Privacy Policy

The 30-second summary

We don't ask you to sign up, log in, or hand over an email to use any calculator on this site. The salary you type in, the KiwiSaver rate you pick, the secondary tax code you select — all of that lives only in your browser tab and is gone the moment you close it. Nothing is sent to our servers. Nothing is stored against your name. We could not look up "what did this person calculate yesterday" if we tried, because we don't keep that data.

What we do collect is anonymous, aggregated information about which pages people visit, on which device, and roughly which country they're in. This helps us know which calculator to build next. You can opt out of even that with one click via the cookie banner.

What we collect (and what we don't)

What we never collect

Names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, IRD numbers, bank account numbers, addresses, salary, KiwiSaver balance, employer, tax code or any other financial detail you enter into a calculator. None of these are transmitted to us at any point. The calculators run entirely in your browser using JavaScript — they're effectively a smart pocket calculator that lives at a web address.

What we do collect (with your consent)

For the full per-cookie inventory and a one-click reset of your choices, see the Cookies & Tracking page.

Why we collect anything at all

FiguredNZ is built and maintained by a single small team in New Zealand. We don't run it as a charity, but the only way we know whether to build a Bright-line property calculator next, or a parental-leave calculator, or a sole-trader GST tool, is by looking at what people are searching for and which pages they actually use. Anonymous, aggregated traffic data tells us "the parental leave guide is being shared a lot — write more of those" without us ever knowing who any individual visitor is.

We also use server logs to detect abuse — bots scraping the site, brute-force attempts on the few admin endpoints that exist, that sort of thing. This is a legitimate-interest justification under the Privacy Act for keeping minimal logs even before consent.

Cookies and similar technologies

We use a small number of cookies and a few items of browser local storage. They're documented in detail on the Cookies & Tracking page, including which are essential and which require your consent.

Default behaviour: until you click a button on the cookie banner, no analytics or advertising cookies are set. The only thing stored before consent is the consent banner state itself, so we know whether to show it.

Open cookie preferences

Who we share data with

We do not sell, rent, lease or trade personal information to anyone. We never have, and we never will. The only third parties who handle data on our behalf are the technical service providers required to actually deliver this website to you: our hosting provider (which sees the same essential server logs described above), and our analytics provider (which sees only anonymised traffic data, and only after you consent).

We may disclose information if we are legally required to do so by a New Zealand court or regulator under the Privacy Act, the Tax Administration Act, or similar legislation. Given that we hold essentially no information about individuals, this would be a very short conversation.

How long we keep things

Essential server logs are retained for up to 30 days for security and abuse-prevention purposes, then automatically discarded. Anonymous analytics data is retained for up to 13 months in aggregate form, after which it is rolled up into long-term, non-individualised metrics. Your cookie-consent choice lives on your device until you clear it or use the "Open cookie preferences" button to reset it.

Your rights under the NZ Privacy Act 2020

The Privacy Act 2020 sets out 13 Information Privacy Principles. The most important ones for you, as a visitor to this site, are:

• You have the right to access any personal information we hold about you. Email us at the address below and we'll respond within 20 working days as required by the Act.
• You have the right to correct any personal information we hold that is inaccurate.
• You have the right to be told why we collect any information from you, what we'll use it for, and who else might see it. That's what this whole page is for.
• You have the right to complain to the Office of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner if you believe we've handled your data incorrectly. Their website is privacy.org.nz.

In practice, because we collect almost nothing, an access request will typically come back as "we hold no personal information about you" — but you're entitled to ask, and we're required to check.

Changes to this policy

If we materially change what we collect or how we handle it (for example, if we ever add user accounts), we'll update this page and reset the cookie banner so you have to make a fresh choice. The "Updated" date at the top of this page is always current. Past versions are available on request.

Contact & complaints

FiguredNZ is the data controller for this site. For any privacy question — access requests, corrections, complaints, or just clarification — email [email protected]. We'll acknowledge within five working days and substantively respond within 20 working days.

If you're not satisfied with our response, you can take the complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.