Address Verification Service Terms of Use

Introduction

Welcome to the Address Verification Service provided by NZ Post (we, our, us). These terms of use set out the commitments we make to people who use the service (you, your, user). They also set out what we require of you when you use the service.

You will be asked to agree to these terms of use when verifying your address through the Address Verification Service. Please read and understand them. If you choose to accept these terms and continue with the address verification process, these terms of use will form an agreement between you and NZ Post for the use of the Address Verification Service.

These Address Verification Service terms of use deal with or refer to the following matters:

  • use of the Address Verification Service
  • our commitments to you
  • your commitments to us
  • protective action
  • removal of a verified address
  • privacy
  • disputes
  • miscellaneous provisions
  • amendment to terms of use and privacy statement.

In these terms of use:

"Manage My Addresses” means the NZ Post online service that allows you to change and update your address details in connection with your NZ Post online account.

“NZ Post online account” means the account you create through the NZ Post website in order to access a range of NZ Post online services.

“RealMe” means the online identity verification service managed by the Department of Internal Affairs. It is the trusted way for people to prove their identity online. 

Accessing the Address Verification Service

In order to use the Address Verification Service, you must have an NZ Post online account.

If you are using the Address Verification Service for the purpose of verifying your primary home address for RealMe, then you will be directed through to the Address Verification Service from RealMe. If you don’t already have an NZ Post online account, one will automatically be provisioned for you.

Your RealMe account will automatically be connected with your NZ Post online account. Connecting your NZ Post online account and your RealMe account means that you can access your verified address through the RealMe service. It also means that you can access the Address Verification Service through the RealMe account without having to log into your NZ Post online account each time.

Use of Address Verification Service

The Address Verification Service allows you to verify any address or addresses that you provide to NZ Post:

  • when you register to use certain NZ Post online services, including Parcel Leave; and/or
  • through the “Manage My Addresses” service in connection with your NZ Post online account; and/or
  • in connection with your RealMe account (subject to certain conditions set out in these terms),

and which you have selected for verification through the Address Verification Service.

No Postal Delivery / Unserviced addresses

An unserviced address (ie. an address which is not within NZ Post’s delivery network and does not receive postal mail) may be verified using the Address Verification Service, if the unserviced address is your primary home address and you have an existing alternative delivery point which is recognised by NZ Post’s delivery network and is associated with your primary home address (eg you receive mail for your primary home address via a PO Box, Private Bag, Counter Service or Community Mailbox).

For RealMe, you cannot verify the alternative delivery point as your primary home address, if your primary home address is unserviced.

For RealMe, you must only verify your primary home address through the Address Verification Service. It is not possible to use a PO Box, Private Bag or Community Mailbox address with RealMe.

For NZ Post online services, including the “Manage My Addresses” service in connection with your NZ Post online account, it is possible to select a PO Box, Private Bag or Community Mailbox address for verification, and you can also verify more than one address. As part of the verification process, NZ Post will either verify your address online, or if this is not possible, we will mail a verification letter to the address that you have selected for verification. When that verification letter arrives you will need to go to the website address provided in that letter and enter the verification code in the space provided. The status of your nominated address within the address verification system will then change from “pending” to “verified”.

If you do not enter the verification code mailed to you within 30 days from the date you apply to verify your selected address, the code will expire and the status of your selected address will change. You will need to re-verify that address again through the Address Verification Service.

If your primary home address is not within NZ Post’s delivery network and does not fall within the criteria specified above, then you will be unable to verify your address. All undelivered verification letters will be returned to NZ Post and may be opened for the purposes of effecting delivery and/or identifying the addressee.

Once you have verified your address through the Address Verification Service:

  • in relation to your use of NZ Post online services, the “Manage My Addresses” service, or the RealMe service - you will be able to use that verified address with any other NZ Post online service. This saves you having to enter your details again when you register to use those services;
  • in relation to the RealMe service – you will be able to use RealMe to prove your address with a RealMe participating organisation that requires proof of a verified address.

Our commitments to you

We will use all reasonable care and skill

We will use all reasonable care and skill to:

  • provide the Address Verification Service;
  • keep user information secure from unauthorised access;
  • ensure that our services are reasonably fit for the purposes described on this website; and
  • ensure that any information on this website is up-to-date and correct.

We will not be liable for any direct loss or damage or for any indirect or consequential loss or for any loss of profit, opportunity, income or savings you incur in connection with your use of the Address Verification Service.

We will help you

We will help you in your use of the Address Verification Service.

For all queries relating to the Address Verification Service, please contact our Customer Care Centre.

Your commitments to us

The purpose of your commitments to us, set out below, is to protect the integrity and security of the Address Verification Service. Please appreciate that, if you do not honour your commitments, third parties may be able to undertake actions apparently on your behalf that may cause loss to you or other people and for which those other people may try to hold you responsible.

You agree that:

  • you will only use the Address Verification Service to verify addresses that you legitimately use (for example, your primary home address, your PO Box, your Private Bag);
  • the address that you select for verification in relation to your RealMe account must be your primary home address;
  • the information you provide to the Address Verification Service is accurate;
  • if you are under 18 years old, you acknowledge that your parent or guardian’s verified address may be required before your primary home address can be verified for RealMe;
  • you will keep address information that you have provided to NZ Post (whether in relation to NZ Post online services, the “Manage My Addresses” service, or the RealMe service) up to date through the Address Verification Service;
  • you will not knowingly or recklessly use or attempt to use the Address Verification Service or a verified address for a purpose for which it was not intended, including any unlawful purpose;
  • you will notify the NZ Post Customer Care Centre immediately if you know or have reason to believe that there has been or is about to be fraudulent or other unlawful use of your verified address.

Protective action

For the protection of users, other people, the Address Verification Service, or the RealMe service, we may suspend or disable your NZ Post online account and access to the Address Verification Service with or without notice to you if:

  • suspending or disabling your access is necessary to maintain the integrity or security of the NZ Post website, the Address Verification Service, or any RealMe, Department of Internal Affairs, NZ Post or any RealMe participating service provider’s service or any person; or
  • the Address Verification Service is being misused or has otherwise been compromised; or
  • you breach these terms of use.

Where appropriate, we will notify you of any suspension or disabling of your access to the Address Verification Service as soon as practicable after doing so.

Removing a verified address

You may, at any time, delete any of your addresses (verified or unverified) from the list shown in the Address Verification Service or through the “Manage My Addresses” service.

Please note that if you delete your RealMe verified address either from the Address Verification Service or through the “Manage My Addresses” service, then that address will no longer be made available for RealMe and you will need to go through the address verification process again should you wish to subsequently associate a verified address with your RealMe account.

Privacy

By applying to verify your address and agreeing to these terms of use, you will be taken to have read and agreed to the terms of the Address Verification Service privacy statement, which sets out details relating to the collection, storage and use of your personal information in connection with the Address Verification Service. As such, please ensure that you have read and are comfortable with it before agreeing to these terms of use.

Disputes

If you have a dispute with us in connection with the use of the Address Verification Service for RealMe, you must first contact the NZ Post Customer Care Centre. We will both use all reasonable efforts in good faith to resolve the dispute.

Miscellaneous provisions

If any of these terms of use or their application to any person or circumstances is, to any extent, held to be invalid or enforceable:

  • the remainder of these terms of use or the application of such terms of use to any other person or circumstances shall not be affected;
  • each term shall be valid and enforceable to the extent permitted by law; and
  • the invalid or unenforceable term will be deemed to be amended to reflect, as nearly as possible, the original intention (as determined from this website).

Governing law

These terms of use are governed by New Zealand law. When you access and use the Address Verification Service, you submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the New Zealand courts.

Amendments to terms of use and privacy statement

We can revise these terms of use and the privacy statement at any time and, unless an urgent change is required, will endeavour to post a notice on this website summarising the changes before the change takes effect.

Address Verification Service Privacy Statement

Introduction

Protecting your privacy as a person using the Address Verification Service is very important to NZ Post (we, our, us). Our privacy statement in relation to the Address Verification Service is set out below.

This privacy statement addresses the following matters. You can skip to each by clicking on its link below:

Address Verification Service and the RealMe service

As explained on the RealMe website, the RealMe service consists of and interacts with a series of separate systems operated by the Department of Internal Affairs. RealMe interacts with the NZ Post Address Verification Service. NZ Post holds and stores all address information that you provide through the Address Verification Service.

When you choose to assert your RealMe ID with a service provider, RealMe retrieves your verified address from the NZ Post Address Verification Service then asks you whether you consent to your information being sent to the RealMe participating service provider. If you do agree, then the RealMe service will redirect you to the participating service provider and your address information will have to be sent to that participating service provider.

This privacy statement covers our treatment of your personal information if you apply to verify your address so as to be able to verify your address online through the RealMe service.

It also applies to our treatment of your personal information when you are not verifying your address for RealMe purposes, but rather using the Address Verification Service in relation to NZ Post’s online services.

Information we collect for the Address Verification Service

Creating a NZ Post online account

You need an NZ Post online account in order to access the Address Verification Service.

In order to create a NZ Post online account through the NZ Post website, you will be asked to provide your email address and a password. You will be asked to accept the NZ Post website terms and conditions. You will also be asked whether or not you agree to receiving information about NZ Post products and services.

Where you have consented to receiving information from NZ Post about its products and services, that information will be emailed to the email address you provided when you created your online account.

Connecting your NZ Post online account to your RealMe account

The first time you access the Address Verification Service from your RealMe account, your NZ Post online account will automatically be connected with your RealMe account, allowing you to access your verified address through RealMe. If you don’t already have an NZ Post online account, one will automatically be provisioned for you and then connected with your RealMe account.

With the Address Verification Service, you enter your first name, last name, date of birth and primary home address. These details are then electronically compared with your details in the relevant third party agency database. Your date of birth provides us with a second identity credential which helps us link your name with your address. 

You will also be able to see the status of your address through your RealMe account (e.g. “verified”, “pending”). It also means that, in the future, you can access the Address Verification Service through your RealMe account without having to log into your NZ Post online account first.

Names and addresses

The Address Verification Service will store and display to you the name and address details that you have previously provided to NZ Post online. You might have provided those details in one of several ways, for example: when you registered for certain NZ Post online services, or when you updated or changed your address details through the “Manage My Addresses” service, or when you used the Address Verification Service in relation to RealMe.

In each case, the Address Verification Service will show the status of each address (i.e. whether or not the address has been verified or, if you have applied to verify that address, the fact that verification is “pending” or has “expired”). It will also show whether you have verified an address for RealMe purposes by showing “RealMe home address” next to that address.

If the address that you wish to verify for a particular purpose (e.g. RealMe) is not shown in the Address Verification Service, you will be asked to add your address. Precisely, you will be asked for your first name, last name, date of birth and primary home address. However, only your last name, date of birth and verified address details will be provided for RealMe purposes.

Site visit data

When you use the Address Verification Service, a server will automatically record your visit, including transaction information such as the IP address of your machine and the domain name from which you are accessing the internet. This information is recorded for security reasons.

Additional information in relation to a user’s computer and the network through which the user is accessing the Address Verification Service may be collected if we consider that the user is attempting to compromise the Address Verification Service or any associated service.

Purpose of collection

The information referred to above is collected for the following purposes:

  • for you to create and/or log into an NZ Post online account to access the Address Verification Service;
  • to provide the Address Verification Service;
  • to provide other NZ Post online services to you that require you to provide and verify your address details.

Disposal of personal information

When you remove your name and address (whether verified or unverified) from the Address Verification Service (or via the “Manage My Addresses” service), we will remove the association between your name and that address record.

Security

We have procedures in place to prevent loss, unlawful access, use, modification, disclosure or other misuse of your information, consistent with good practice and as required by relevant law and policy.

Particular care has been taken to ensure that only certain people with specific roles and authorised access levels are able to view your information and only for specific Address Verification Service related purposes.

Rights of access and correction

Under the Privacy Act 2020, you have the right to access and to request correction of any of your personal information provided to us. If you wish to see the personal information we have stored in connection with your use of the Address Verification Service, or if you wish to request correction of such personal information (and you are unable to do so from the Address Verification Service, the “Manage My Addresses” service or the RealMe service), please contact our Customer Care Centre. We may require proof of your identity before we are able to provide you with this information.

If you have any concerns regarding your privacy please feel free to contact us at any time through:

Privacy Officer
NZ Post
Private Bag 39990
Wellington Mail Centre
Lower Hutt 5045
Email: [email protected]

If you are not satisfied with our response to your concern, you can contact the Privacy Commissioner:

Office of the Privacy Commissioner
PO Box 10094
The Terrace
Wellington 6143
Enquiries line (from Auckland): 302 8680
Enquiries line (from outside Auckland): 0800 803 909
Fax: +64 4 474 7595
Email: [email protected]

Last updated: 16 June 2021