarily (e.g. when website visitors send emails, respond to customer surveys or use the 'My Account' service on the website). We then use this information to ensure we fulfil your request/s. Mercury also gathers generic information about visits to our website (page views, time on site, how you got to the site etc.) to understand how we can make your experience on our website better. Purpose of collection Mercury will use your personal information for the following purposes: Mercury customers:
Access to and correction of personal information You can ask us for a copy of personal information we hold about you, and ask for it to be corrected if you think it is wrong. Some information (such as your email address) can be accessed or corrected through My Account. You can also use My Account to get access to your electricity consumption data. Otherwise, you can get in touch with us. Customer data transmitted across the public internet Mercury will always ensure that your privacy is protected when logging onto our website, app, or when using the 'My Account' service. 256-bit SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Encryption is used for all traffic interactions with the ‘My Account’ service. Browsers unable to support SSL will not allow a customer to log on to the website 'My Account' service. When you send us an email it is not encrypted and is therefore not secure. Privacy complaints If you want to make a privacy-related complaint, you can let us know about it through our complaints process. If you're not happy with the way this complaint has been dealt with, you can get in touch with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Website and app security The Mercury website has layers of security to protect it against malicious, possible breaches of the system (‘cracking’) and unauthorised access to customer data. Communications you have with Mercury (including but not limited to this website) may be subject to monitoring by us or authorised third parties for security purposes. Your data or logon information (user name and password) is not permanently stored on the website Use of cookies Mercury’s website uses both non-persistent and persistent cookies to manage a customer's visit to the site. Non-persistent cookies are temporary and are deleted when a browser session is closed and persistent cookies are used in order that third party vendors, such as Google, can serve ads based on a user's prior visits to the Mercury website. Other than as noted above, information about a visit to Mercury’s website is not permanently stored on a visitor or customer's personal computer. While Mercury recommends that you enable cookies in order to enjoy all the features of Mercury’s website, this is entirely up to you. (The management of cookies will be different depending on each user's PC - refer to your browser help menu for further information). Google Analytics Mercury uses services such as Google Analytics, which will issue cookies from their own servers and which will be able to track website visitors throughout Mercury’s website, app, and through any other sites that use those services. Mercury does not control how those cookies are issued, or the data that they store. Please refer to the Google Analytics Privacy Policy below for more information Use of data and information collected from website and app visits Mercury will not sell or reveal information obtained about its visitors to anyone outside of Mercury unless:
Use of email or mobile number for customer communications During your interactions with us via the website or contact centre, you can supply an email address which we will use to contact you about our service. Mercury does not sell or rent email addresses to third-party organisations. By default, a customer is:
If you’d rather not receive these types of communications, you can advise us by calling 0800 10 18 10.