Privacy policy.

01 Introduction

The New Zealand Vessel Register is operated by NZBP Limited (“NZBP”, “we”, “us”, “our”), a New Zealand limited company (NZBN 9429053933454). We handle personal information under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020.

02 What this policy covers

This policy covers the vesselregister.nz website, public vessel records, and the applications, enquiries and reports you send us. When you apply and pay, the service terms you accept with your application also apply.

03 Information we collect

Information you give us

We collect what you send us in an application, an enquiry or a report. An application includes your name, email address, mobile number, when you prefer us to contact you, where the boat is kept, and details and photos of the boat and of any engines and trailer you register, including serial numbers. An enquiry or a report includes your name, your contact details, any organisation you name, and your message. We do not receive or hold your card details. Our payment provider handles your payment.

Vessel records

A register record may hold the boat's details, its builder and importer, the HIN, its capacities, engine and trailer details, any conformity statement, the assessor's details, and the evidence supplied to check it.

Information we collect automatically

This website does not use advertising or analytics tracking. We use outside providers to run the website and to check that a form is sent by a person, not an automated program. To do that they may process technical details of your visit, such as your IP address, your browser type and security logs.

We tell you what personal information we collect and why, as information privacy principle 3 of the Privacy Act 2020 requires.

04 Public vessel records

The register exists so anyone can check a boat. Anyone who looks up a record, by its NZVR ID or HIN or by scanning the QR code on the plate, sees everything on that record. Nothing about your boat is published before its assessment is complete.

A public record shows the boat and its plate. That is the builder, the model, the HIN, the build date, the hull length, any capacities and warnings on the plate, the make, model and power of each engine, the trailer's serial number, the assessor who signed any conformity assessment and their organisation, and any photo you choose to publish. Engine serial numbers are not published.

The register holds who owns the boat, but does not publish it. Your name, your contact details, where the boat is kept, and the photos and documents you send as evidence are not shown on the public record.

Do not send us personal information the register does not need.

A public record is meant to stay with the boat. Where a record needs correcting, we may keep the original entry and add a correction or a replacement statement, so the record's history stays clear.

05 How we use information

• Publish and verify vessel records
• Deal with applications, enquiries and reports
• Confirm who an assessor is, what they may assess, and their qualifications
• Keep vessel records accurate and traceable
• Find and fix faults, help you, and protect the service
• Meet legal and regulatory obligations

06 Sharing and service providers

We do not sell, trade or rent personal information for marketing, and we never will. If the person the information is about approves it, we may give a copy of a vessel record to someone with a reason to check the boat, such as a buyer or an insurer, and we may charge for that copy. A paid copy may hold more than the free public record shows. We supply it only with that approval.

We may also share information with providers who help us run the service or who we engage to do the work, with participating vessel organisations where that is needed to keep a record up to date, where the law requires it, or to protect legal rights, safety and security.

Where we engage an independent professional to do the work, we give them the contact, boat and booking details they need for it. Assessment records continue to name the professional who did the work.

Some providers may process information outside New Zealand. Where they do, we take reasonable steps to use safeguards consistent with the Privacy Act 2020.

07 Retention and security

We keep applications, enquiries and reports only as long as we reasonably need them. Vessel records may be kept for longer, because they are meant to stay with the boat and keep its history. When we no longer need information, we securely delete it, or make it anonymous where that is appropriate.

We keep evidence photos and documents for the life of the record they support, plus 6 years after that record ends. We keep declined or withdrawn applications for 7 years from the decision.

We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards, including encrypted connections and access controls. No way of sending or storing information is completely secure.

08 Your rights

Under the Privacy Act 2020 you can ask for the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it. A correction to an issued or public record may be added as a statement or a replacement entry, rather than by erasing the earlier record.

Email info@buildersplate.nz to make a request.

09 Security cookies

The website may use strictly necessary cookies, or similar small files, to run and protect the site. We do not use them for advertising. See Security cookies in our terms of use.

10 Contact and complaints

New Zealand Vessel Register
Operated by NZBP Limited
NZBN: 9429053933454
Email: info@buildersplate.nz

If you are worried about how we handle personal information, contact us first so we can look into it. You can also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (opens in a new tab).