Terms of Use

NIWA Terms of Use

Terms of Use

Unless otherwise stated, these terms of use (terms) set out the terms and conditions governing how we provide and you may use this and our other linked websites (our sites) and mobile applications (our apps), as well as the related services we offer to you via our sites and apps (our services) (together, our web applications). Please read these terms and our Privacy Policy carefully.

In these terms, any person who access or uses our web applications is referred to as you or your and, where in agreeing to these terms you are doing so for an organisation that you represent, you and your will also refer to that organisation.

About us

The web applications are provided by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd (NIWA, us or we). We are a New Zealand Crown Research Institute registered in New Zealand under company number 550957, and have our registered address at 82 Wyndham Street, Auckland 1010, New Zealand. Our GST number is 059-456-466.

You can contact us at the above address or via email.

About these terms

By accessing and using our web applications, you confirm that you accept these terms and that you agree to comply with them. If you do not agree with the terms, you must not use our web applications.

We update these terms from time to time and will post the date of any material update at the end of the terms. You should review these terms regularly to check for updates. Your continued use of our web applications after we have posted the modified terms will be taken as your agreement to them.

Your use of our web applications and our use of any personal information provided to us via the web applications is also governed by our Privacy Policy. We will only ever use your personal information in accordance with this policy. The Privacy Policy forms part of these terms.

Additional terms may apply

Additional terms and conditions (including community use guidelines) may also apply to your use of certain web applications (additional terms). Where additional terms apply to a webservice, we will make them available through that webservice for you to read and agree to. By accessing and using that webservice, and (if applicable) clicking any acceptance button, then you agree to the additional terms. The additional terms form part of these terms. If there is any inconsistency between these terms and the additional terms for a webservice, then the additional terms will prevail to the extent of any inconsistency.

We may change or remove our web applications

We update our web applications regularly, and may, subject to any separate written agreement reached with you, change, suspend or remove any part of them (including any material or services made available via them) at any time. We do not guarantee that the web applications will always be available or be uninterrupted. Where practicable, we will try and give you reasonable notice of any material changes to or suspension or withdrawal of any web applications.

Who owns the material on our sites and apps

Unless otherwise noted, we own or license all intellectual property rights in our web applications, and in any material on our sites or apps or provided via our services, including any content, data, images and software we make available via our web applications. All such rights are reserved.

How you may (and may not) use our web applications and material

Unless otherwise indicated for a particular webservice or material we make available via our web applications (the material) (or as set out below), material on our web applications is licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC Licence). In essence, you are free to copy, distribute and adapt this material under the CC Licence, as long as you attribute the material to NIWA and abide by the other CC Licence terms. It is your responsibility to confirm that you can comply with the CC Licence terms.

Unless otherwise indicated on the relevant web applications or in these terms, the CC Licence does not apply to:

  • Photos, videos or animations.
  • Our logo or any part of our webservice's design or software elements.
  • Any other logos, emblems or trademarked material.
  • Content supplied to us by third parties that we identify as third party content.

You may also link to our sites, provided that:

  • The link opens the relevant page of the site in a fully operable browser window and not within a frame on the linking website.
  • You promptly remove any links on our request or if our policy on linking changes in these terms.

You must not:

  • Remove any copyright notice on the material.
  • Use our web applications or link to our sites in a way that:
    • would be misleading, inaccurate, or would falsely suggest any form of association with or approval or endorsement by us; or
    • would damage or dilute the goodwill associated with NIWA or otherwise damage NIWA’s reputation.
  • Use our web applications or material for any unlawful or improper purposes or in any way that infringes our rights, the rights of others or would be illegal. Unlawful or improper purposes includes using the web applications to transmit harmful code, to share or publish obscene, defamatory, illegal or offensive content, to undermine the security or integrity of our sites, apps or systems, or to access or attempt to access or use any web applications or material without permission or in any way that would be in breach of any applicable laws or regulations or would violate or infringe on the rights of others.
  • Reproduce, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, duplicate, copy, re-sell or take similar action in relation to any part of our web applications unless otherwise permitted by us in writing.
  • Use any text or data mining or web scraping tool in relation to our web applications without our express written permission, including by using any “robot”, “bot”, “spider”, “scraper”, artificial intelligence or machine learning tool, or other automated device or tool to access, monitor, compile or copy any part of our web applications or material.

If you are unsure as to how you may use a part of our web applications or material or have concerns as to how someone else is using them, please contact us. Your right to access and use our web applications will cease immediately if you use our web applications or the material in breach of these terms.

Please note that our web applications are directed to people residing in New Zealand and we do not represent that the material available on or through our sites or apps is appropriate for use or available in other locations.

Your web applications account

You may need to register an account with us to access or use certain web applications, including purchasing products from us. If you register an account, you agree that:

  • You are solely responsible for all activities that occur under the account, and have the requisite authority and permissions to create and use the account.
  • You will set up one account for your use of our web applications and will not set up multiple accounts either for your own use or, where you have signed up on behalf of an organisation, for that organisation.
  • You will keep confidential and secure any username, identification code or password you have for your account, and you will not share these details with any other person.
  • You will contact us promptly if:
    • you become aware of or suspect someone else is using or accessing your account, or
    • your account information changes, including your email address and, if relevant, your payment details, so we can contact you and complete your transactions.
  • Any information you provide to us about yourself or for your account is accurate, current and complete, including as to your contact and user information.
  • You will comply with these terms, all applicable laws and, as relevant, any additional terms or community use guidelines that apply to the web applications and our Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or delete your account if we reasonably believe that you have not complied with these terms or that your use of our web applications may give rise to us breaching a statutory or other legal obligation.

Uploading content

Whenever you upload or post content (including data) to our sites or apps (your content), including via our NIWA Citizen Science app, you:

  • Confirm that you have the right to provide your content to us and license it to us in accordance with these terms. This confirmation means that you have secured any necessary third-party consents and that your content does not infringe anyone else’s rights (including intellectual property or privacy rights).
  • Must ensure that your content doesn’t violate any law or contain anything that is derogatory, defamatory, offensive, abusive, threatening, hateful or objectionable or otherwise in breach of these terms.
  • Must not access, store, distribute or transmit any virus, malware, Trojan horse, worm or other device or code designed to damage, disable or impair the use of any computer programming, systems and/or environments.
  • Grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, transferable, and sublicensable licence to use, copy, adapt, store, reproduce, publicly display, create derivative works from and incorporate into other works, and distribute your content without attribution (including licensing your content under a Creative Commons Attribution licence with attribution to NIWA as licensor). You also waive any moral rights that you may have in regard to your content.

We have the right to remove any of your content on our sites or apps at our sole discretion, and/or suspend or delete any of your access to our sites or apps which we reasonably consider are being used in breach of this section.  You are solely responsible for ensuring that you have made your own copies and back-ups of your content.

App-specific terms

The following terms apply generally to your use of our apps:

  • From time to time, we may automatically update our apps to improve performance, enhance functionality, reflect changes to the operating system or address security issues. Alternatively, we may ask you to update an app for these reasons. If you choose not to install such updates or if you opt out of automatic updates, you may not be able to continue using our apps.
  • Your use of an app may also be subject to Apple's App Store or Google's Play Store rules and policies, depending on where you downloaded the app.
  • We may end your rights to use an app at any time if you have breached these terms. If we end your rights to use an app you must stop all activities authorised by these terms, including your use of the app and any services. You must delete or remove the app from all devices in your possession and immediately destroy all copies of the app which you have.

Purchasing products

We make available certain products, including data, software, tools, charts, and posters, for purchase via our web applications (products). When you use our web applications to purchase products then you do so under these terms (including any additional terms) and all other terms implied by statute, trade, custom, practice or course of dealing are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.

  • All prices are stated in New Zealand dollars. Unless specifically stated otherwise, the price includes New Zealand GST where applicable but excludes all other taxes, levies, charges, duties (including custom or import duties) or delivery costs which you are solely responsible for where applicable. Such other taxes and costs (where applicable) will be added to your purchase. If you are required by law to deduct or withhold taxes or charges from the amounts due to us, you will ensure that the amount due to us is increased so that the payment actually made to us equals the amount due to us as if no such taxes or charges had been imposed.
  • We may bill you at the time of purchase; shortly after purchase, or on acceptance of an email order and confirmation of details. You agree that you will pay our bill at the time of purchase where this is required or otherwise within 30 days from the date of our bill.
  • Where you have purchased a physical product from us, we will arrange for that product to be delivered to the valid shipping address you provide to us when you make an order. Time of delivery is approximate only and will not be of the essence. Delivery will be completed when the product is unloaded at the shipping address you provide to us. The risk of damage to or loss of the product will pass to you on delivery. 

Unless otherwise indicated:

  • Products are for purchase by and use of end users only and are not available for purchase or use by resellers; and
  • Any data or software we make available for purchase through our web applications is licensed, not sold, to you, and may be subject to separate end user licence agreements, terms of use or other terms and conditions. If you purchase, download or use these types of products then you may be required to accept further terms as a condition of purchase, download, or use.

Product availability and prices are subject to change and without notice. We also reserve the right to:

  • Limit or change quantities available for purchase, including by account, by order or otherwise, and to change or limit the countries or areas to where products may be downloaded or sent, and
  • Cancel or not process any order (including accepted orders) at any time for reasons that include if you have not met the specified purchase conditions or otherwise complied with our terms, if your payment cannot be processed, if the products are unavailable, if the purchase would be unlawful, or if the prices or other material information on our site is inaccurate or has errors.

When the above situations happen, we will let you know as soon as possible and where we are unable to deliver the full order, you can choose:

  • to cancel the order, and we will refund any sums you have paid for that order; or
  • to accept the reduced order, and we will refund any amount you have paid for the product, or part of the product, that we can’t deliver.

By placing an order for a product, you confirm that:

  • all information you provide is true and correct; and
  • you have the legal right and capacity to place the order and perform any other legal requirements under these terms.

A binding contract is created between you (where you are an individual), or you on behalf of the organisation you represent (where you are acting on behalf of an organisation), and us when you place an order for products, and we accept that order (which may be automatically via our web applications or by email).

  • To complete your purchase for a product, you may need to provide us first with a valid billing and shipping address and a valid payment method. Unless otherwise stated, payment made directly through our web applications will be through the credit card payment mechanism provided by our elected third-party supplier. We advise you to read the privacy policy of this supplier and any other third parties that we may use to provide billing or card processing services on our behalf.
  • By providing us with a payment method, you:
    • Represent that you are authorised to use that method and that any payment information you provide is true and accurate; and
    • Authorise us to charge you for the products you purchase via that method.

Depending on your location and the method of payment, some transactions may require foreign currency conversion or be processed in another country. Your bank might charge you additional fees for such conversions or processing – you should contact your bank about this for details.

Liability and Warranties

Where products and our web applications are supplied to you and acquired “in trade”, you acknowledge and agree that the provisions of the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 (CGA) and sections 9, 12A, 13 and 14(1) of the Fair Trading Act 1986 do not apply. To the extent that you are a consumer and not acquiring the products or the associated web applications “in trade”, you have various rights under the CGA which cannot be excluded by these terms. Nothing in the following paragraphs is intended to limit the rights you may have, but we exclude all other implied terms to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.

Subject to the above, to the extent permitted by applicable law and unless expressly agreed otherwise by us in writing

  • We make no express or implied warranties, guarantees or conditions, including for merchantability, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, title or non-infringement in respect of the products or our web applications.
  • Your purchase and use of any products or our web applications is at your own risk.
  • We provide products or access to our web applications on an “as is” and “as available” basis.
  • You are solely responsible for how you use the products and our web applications and evaluating their suitability for use.
  • Our maximum liability (if any) to you for any and all claims under these terms (including any additional terms) whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or any other common law or statutory cause of action, is limited to the direct loss you have suffered up to the greater of $250 or the amount you have paid to us in the 6 months immediately preceding the event or occurrence giving rise to the claim of liability.
  • You agree we will not be liable under the law of tort, contract or otherwise for any:
    • consequential, special, indirect, incidental losses arising out of, or in connection with, these terms (including any additional terms); and
    • loss of revenue, loss of profit, data loss or corruption, liquidated or punitive damages, penalties or fines arising out of, or in connection with, these terms (including any additional terms).
  • Where you have purchased a product and you have either not received that product within a reasonable time or believe there is something wrong with it, please contact us. Where you are an individual consumer, we will either refund the purchase price for a faulty product or replace that product with one that works. Where you are purchasing the product “in trade”, we will either refund the purchase price for a faulty product or replace that product with one that works for up to 30 days from the date of purchase. Where the product has not been delivered within a reasonable period, we will either refund you the purchase price or organise for a replacement product to be delivered.

We try our best but, to the extent permitted by applicable law

  • We can’t guarantee the web applications or the material and are not responsible for your use of them
    • The material made available via our web applications is provided for general information purposes only and may also contain information and materials uploaded by other users.
    • While we take reasonable endeavours to ensure any information we provide via our web applications is up to date, unless expressly agreed otherwise by us in writing, we do not verify, quality control or approve any user-generated content or make any representations, warranties or guarantees (express or implied) that the material provided via our web applications (including any products) is current, complete, accurate, or fit for purpose or that the web applications will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free. We do not accept any responsibility for any loss which may arise from reliance on this material – you are responsible for how you use the material and for checking it is suitable for your use.
    • We will seek to correct any error, inaccuracy or fault in the web applications and remove any inappropriate content that you bring to our attention within a reasonable timeframe.
  • We are not responsible for third-party links or resources
    • We may provide links to external websites or resources for your information or convenience. We may also utilise third-party services to help you login to our web applications. Such third-party sites and services are outside our control, and we are not responsible for those services or the content of those sites or resources.
  • We are not responsible for your systems
    • We use a number of security measures for our web applications and related systems to try and help keep our web applications and information secure and safe, including Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption for pages within our sites that request or display sensitive information or login details. However, we do not guarantee that our web applications will be secure or free from bugs or viruses. You are responsible for making sure your computer system is secure.

Governing law of the terms

These terms will be governed by and interpreted in accordance with New Zealand law, and we both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New Zealand.

If you have any questions, feedback or complaints

If you have any questions, feedback or complaints about the terms or our web applications or content available via them, you can contact us via email or use the specific reporting form on the relevant site. Reports will be kept anonymous and managed in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Version 1.0 (Updated September 2024)