Privacy policy

Draft: under legal review

This page is a draft waiting for legal review. It is not yet final and may change before the site opens.

Who we are

Intelligence Limited, a limited company registered in New Zealand (NZBN 9429053571564). Registered address: 85 Pooles Road, Greerton, Tauranga 3112, New Zealand.

We run Elderhub. We are responsible for the personal information described here under the Privacy Act 2020. For any privacy question or request, email [email protected].

Families and visitors: what we collect and why

You can search, compare and shortlist without an account. We collect as little as we can.

Enquiries you send to a facility

The enquiry form asks for your name, your email address or phone number (or both), who the care is for, the type of care, when it is needed and your message. We use it only to pass your enquiry to that facility, at an address the facility has confirmed, and to email you a confirmation if you gave an email address. The facility replies to you directly; once it has your enquiry, the facility is responsible for its own copy. We delete the enquiry 180 days after it was sent. A request to join a facility's waitlist is an enquiry like any other, with a link to leave the waitlist that stops working when the enquiry is deleted; the facility also notes whether it has replied to your enquiry or contacted you.

Vacancy alerts

If you ask us to email you when a place opens, we keep your email address, the type of care and the area you chose, and when we last emailed you. We send nothing until you confirm from the email we send you, at most one email a day, and every email has a link to stop the alert. An alert ends 90 days after you confirm it unless you keep it, and we then delete it; a request you never confirm is deleted after 7 days.

Callback requests

If you ask us to phone you, we keep your first name, phone number, the time that suits you and the topic, so our team can call you. Only our staff see it, and we delete it 90 days after you send it.

Your shortlist

Your shortlist is kept only in your own browser. We never receive the list. A shared shortlist link holds only the listings' codes, not anything about you. When you add a listing to a shortlist or compare listings, we count that for the facility without recording who you are.

Shared lists

If you choose “Share with family”, we store the places on your shortlist on our server as a shared list, with anything anyone with its edit link adds: hearts, “visited” marks, visit notes, notes and an optional first name. Only people with one of its links can see it, and it is never shown to search engines. We record nothing about who you are. Please don’t add health details. We delete a list 180 days after it was last changed.

Searches

What you type in the search box is part of the page address, like any search. We read searches with our own rules; no outside service receives them. Please do not type names or health details into the search box.

Listing statistics

We count how often each listing is viewed, shown in search results, shortlisted, compared and contacted, so facilities can see how their listing is used. Each count records only the listing, the kind of action and the time. To count a visitor once a day, we make a scrambled code from your IP address and browser type with a random key that changes every day; we keep only the code, never with the counts, and delete the code and the key once that New Zealand day is over. We do not use third-party analytics, advertising or tracking cookies.

Protecting the site from abuse

To stop spam and bulk copying of listings we count requests from each IP address, and enquiries per email address (stored scrambled). These counters are deleted when their time window ends; the longest is 1 day.

Reporting a listing

A report holds the reason and any details you write. We do not record your name, email address or IP address with it.

Facilities and their staff

Listings start from public registers and the facility's own website (see How listings work). We collect business contact details published by facilities, with the page we found them on; addresses that look personal are not used.

When a facility claims or edits its listing we keep the listing details, photos (with location and camera details removed), who confirmed the right to use the photos, the consents given for our emails, and a history of every change with who made it. Facility managers, group admins and our staff sign in with an email address through Firebase Authentication, a Google service. We email facilities about their listing, vacancies and monthly statistics; every email has an unsubscribe link, and we keep unsubscribed addresses so they are never emailed again.

Vacancy updates by WhatsApp

A facility manager or group admin can link a WhatsApp number so that messages from it update the facility's vacancies. Linking needs a one-time code from the provider area, valid for 10 minutes. We keep the linked number, the facilities and who linked it until the number sends STOP, a manager removes it or its facilities are removed. Each change it makes is recorded in the listing's change history as made by a linked WhatsApp number, without the number itself, so once the number is unlinked nothing we keep shows which number it was. We do not keep what the messages say, only the id of each, for 30 days. We only answer a message the facility sent us, while the conversation it opens is still open, and never start a conversation. This is switched off until we set it up.

Cookies and browser storage

We use only our own cookies, each needed for something you asked for. None is used for advertising or tracking.

__Host-display: Remembers the theme, text size and contrast you chose. Set only when you choose them. Lasts 365 days.
__Host-form-state: Keeps what you typed in a form (an enquiry, an alert or a callback request), encrypted, when it needs correcting and JavaScript is off, so it never goes in a web address. Lasts 5 minutes.
__Host-session: Keeps facility managers, group admins and our staff signed in. Lasts 5 days.
__Host-editor: Lets a facility edit its own listing after opening a link we emailed to it. Lasts 12 hours.

Your shortlist is kept in your browser's storage until you remove it or clear your browser. If you install the site as an app, your browser keeps a copy of our offline page.

Who we share information with

We do not sell personal information. We share it only as described here:

the facility you send an enquiry to;
service providers who process it for us: our hosting provider, our email delivery provider, our file storage provider (facility photos), Firebase Authentication (Google) for sign-in;
anyone we are required to by law.

Some of these providers store information outside New Zealand. We choose providers whose protections are comparable to New Zealand's, as information privacy principle 12 requires.

How long we keep information

Enquiries you send, with every copy we hold (status history, outgoing email queue, background jobs): 180 days
Vacancy alerts (your email address, the care and area you chose, and when we last emailed you): until you stop the alert, or 90 days after you confirm or keep it (7 days if never confirmed)
Shared lists (the places, hearts, visit notes, notes and any first names added to them): 180 days after the last change
Callback requests (your first name, phone number, a good time and the topic): 90 days
WhatsApp numbers a facility has linked to update its vacancies (the number, the facilities, who linked it and when): until the number sends STOP or a manager removes it, or all its facilities are removed
The ids of WhatsApp messages we have handled, kept only to ignore a repeat delivery (never the message): 30 days
WhatsApp linking codes (stored scrambled): 10 minutes to use, then deleted within a day
Copies of deleted information inside our encrypted database backups: 21 days
Copies of emails and delivery logs at our email delivery provider: 30 days
Our web server's access logs (IP address, page requested, time): 14 days
IP addresses and scrambled (hashed) email addresses in our abuse-protection counters: 1 day
The daily scrambled visitor code used to count each visitor once a day: until the end of that New Zealand day
How an unclear search was read (stored under a one-way code, never your words): 7 days
Photos a facility removes from its listing: 14 days
Facility listings, their change history and consents: while the listing exists
Accounts of facility managers, group admins and our staff: until the account is removed
Email addresses that have unsubscribed or bounced: indefinitely, so we never email them again
Listing statistics and listing reports: indefinitely; they hold no personal information

Keeping it safe

The site is served only over encrypted connections. Links we email are stored only in scrambled form, backups are encrypted before they leave our server, and only our staff can see enquiries that are waiting to be delivered.

Your rights

You can ask for the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it, by emailing [email protected]. We will reply within 20 working days. A facility can correct its own listing at any time; details from a public register are corrected by the register.

If you are not happy with how we handled your information, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update this page. Using the site is also covered by our terms of use. Intelligence Limited is the agency responsible for this policy.