Privacy Policy

This statement explains our privacy policy and what we do with the personal information we collect from students when they log on.

Students who use AnyQuestions must provide their:

  • first name
  • year level
  • region
  • school and
  • question.

The AnyQuestions librarian assisting the student uses this information to tailor their response to the age and year level of the student.

During the chat session students are invited to submit their email address so they can receive a transcript of their session including links to the sites visited. The email address is not kept by AnyQuestions. No other personal information is collected.

Transaction information collected is for internal review only. We will never sell or share any personal information that we collect. All personal details submitted to AnyQuestions are handled according to the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993.

In the event of behaviour on AnyQuestions in violation of our Acceptable use policy AnyQuestions may use this information to either block students and/or contact the school from which the behaviour originated.

As well as transactional information, we gather statistical information on visitation to help us improve AnyQuestions and our services. This information is aggregated and does not identify individual students. It includes:

  • the IP address
  • the search terms used
  • the pages accessed on our site and the links clicked on
  • the date and time the site was visited
  • the referring site (if any) through which the visitor clicked through to this site
  • the operating system and device (e.g., Windows XP, Mac OSX, iPad)
  • the type of web browser used (e.g. Chrome, Mozilla Firefox), and
  • other incidental matters such as screen resolution, and the language setting of the browser.
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Acceptable Use

Acceptable use means acting like a good citizen online. How you behave online should be the same as how you behave offline (in the real world). AnyQuestions is a free service, staffed by real people from libraries right around New Zealand. Please be respectful and polite to our librarians. We like helping people who show good manners :)


We may end a chat session if we think you are being inappropriate or misbehaving, this includes:

  • Using racist/sexist, offensive or obscene language.

    Please don’t use mean or cruel words when talking to or about someone else; whether they are a male or female, or of another race or skin colour. Obscene language means using words that would upset your grandparents!

  • Using the service to transmit messages that harass or threaten the operators.

    Please don’t be mean to our librarians or act like a bully.

  • Visiting an objectionable website while in session with an operator.

    An objectionable website means a website that you really wouldn’t want your grandparents looking over your shoulder at!

  • Deliberately time wasting in a way that denies service to other legitimate users.

    Time wasting means being silly and not working with our librarians. Time wasting means other students are not getting help, and that isn’t nice!

  • Any form of vandalism, including damaging computer systems or networks and knowingly introducing programs such as computer viruses and worms.

    You might be technically savvy and know about web viruses and worms and how they affect computers but please don’t spread these. It takes our attention away from helping you and other students.

  • AnyQuestions reserves the right to disconnect users at the operator’s discretion. AnyQuestions might also block access to the service for repeat offenders.

    If you act like a troll then we’ll end the chat. Remember everything digital or online can be traced and we can track it back to where you came from and/or your school. If you misbehave on AnyQuestions then we will be in touch with your school or we will block you from accessing AnyQuestions.

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