Our official social media channels provide important updates, information and reminders to help you get your taxes and entitlements right. Social media is just one channel we use to reach customers. It is very effective at reaching people where they are.
This webpage helps answer questions on the use of social media custom audience lists.
Please scroll down to find a list of frequently asked questions.
Use of custom audience lists on social media
We take our customers’ privacy seriously. We do not sell any data to anyone, including social media platforms. No information has been leaked. A privacy impact assessment has been carried out on the use of custom audience lists. A privacy impact assessment helps identify whether a project will impact on people and their information, how any risk can be reduced and ensures the project complies with the Privacy Act.
Due to public concern and recent media coverage which included comments from the US Federal Trade Commission and European Data Protection Supervisor we have paused the use of custom audience lists.
We made the decision to pause as we care about our customers and want to provide reassurance that we take their concerns seriously. We will reconsider this decision after the findings of an internal review (undertaken by our Chief Information Security Office (CISO), which will include reviewing the use of hashing to ensure it is safe to use and security of the platforms), and the review of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
The New Zealand Information Security manual, which is maintained by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), has guidelines on information assurance and systems security. Our standards with relation to hashing operate within these guidelines.
Custom audience lists help us direct messages to specific customers with relevant information and reminders. This includes letting them know about entitlements like Working for Families and FamilyBoost, or when they have returns or debt due. This significantly enhances our ability to ensure taxpayers meet their obligations.
Examples of custom audience advertising are:
- Student loan customers - where we can separate the audiences for accuracy, so those based overseas are reminded about the repayment dates, but those based in New Zealand receive relevant messages if they’re self-employed or earn a salary or wage.
- GST customers - who have returns and/or a debt due.
- Working for Families customers - who may qualify for certain entitlements or are reminded that they need to update their information if they have a change in circumstances.
By using these lists we’re able to direct advertising to those customers who need to see the message and we’re also able to reach them on a channel they use i.e. Facebook.
We have used custom audience lists on Meta (Facebook and Instagram), LinkedIn and Google. The use of custom audience lists was paused on 12 September 2024 while the reviews are undertaken.
The custom audience feature allows businesses and government departments to upload de-identified information (referred to as hashed information) to the platform, for direct marketing purposes.
We upload into our browser a list of identifiers such as names and email addresses belonging to individuals that we want to target with ads. This data is hashed within our browser before being uploaded to the social media platform.
Identifiers used include first name, surname, date of birth, email address, phone number, city, postal code and country.
The Custom Audience is the list of customers we can then target relevant advertising with. We are not able to see who ends up in this matched list, just the approximate number of people in the audience.
How custom audience lists are loaded
If you have not given information to the social media platform or you do not have an account with them, then the hashed data will not match, and it is deleted.
Hashing is a commonly used technique in day-to-day digital life e.g. logging into a banking app or checking the integrity of a file you download from the internet. Social media platforms pre-compute the hashed values for every user so if someone uses social media, the platform will already hold their information in hashed format.
Hashing is a security method to protect information. It takes a piece of data - like an email address - and uses math to turn it into numbers and letters (called a hash). For example, [email protected] may come out hashed as wLKziR/6RoXDv1MDaXLH1UNUC9nIVr97jrTnL4TcxsM=.
No person or organisation can easily reverse the hash to original data. Hashing the same input data will always create the same hash.
The hashed data from our list is only used if it can be matched with information you have already provided on your social media account.
You might still see advertising from us such as via a billboard or an advert on social media, but we do not use custom audience lists for these.
We advertise on social media, without using custom audience lists. For example, during Cyclone Gabrielle, when we needed to reach customers to let them know about available support, we used geographic targeting in social media platforms to only display adverts to people in the affected regions.
You can update your profile settings in your social media accounts if you do not want to see adverts from certain organisations. We are not able to turn these off for you.
There is no option to opt-out of being included in a custom audience list, however you can update your profile settings in your social media accounts if you do not want to see adverts from us or other organisations.
No identifiable information about you has been passed onto social media platforms.
If your information was included in a custom audience list, the data that is uploaded is hashed before being transmitted to the social media platform. Hashed data may include first name, surname, date of birth, email address, phone number, city, postal code and country.
The hashed data from our list is only used if it can be matched with information you have already provided on your social media account.
The Privacy Act 2020 allows personal information to be used for more than one purpose. It doesn’t require you to give permission every time your personal information is used or disclosed. The Act is purpose-focused not consent-focused. This means if an organisation obtains your information for one purpose, it can use it for another purpose in some circumstances.
The Tax Administration Act 1994 permits Inland Revenue to use taxpayer information to carry out or support a lawful function. Using social media to display messages to taxpayers who are in debt, have due dates for payment, or tell them about entitlements is a function of Inland Revenue.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) has also had privacy concerns raised with it from members of the public about Inland Revenue’s use of taxpayers’ personal information and hashing. The Privacy Commissioner has contacted Inland Revenue for information to assess if this practice raises issues under the Privacy Act. Inland Revenue welcomes the OPC’s involvement.
We welcome the review undertaken by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) and will work with them on the timing. We expect our review to take 4-5 weeks.
No. No tax or financial information is included in the custom audience list.
You may have been included in previous campaigns if:
- You have a social media account with Facebook or LinkedIn or have a Google account, and
- Your privacy settings enable you to receive adverts and
- Any of the following apply, you:
- are likely eligible or receive Working for Families
- have a New Zealand student loan
- have an overdue tax return or bill.
Due to the large number of ad campaigns we undertake to ensure people are aware of their tax obligations and entitlements, it is not reasonably practicable for us to search to see which campaigns you may have been included in.
If you do not want to see ads from certain organisations you can update your profile settings in your social media accounts. We are not able to turn these off for you.
No data has been leaked.
We do not, have not, and will not, sell any taxpayer information.
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