What you need to know

EQUIT3 is a study that is looking at two different ways to help people stop vaping. This study is for people over the age of 16 who want to quit vaping. The study has been designed for New Zealand users only.

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The EQUIT3 website offers information about the study and how to register.

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Our website does not provide medical advice. The content and information on this website are intended for informational purposes only and should not be used for any medical or diagnostic purposes. It should not be relied upon as a substitute for advice from a qualified medical, or other health professional.

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You should consult your GP or other qualified health professional if you have questions or concerns about your own health or the health of someone else in your whānau. If you need urgent help, please call 111 or present to your local Emergency Department. Otherwise make an appointment to see your GP. 

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If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy or anything else, please contact us (equit3@auckland.ac.nz). We will respond as soon as we can. 

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For further details on our full Privacy Policy please see below.

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy sets out how we use and protect your personal information when you access and use the EQUIT3 website. Read it carefully.  

We are committed to:

• protecting the privacy of your personal information
• meeting our obligations under the Privacy Act 2020 and any other applicable privacy legislation.

We may change this Privacy Policy at any time, by updating it within the app. This Privacy Policy was last updated in February 2025.

Definitions used in these Terms

In this Privacy Policy: 

• “EQUIT3" refers to the EQUIT3 website and the EQUIT3 study. 
• “Personal information” has the meaning in the Privacy Act 2020, and generally means information about an identifiable individual.
• “UniServices” means our wholly-owned subsidiary, Auckland UniServices Limited. 
• “University” or “we” means the University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau.

Collection of Personal Information and Purposes of Use

Collection of Personal Information

and Purposes of Use

We collect the following information for the following purposes: 

• Your contact details including your first name and mobile phone number (so that we can verify that you are a human and deliver reminders and stop smoking information to you), your home address (so that we can send you the stop smoking products), your gender, ethnicity, height and weight, level of education, your vaping history, smoking history, motivation to quit and previous quit attempts, your use of alcohol, cannabis, and medicines, and details about your general health for the purpose of carrying out the research and answering the research question.
• Contact details of your nominated medical specialist for the purposes of letting them know you are in the EQUIT3 study, and to inform them in the unlikely event that you have significant negative health events whilst in the study or collect further details on any such events.
• We also use the above information to operate, improve and optimise the website and/or as otherwise permitted at law.
• Minimal data that you choose to provide within the website will also be stored locally on your browser for as long as you choose to use the website. This information is not collected by us, and will not be shared with third parties.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are stored on your browser or device by a website or app.

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Cookies cannot damage files, nor can they read information from the hard drive of a computer.

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We use Google Analytics cookies to help remember users and monitor how they interact with the website. For example, we use cookies to determine website traffic and trends. Generally, that information is used to help us improve and personalise your online experiences.

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How Google uses cookies, and information collected by Google Analytics is subject to the Google Privacy Policy.
You can disable the acceptance of cookies by adjusting the settings in your web browser, although this may restrict your ability to access some web pages.

Sharing of Personal Information

We require any third party with whom we share information to provide the same level of protection of your data as set out in this Privacy Policy.

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The following groups of people may have access to your identifiable information:

• Approved research staff administering follow-up calls.
• Your nominated medical specialist, to let them know you are in the EQUIT3 study, and to inform them in the unlikely event that you have significant negative health events whilst in the study or collect further details on such events.
• The Ethics committees or government agencies from New Zealand or overseas if the study is audited. Audits are done to make sure that participants are protected, the study is run properly, and the data collected is correct.
• Rarely, it may be necessary for the study research team to share your information with other people. For example, if there is a serious threat to public health or safety, or to the life or health of you or another person, or if the information is required in certain legal situations.

We share your personal information with UniServices, as described further below.

Rights of Access

You can ask us what personal information we hold about you, and ask for access to and/or for us to correct any personal information that we hold about you, by contacting us at equit3@auckland.ac.nz. 

Storage and Security

We take reasonable security safeguards to ensure that your personal information is protected against unauthorised loss, access, use, modification, disclosure and other misuse, but it is not possible to guard against every risk of misuse.

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Identifiable information will be held in electronic case report forms and stored in secure, cloud-based storage for ten years, for the purposes of the EQUIT3 study. De-identifiable information (i.e., your information without your name) will be stored in electronic case report forms and stored in secure, cloud-based storage indefinitely for the purpose of future research projects.

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Our website relies on reputable external service providers for data storage and the utilization of various applications and tools, hosting through Amazon Web Services (AWS) with servers located in Australia, unless specified otherwise.

Retention/Deletion of your information

We retain your information for only as long as it is needed to meet the purposes above, or for as long as it is required by law. 

General

This Privacy Policy is governed by New Zealand law.