Privacy policy

This policy explains how Korbel (“we”, “us”) collects, uses, shares and protects personal information through korbelapp.com. We handle personal information in line with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020.

1. Information we collect

When you create and use an account

• Your company name, account type, and the name and email address of the contact person.
• Your password. It is stored by our authentication provider in a securely hashed form; we cannot see it.
• Company page content: description, website, expertise, logo, products, product images and project claims.
• A record of actions taken in your account (for example logging in, editing your page or submitting a claim), kept for security and to help us review activity.

When you subscribe

• Payments are handled by our payment processor. We receive a customer reference and your subscription status. We do not receive or store your full card number.

When you visit the website

• Usage information collected by Google Analytics, such as the pages you view, how you arrived, your device and browser type, and your approximate location (city or region).
• Technical information such as your IP address, collected by our hosting and authentication providers to deliver the site, keep it secure and apply rate limits.

When you contact us

• The details you include in your email to us.

2. How we use it

• To create and run your account and publish your company page, products and approved claims.
• To verify companies, products and claims before they are published.
• To process subscriptions.
• To send account emails, such as email confirmation, password resets and account approval.
• To keep Korbel secure, including preventing fraud, spam and abuse.
• To understand how Korbel is used and improve it.
• To respond to you and to meet our legal obligations.

We do not sell personal information. We do not send marketing emails unless you have agreed to receive them.

3. What is public

Korbel is a public database. Your company name, logo, description, website, expertise, products and approved claims are visible to anyone and can be indexed by search engines. The contact person's name and email address are not shown publicly.

4. Information from public records

Discoveries are compiled from public records, such as council resource consents, government tenders and Overseas Investment Office decisions. They can include a site address and a short description of the proposed work. We do not publish the names of private individuals from these records. If a discovery relates to your property and you would like it corrected or removed, email team@korbelapp.com.

5. Who we share it with

We use trusted service providers to run Korbel. They process information only to provide their service to us:

• website hosting, database and file storage providers;
• a payment processor for subscriptions;
• an email delivery provider for account emails; and
• Google Analytics, for website analytics.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it, to protect the rights or safety of Korbel, our users or others, or as part of a sale or restructure of our business.

6. Information stored outside New Zealand

Some of these providers store or process information outside New Zealand, including in Australia and the United States. We use providers that are subject to privacy laws or contractual commitments that give comparable protection to the New Zealand Privacy Act.

7. Cookies

• Essential cookies keep you logged in. Korbel's account features do not work without them.
• Analytics cookies are set by Google Analytics to measure visits. You can block them in your browser settings or with Google's Analytics opt-out browser add-on. Blocking them does not affect how Korbel works.

8. How long we keep it

We keep account information while your account is open. When an account is closed, we delete or anonymise its personal information within a reasonable time, except for information we must keep by law (such as payment and tax records) or need to resolve disputes and prevent abuse. Content that was public may remain in search engine caches or third-party archives that we do not control.

9. Security

We use reasonable safeguards, including encrypted connections, hashed passwords and restricted access to our database. No online service is completely secure. If a privacy breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify affected people and the Privacy Commissioner as the Privacy Act requires.

10. Your rights

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you and ask us to correct it. Most company details can be edited directly from your company page once your account is approved. For anything else, email team@korbelapp.com. We will respond within 20 working days.

If you are not satisfied with how we handle your information, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.

11. Who Korbel is for

Korbel is a service for businesses and is not intended for people under 16.

12. Changes

We may update this policy. We will post the new version on this page with a new effective date and, for significant changes, notify account holders by email.

13. Contact

Privacy questions or requests: team@korbelapp.com. See also our terms of use.