Privacy Policy

Respecting your privacy

AEQ Furniture (“AEQ”, “we”, “us” or “our”) respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information.

When you interact with us, you may share “personal information” with us which allows identification of you as an individual (e.g. name, email address, address, and telephone number).

We collect, hold, use, disclose and handle your personal information in accordance with the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993 (each a “Privacy Act”). We also comply with the New Zealand Unsolicited Electronic Communications Act 2007, which impose restrictions on sending commercial electronic messages.

When does this Privacy Policy apply?

This Privacy Policy describes how we deal with the personal information we collect about you for the purposes of providing you with our products and services.

By using the AEQ websites, or by giving us your personal information (in person, or via telephone, email or the like), you acknowledge and agree that we may collect, hold, use, and disclose your personal information as set out in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not use the AEQ websites or give us any personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time by publishing an updated version of this Privacy Policy on our website. Your continued use of our website or your provision of any further personal information will indicate your acknowledgement and agreement to the modified terms of this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to regularly review this Privacy Policy to make sure you are aware of any changes and how your personal information may be used.

How we collect your personal information?

We may collect personal information about you from a number of sources, including:

  • Directly from you with your consent for a specified purpose, including when you use our website, when you visit us in-store, interact with us (through telephone, by letter or by email), via competition entries and direct marketing campaigns.
  • Automated tracking technology (such as cookies and pixel tags) to provide statistics about the use of our website. However, this information generally does not include information which identifies you. If you prefer, it is possible to disable cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. However, you may not be able to use all the interactive features on our websites if cookies are disabled; and our Cookies Notice detailing how we use automated tracking technology can be found here.
  • From other third-party sources for the purpose of providing you with our products and services, including marketing mailing lists (where you have agreed) and publicly available sources (including public posts to social networking sites).

We also use social networking services such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to communicate with the public about our products and services. Please note that these third party social networking services may collect your personal information for their own services.

What personal information do we collect?

We collect personal information about you for the purpose of performing our activities or functions (or for other reasonably related purposes or as required by law). This information includes:

  • Personal Contact Information, including any information allowing us to contact you in person (e.g. name, title, business and personal postal and street addresses, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers)
  • Demographic Information, including date of birth, age, gender, languages you speak, location (e.g. postcode), product preferences, household or lifestyle information;
  • Payment Information, including to make purchases (e.g. credit card number, expiration date, and billing address);
  • Account Login Information, including any information that is required for you to establish a user account with AEQ (e.g. username, password and security question/answer); and
  • Consumer Feedback and Complaints, including your comments, suggestions and testimonials.

We will not collect, use or disclose “sensitive information” about you unless you have consented to such collection, use or disclosure. “Sensitive information” is information which relates to your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association, membership of a trade union sexual preferences or practices, or criminal record.

Why do we collect your personal information and how we use it?

We collect personal information about you when it is reasonably necessary for one or more of our activities or functions (e.g. delivering your purchased items to you), or for related purposes that you would reasonably expect, and as permitted or required by law, including for example:

  • Orders – to process and deliver your orders and to inform you about the status of your orders;
  • Communication – to enable us to communicate with you in order to provide you with our products and services, including providing you with information such as furniture care information;
  • Administration – to create and maintain your accounts with us, including administering any consumer loyalty or rewards programs that are associated with your account;
  • Customer Service – to provide you with customer service, including responses to your enquiries, complaints and general feedback about our products;
  • Direct Marketing – to provide you with marketing, competitions and promotional materials in relation to the goods and services we provide, competitions and promotions, when you agree to receive such material from us;
  • Market Studies – to conduct consumer studies and audits (e.g. when you complete and submit a response to a survey or questionnaire by us, if you have chosen to participate in such)
  • Improvement – gather statistics about our websites and to improve our products and services;
  • Quality Assurance - for training purposes and general administration and operation; and
  • Any other purposes identified at the time of collecting your information or as required by law.

Generally, you do not have an obligation to provide your personal information to us. However, without your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with our goods or services (e.g. arrange for the purchased goods to be delivered to you, or process your feedbacks or complaints).

When do we share and disclose your personal information?

We may disclose your personal information:

  • Where you have provided us with your consent to the use or disclosure;
  • For a purpose related to the purpose for which we collected the information and you would reasonably expect us to use or disclose it for that purpose; or
  • Where otherwise required or permitted by law.


Such purposes include disclosing your personal information to our affiliates, related bodies corporate, service providers, agents, contractors and other third parties to carry out activities on our behalf, including:

  • Warehousing and delivery services;
  • Payment processing and e-commerce services;
  • Customer acquisition strategy;
  • Data storage, warehousing and management services;
  • Mailing and logistics services;
  • Market research and analysis to help us improve and target our services; and
  • Marketing, including running our surveys, events and promotions (where you have agreed).


The recipients of such information are likely to be located in New Zealand. Sometimes, we may send your information overseas, including to service providers or third parties who store data or operate outside New Zealand. If we do this, we take reasonable steps to ensure that:

  • Your personal information is disclosed in a way which does not personally identify you; or
  • Those third parties agree to protect the privacy and security of your personal information, and to use it only for the purpose for which it is disclosed to them.

How we hold your personal information?

We hold your personal information on electronic databases and in hard copy records. We take reasonable steps to hold your personal information under our control securely and to protect any personal information that we hold against loss, misuse, interference or unauthorised access, disclosure or alteration.

The types of security measures we take vary with the type and nature of the information. These security measures include:

  • Restricting access to personal information to limited employees, agents and contractors on a need-to-know basis (e.g. by setting up physical access control systems to AEQ premises, requiring passwords to access the database, and building firewalls to prevent the hacking of our database);
  • Using industry-standard encryption for payment information to protect your credit card information sent over the internet (e.g. when you make payments through AEQ Online);
  • Obtaining a confidentiality undertaking from staff (e.g. by including the relevant clauses in employment agreements with staff);
  • Regular training for our staff on the importance of data security and privacy; and
  • Using security bins for the disposal of written information.

How long do we retain your personal information?

We will retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary the following purposes:

  • The specified purpose we are collecting your personal information;
  • To answer or resolve any queries, feedbacks, complaints or issues;
  • To provide improved products and services; and
  • To comply with legal requirements under applicable laws.


When the personal information we collected is no longer necessary to perform our activities, functions or responsibilities, we will:

  • Take reasonable measures to destroy that information; or
  • Permanently de-identify that information.

Access and correction of your personal information

We rely on you to advise us of any changes or corrections to the information we hold about you. If you consider that the information we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up-to-date, or if your information has changed, please let us know as soon as possible.

You may also request access to your personal information. We will in most cases provide you with access to any of your personal information we hold, unless:

  • Providing access may have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of other individuals;
  • Providing access would reveal the intentions of AEQ in relation to negotiations with you in such a way as to prejudice those negotiations;
  • Providing access would reveal evaluative information generated within AEQ in connection with a commercially sensitive decision-making process;
  • We reasonably believe that providing access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or public safety;
  • The request for access is frivolous or vexatious; or
  • Where we are otherwise permitted by a relevant Privacy Act to do so.

 

 More information

More information about privacy law and privacy principles is available from the Federal Privacy Commissioner at  https://www.privacy.org.nz/ (New Zealand).

If you would like any further information about how we handle your personal information or to make a complaint a breach of a relevant Privacy Act, please lodge a written complaint addressed to our Privacy Officer (contact details above). Once we receive your complaint, we will respond to your complaint within a reasonable period of time, usually 30 days.

If you are unsatisfied with the handling of your complaint, you may contact us further to advise of your concerns and, if we are unable to reach a satisfactory resolution, you may take your complaint to the Office of the New Zealand Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) for a review of your complaint.