Key documentation

The following details are recorded: 

• your name, date of birth, ethnicity, and health number (National Health Index or NHI) 
• details about the vaccination you receive.

By law, all health services are required to keep complete and accurate records. To receive a vaccination, we need to collect your information and record it on the AIR, as it is the clinical record of your immunisation treatment. This means there is no ability to opt out of your vaccine information being recorded. 

You can request confirmation of your personal information, and your vaccination records, as held in the AIR by making a request to hnzprivacy@health.govt.nz.

If you wish to correct your contact information, please email hnzprivacy@health.govt.nz.

Only those people with a role in managing a vaccination programme and related administration can see, add or change the information held in the AIR. Access to the AIR is limited to those with logon access rights, and all access is recorded and can be audited. 

These people may include those involved in administering vaccines (such as vaccinators and administration staff and health professionals who work with you). Everyone who accesses the AIR is trained to keep the information safe.

The information collected as part of the AIR may be used for: 

• managing your health 
• keeping you and others safe 
• planning and funding health services 
• carrying out authorised research 
• training health care professionals 

• preparing and publishing statistics 
• improving government services 
• enabling broader health and social support services. 

Some information, such as information about reactions to a particular vaccine, will be shared with other organisations who provide health services, and we will share this information with your GP (if you are enrolled) in order to ensure they have a complete health record for you. 

Information may also be shared with iwi and other Māori providers in line with the Ministry’s obligations to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi through the provision of data sharing. The purpose of this data sharing is to enable iwi, hapu and whanau to self-determine their own governance of data, including its use to actively protect communities by ensuring equal opportunity, access, and support for immunisations. This data sharing may be at an aggregated or individual level but will at all times be in accordance with the privacy requirements set out in the Privacy Act 2020 and Health Information Privacy Code 2020. 

Information may also be used for statistical analysis and research purposes, in line with usual Te Whatu Ora processes and when permitted by the Privacy Act 2020 and Health Information Privacy Code 2020. 

If we need to use the AIR information for other purposes, we will have this reviewed by the Chief Privacy Officer at the Te Whatu Ora and discuss it with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to make sure your privacy interests are fully considered. 

The AIR operates on a Salesforce platform, which is hosted on Amazon Web Services servers in Sydney, Australia. Access to the data remains limited to those with logon access rights, and all access is recorded and can be audited.

Any ‘health record’ details will be stored in accordance with the Health (Retention of Information Retention) Regulations 1996. It is noted that records may need to be retained for some time into the future as a resource to confirm who has or has not been vaccinated, and with which vaccine.