Privacy policy

Who we are

"We Are Loud" refers to We Are Loud Music School and the We Are Loud Charitable Trust (registered charity CC62889), based in Glen Eden, West Auckland. We are the organisations responsible for the personal information collected through this website and in the course of teaching.

What we collect

We only collect information we genuinely need. Depending on how you interact with us, that may include:

• Enquiry and sign-up details — name, email, phone number, and anything you choose to tell us when you use a contact, choir, workshop or new-student form.
• Student details — the student's name, age or date of birth, and any access or accessibility needs you share so we can teach well.
• Scholarship applications — because scholarships are means-tested, this form asks for more sensitive information, which may include ethnicity or iwi, household income, Community Services Card details, and information about your family's situation. You provide this so the Trust can assess eligibility.
• Audition video-feedback requests — student and contact details, billing details for invoicing, and a link to your performance video.
• Billing information — handled through our payment providers (see below); we do not store card or bank details ourselves.

How we use it

We use your information to:

• respond to your enquiry and arrange lessons, workshops, choir or events;
• teach effectively and make reasonable adjustments for access needs;
• assess and administer scholarship applications (Trust only);
• provide audition video feedback and raise the related invoice;
• manage billing and keep the records a small business and registered charity are required to keep.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.

Who we share it with

We share information only with the service providers that help us run the studio, and only as much as they need:

• My Music Staff — our student management and lesson-scheduling system (new-student registration and the student portal).
• GoCardless and Xero — direct-debit payments and invoicing.
• Brevo — the service that delivers website form submissions to our inbox.
• Netlify — our website hosting provider.

Some of these providers are based overseas, which means your information may be stored on servers outside New Zealand. We only use reputable providers who are expected to protect your information to a comparable standard. We may also disclose information if the law requires it.

How we store and protect it

We take reasonable steps to keep your information safe. Website forms are sent over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection, access to our systems is limited to the people who need it, and the student resources area is password-protected. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information from loss, misuse and unauthorised access.

How long we keep it

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purpose it was collected, or as long as the law requires (for example, financial records must be kept for seven years). When we no longer need it, we securely delete or destroy it. Scholarship application information is kept by the Trust for as long as needed to administer the scholarship and meet our reporting obligations, then deleted.

Cookies

This website uses a single, essential cookie to keep you signed in to the student resources area. It contains no advertising or tracking data. Some embedded third-party tools (such as the My Music Staff portal) may set their own cookies, governed by their own privacy policies.

Your rights

Under the Privacy Act 2020 you have the right to ask us what personal information we hold about you, to request a copy of it, and to ask us to correct it if it is wrong. Just get in touch using the details below and we'll help. There's no charge to request access to your own information.

Contact and complaints

For any privacy question or request, contact Jo Kelsey at admin@weareloud.co.nz.

If you're not satisfied with how we've handled your information, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.