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Do's and dont's of using the data.govt.nz API

Data.govt.nz's data APIs are made openly available for users and it's worth taking a moment to find out what you can and cannot do when using our APIs in your own applications.

Anyone is free to use our API to access the open data published on Data.govt.nz.

Below is a summary of what you can and cannot do with our API.  However, use of the API and access to any Data.govt.nz site is subject to our Terms of Use.  You need to read the Terms of Use before using our site, including the API.

Contact our support team  if you have any questions about the terms.

Do

Our API allows you to access datasets available through Data.govt.nz.  You need to comply with the license terms applied to any dataset, for example any Creative Commons licence.  In general, you can:

  • combine the data with other datasets so long as licensing is respected
  • make real-time calls to the datasets to make sure you’ve got the most recent data
  • cache the dataset to help performance and ensure access in the event of an API outage
  • use the API in applications that can only be reached by registered users (although we ask that  (on request) you provide free access to your application to the Data.govt.nz team for review)
  • provide a link from your application to that dataset on Data.govt.nz as a reference, although this is not mandatory

Don't

You cannot use the API to:

  • purposefully interfere or disrupt the API, its servers or networks
  • claim rights to the personal information, data or intellectual property in the datasets accessed via the API
  • claim your application that uses data from the Data.govt.nz API is an official government product or service unless you have approval to do so
  • use datasets via the API to carry out illegal acts under New Zealand law or infringe on the rights of any other person

Worth noting

  • use of the Data.govt.nz API is “as is” and “as available”, we don’t provide any guarantee about the operation or availability of the API or our site
  • Data.govt.nz doesn’t provide any undertaking about any dataset being complete, accurate, up-to-date or reliable or that having or using a dataset will not infringe anybody else intellectual property or other rights.  It is your decision whether you access or use a dataset
  • new versions of the API are occasionally released, and may require you to update your own work to the use the most recent version

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