Privacy policy
homefinder is a private workspace for buying a home. This page explains what we keep, why, and what you can do about it. We follow the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020.
What we keep
- Your account: email, name (if you add one) and your password, stored only as a scrambled hash we can't read.
- What you put in: houses and listing links you save, notes, ratings, offers, open homes, photos, your search area and preferences.
- Basic server logs: the time and address of requests, kept for security and fixing problems.
We don't ask for your income, bank details or ID documents, and we don't need them.
Why we keep it
Only to run the service for you: show your houses, score and compare them, and look up public information about each address. We don't sell your data, we don't show ads, and we don't use your data to train AI.
Who can see it
- You. Your workspace is private by default.
- Your adviser, only if you allow it. If you joined through a mortgage adviser or broker, they can see your saved houses, ratings and offers once you turn sharing on in Settings. Your notes stay private. You can turn sharing off, or leave the adviser, at any time.
- Us, when needed to keep the service running or to help you when you ask.
Sold houses you add
The sold houses you add make our price predictions more accurate in the area you're searching. You see them in your own list, and you can change or remove them there. We also keep a copy of each sale to improve our model: the council, suburb, sold price, sale date and council value (and its condition and year built, if you added them). The copy has no name or account on it, is combined with other people's sales to correct estimated prices for everyone, and is never shown on its own. It stays in our model after you remove a sale from your list. If you correct a sale, the copy is corrected too.
Public data lookups
To fill in a house's details we send its address or map position (never your name or email) to public services: OpenStreetMap address search and routing, Stats NZ, the Ministry of Education, and council and regional council map services. Map pictures are loaded from OpenFreeMap. These services see the address being looked up, not who you are.
Where it's stored
On a server run by Eastland Technology Ltd, hosted by DigitalOcean in Sydney, Australia. Data is sent over an encrypted connection and backed up daily; backups are kept for 14 days.
Your rights
- See everything: Settings → Your account and data → Download my data.
- Correct it: edit anything in the app, or ask us.
- Delete it: Settings → Delete my account removes your account and everything in it straight away. Copies in backups are gone within 14 days.
Questions or a complaint: email our privacy officer at [email protected]. If you're not happy with our answer, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
Changes
This is a beta. If we change how we use your data, we'll tell you in the app before it happens.