The short version: Ara Whenua has no accounts, no advertising and no tracking tools. Your Build readiness ticks stay in your own browser. Calculators run on your device. Questions to Piwa are answered and not kept as a conversation.
1. Who is responsible
ReFind Maker runs Ara Whenua (ara.by.maori.nz) in Aotearoa New Zealand and is responsible for how this site handles personal information under the Privacy Act 2020.
2. What happens when you use each part of the site
- Browsing, forms and templates. You don’t need to give us any personal information. Downloads come straight from this site.
- Calculators and the Land shares calculator. They run entirely in your browser. The figures you enter are not sent to us or saved.
- Build readiness. Your ticks and N/A marks are saved in your browser’s local storage on your device so they are there next time. We cannot see them. “Save progress file” creates a file on your device; who you share it with is your choice. “Clear all ticks” removes them.
- Piwa. When you ask Piwa a question, your message is sent to our server so Piwa can look up an answer in its knowledge base. Piwa does not store your messages as a conversation. A short-lived session cookie is used to limit how many messages can be sent in a few minutes and to remember when you are sharing kōrero.
- Sharing kōrero with Piwa. If you choose to share knowledge and end with “send”, the text you typed is emailed to our team for review. Please don’t include private details about other people. Nothing is added to Piwa automatically — a person reviews it first.
3. Information collected automatically
Like most websites, our hosting server keeps standard access logs (such as IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time) to keep the site running and secure. These logs are kept for a limited time set by our hosting arrangements and are not used to identify or profile visitors.
4. Other services this site uses
Fonts are loaded from Google Fonts and icons from cdnjs (Cloudflare). When your browser loads them, those providers receive normal connection information such as your IP address. They may process this outside New Zealand. Links to other sites (for example the Māori Land Court, Kāinga Ora, Kiwibank or other by.maori.nz sites) are covered by those sites’ own privacy policies.
5. Cookies and local storage
We use one session cookie for Piwa (described above) and your browser’s local storage for Build readiness progress. We do not use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies. If we ever add an optional analytics tool, we will explain it here first.
6. Whenua, whakapapa and mātauranga
Whānau, hapū and iwi information can carry collective interests and tikanga beyond an individual’s permission. Please only share what you have authority to share. We do not claim ownership of any kōrero you share, and we will not publish it without review and appropriate authority.
7. Your rights and contacting us
You can ask to access or correct personal information we hold about you, or raise a privacy concern, by emailing admin@refindmaker.com. We will respond as soon as reasonably practicable and within 20 working days. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.
8. Changes
If we change how information is handled, we will update this notice and its effective date before the change starts.
