Your data stays yours.
This site is run by neighbours, for neighbours. We collect as little as we can and never sell or share it.
Who we are
Pacific Parade Community is run by two residents of Pacific Parade, Army Bay: Mat and Steve. We hold the information described here. Mat is our privacy officer. For anything about your information, email [email protected].
What we collect
- Account details: your name, email address and a hashed password.
- Your address: picked from the official LINZ address list for Pacific Parade, so we can confirm you live here.
- What you post: posts, comments, photos and reports you make.
- Email subscriptions: if you subscribe to a spotlight issue, your email address and which issue.
- Basic security logs: IP addresses in server logs for a short time, to stop spam and abuse.
You don't have to give us any of this, but without your name, email and address we can't let you join.
Why we collect it
To verify that members are residents, to run the community sections, to send the emails you ask for (updates, the weekly digest, urgent alerts) and to keep the site safe.
Who can see it
- Your full address is only visible to site admins and moderators, who use it to approve your sign-up. Other members never see it.
- Your name is shown to signed-in members next to your posts and comments.
- Your email address is never shown. If someone contacts you through a post, the message comes from the site; if you reply, they'll see your email.
- Photos have location (GPS) and camera details removed when you upload them.
- Members-only posts are never shown to search engines or in link previews.
Services we use
We use a few outside services to run the site. They handle your information only to provide their service to us, not for their own purposes. Some are outside New Zealand:
- DigitalOcean (server in Sydney, Australia) runs the website and stores the database and photos.
- Cloudflare (United States, with servers worldwide) passes all traffic to the site, provides the "verify you are human" check on forms, and stores our backups.
- Brevo (France) sends our emails, so it receives your email address and the email content.
- OpenAI (United States) checks the text of every post and comment for abuse, threats and similar content before it's published. It doesn't receive your name, email or address.
Cookies
We use one cookie, and only to keep you logged in. We don't use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies, and we don't show ads. Cloudflare's "verify you are human" check looks at basic information about your browser to tell people from bots.
How long we keep it
- Your account, posts and comments: for as long as you have an account.
- Email-only subscribers: removed as soon as you unsubscribe.
- Moderation records (who approved, rejected or reported what): 12 months, then deleted automatically.
- Security logs: a few days.
- Backups: deleted information can stay in our backups for up to 30 days before it's gone for good.
If something goes wrong
If there's a privacy breach that's likely to cause serious harm, we'll tell the people affected and the Privacy Commissioner as soon as we can, as the law requires.
Your rights
You can see and correct your details on your account page, and delete your account there at any time — this removes your address, posts and comments. To ask for a copy of what we hold, or to correct something you can't change yourself, email [email protected]. If you're not happy with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.