Last changed 2 October 2026
About this policy
You can read every page of this website without telling us anything about yourself. We only hold information that you choose to send us, and we keep as little of it as we can.
In this policy, “we” and “us” mean the International Environmental Guardianship Data Trust, which also uses the short name IEG Data Trust. The Trust is a charitable trust board incorporated in New Zealand. It looks after data on behalf of International Environmental Guardianship (IEG), its members and its Regional Hubs.
“You” means anyone who visits ieg.earth, fills in a form on it, or joins the mailing list from it.
We do not sell information about you. We do not trade it. We do not use it to advertise to you, and we do not track you around the internet.
This policy covers the ieg.earth website only. Other websites we link to run their own policies, which we do not control.
We follow the Privacy Act 2020 of New Zealand and the data duties written into the IEG Data Trust deed.
What personal information means
Personal information is anything that could identify you, either on its own or when put together with something else.
A name, an email address, a phone number and a link to a profile page are all personal information. So is what you tell us about your role, your organisation or your community, where that could be traced back to you.
What we collect
Almost everything we hold is information you typed into a form yourself.
Most of our forms ask for your name, your email address, your organisation and whatever you want to tell us, and some ask which region you are writing from.
Two are different. The expression of interest in the Arctic Regional Leadership Team also asks for a phone number and a link to a profile, because that one is a recruitment process. The newsletter sign-up asks for an email address and nothing else.
Only the fields marked as required have to be filled in. Everything else is yours to leave blank, and the content of any message is entirely up to you.
Counting visits. The site counts page views so we can see which pages people use. The counter sets no cookies, does not follow you to other websites, and does not build a picture of you. It records the page, the date, the broad type of device and the country, none of which points back to a person.
What we do not do. We run no advertising on this site. We use no social media tracking pixels. We do not buy information about you from anyone, and we do not add people to our lists from other sources.
The site is written for adults. We do not set out to collect information about children.
Why we collect it
We use what you send us to answer you and to carry the conversation forward. That is the whole of it.
- To reply to your enquiry, and to pass it to the right person if someone else is better placed to answer
- To consider an expression of interest or a pre-registration, and to come back to you about it
- To send the newsletter, if you asked for it
- To keep a proper record of decisions IEG and the Trust are accountable for
- To see, in totals only, which pages of the site people find useful
We will not use your information for any new purpose without asking you first.
How long we keep it
The website itself keeps nothing. When you send a form, the message goes straight to the Secretariat inbox at secretariat@ieg.earth and the website’s copy is wiped once it has been delivered.
From there:
- Enquiries and pre-registrations. Held while the matter is open, and for 12 months after it is closed, then deleted.
- Expressions of interest in the Arctic Regional Leadership. Held until the appointment round is settled, then for 12 months in case a further round follows. Ask us to delete yours earlier and we will.
- Newsletter addresses. Held until you unsubscribe, and removed straight away when you do.
- Visit counts. Totals only, with nothing in them that identifies a person.
If an enquiry leads to membership, the record moves into IEG’s membership records. Those are held under the Trust’s own data policies rather than this one, and you will be told what they say before that happens.
Who sees it
Messages sent from this site are read by the IEG General Secretariat. Where an enquiry belongs to one of the seven regions, the Secretariat passes it to the Chair or hub contact for that region so that someone close to you can answer.
If you would rather your message stayed with the Secretariat and went no further, say so in the message and it will.
We use outside suppliers to host the site, carry our email and send the newsletter. They hold information only to do that work for us, under contract, and are not allowed to use it for anything of their own.
We will not sell, rent or pass your information to anyone else. The only exceptions are where you ask us to, or where the law requires it, and in that second case we will tell you unless we are forbidden to.
Indigenous Data Sovereignty
The Trust exists so that decisions about data stay with the peoples the data comes from. That principle sits above everything else in this policy.
We work to the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance: collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility and ethics. We also apply the FAIR Principles to how data is organised, and we are anchored in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
In practice this means three things.
- Anything you tell us about your people, your territory, your knowledge or your practices stays yours. It is not published, shared or used in any other piece of work without your free, prior and informed consent.
- Consent is asked for a stated purpose, and a new purpose needs a new conversation. You may withdraw it, and we will act on that.
- Where a community rather than an individual holds the authority to decide, we deal with the community through its own representatives and in its own way.
You decide what to tell us
You set the pace of what you share, and you can share very little to begin with.
An enquiry can be made with an email address and a short note. You do not have to give your full name, a phone number, a place, or the name of your organisation to start a conversation with us.
Every message that reaches us is treated as confidential. We do not publish the names of people who write to us. We do not add anyone to a public list, a map or a directory because they made contact. Nothing you send is quoted in our materials or passed to a partner organisation unless you have agreed to it.
If email is not a good way for you to reach us, send a short note saying so, with no detail in it, and we will work out another way to talk.
We will never ask you by email for a password, a payment or a copy of an identity document.
Keeping it safe
What we hold sits behind access controls, and only the people who need it to do their work can open it.
No message sent over the internet can be promised to be completely private, and ordinary email is not a secure channel. Please weigh that up before putting sensitive detail in a first message. We would rather you told us less and asked us how to tell us more.
If we ever learn that information about you has been exposed, we will tell you what happened, what we are doing about it and what you may want to do yourself.
What you can ask us to do
You can ask us at any time to:
- tell you whether we hold anything about you
- send you a copy of it
- correct anything that is wrong or out of date
- delete it
Write to secretariat@ieg.earth. We will reply within 20 working days, and usually much sooner. We may ask you to confirm who you are first, so that information about you is not handed to someone else.
To leave the newsletter, use the unsubscribe link at the foot of any issue, or reply to it and ask. Either way your address comes off the list.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, tell us and we will look into it. If our answer does not satisfy you, you can take the matter to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in New Zealand at privacy.org.nz. Where the law of your own country gives you further rights, we will honour those too.
Asking any of this will never count against you, your enquiry or your membership.
Changes to this policy
The site is growing, and this policy will be revised as it does. The date at the top shows when it last changed.
If a change affects how we use information you have already given us, we will say so clearly on the site and tell anyone on the mailing list before it takes effect.
Contact us
Questions, requests and complaints about this policy all go to the same place.
International Environmental Guardianship Data Trust
Email: secretariat@ieg.earth