Privacy Policy

Take Harbour is run from New Zealand and is currently in a private beta. When this policy says “we” or “us”, it means the Take Harbour team. For anything about your privacy, contact the person who invited you to the private beta (a dedicated email address will be listed here before public launch).

When you join

• Email address, to send sign-in links and codes. We don't use passwords.
• Username, which you choose and which is public.
• Your confirmation that you're 18 or over and accept the Terms, and when you gave it.

If you choose to add them

• A broad age group (for example 25–34) and a New Zealand region (for example Canterbury). Both are optional and can be removed at any time. We never ask for your exact age, address or location.

When you take part

• Votes: which side you picked on each debate, and when you switched sides.
• Arguments and replies you post, and the side each one supports.
• “Strong point” marks you give to other people's posts.
• Reports you make about posts, including any note you add.

If you join the waitlist

• Your email address and your answer to the yes/no question on the sign-up page. We use them to send you one confirmation email when you join, and one email when Take Harbour opens. Only admins can see the list. Every email has an unsubscribe link. If you use it, we keep your address on a do-not-email list so we never email you again, and delete it if you ask us to.

Basic usage information

• Simple events: which debates are viewed, when something is shared, and when someone starts or finishes joining. For signed-out visitors these are recorded without any identity.
• Like almost every website, our hosting and database providers keep short-lived technical logs (such as IP address, browser type and time of request) to run the service and protect it from abuse.

We use only the cookies and browser storage needed to keep you signed in and remember small things (like which debates you've already viewed this visit). There are no advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

• Everyone, including visitors: your username, when you joined, and the arguments and replies you post, each labelled with the side it supports. Strong-point totals on posts.
• Only you: your email, your votes, your age group and region, the posts you marked as strong points, and the reports you made.
• Everyone sees totals only: vote counts and percentages for each debate. Breakdowns by age group are shown only for groups of 100 people or more, so no small group can be singled out. Region breakdowns will follow the same rule.
• Moderators and admins can see usernames, activity counts (such as number of posts), reports including who made them, and the original text of removed posts so decisions can be reviewed or undone. They can't see your email, age group, region or how you voted.
• Technical access: a very small number of people (currently the founder) can access the underlying database to run, fix and secure the service. That access is not used to look up individuals' opinions.

Our database enforces these rules itself, so they hold even if someone tries to get around the app.

• To run Take Harbour: sign you in, record your vote, show your posts and calculate results.
• To keep it safe: review reports, remove content that breaks the community rules, and prevent spam and abuse.
• To improve it: understand, in aggregate, whether people find it useful and come back.
• To send you sign-in emails. We won't send marketing email without asking you first.

In future, Take Harbour may publish or share grouped results, for example “62% of members who voted chose side A” or trends over time, including with organisations interested in public opinion. If we do:

• It will only ever be aggregated numbers or summarised themes, never information that identifies you.
• Any breakdown by age group or region will only include groups large enough that individuals can't be picked out.
• We will say clearly that results describe people on Take Harbour, not New Zealand as a whole.
• We will never sell identifiable opinion histories or anyone's personal information.

If we plan to start sharing insights with organisations, we'll update this policy and tell members first.

We use a small number of trusted providers who process information on our behalf, only to run the service:

• Supabase stores our database and handles sign-in. Your data is stored in its Sydney, Australia region.
• Vercel hosts the website. It may handle requests from servers outside New Zealand.
• An email delivery provider sends sign-in and waitlist emails, so it receives your email address.

These providers are required to protect your information and may only use it to provide their service to us. Some of them are based overseas, so your information may be processed in Australia, the United States or other countries with comparable safeguards.

• Your account information stays while you have an account.
• When you delete your account, your profile, email, optional details, votes, vote history, posts, strong-point marks and usage events linked to you are deleted straight away. Replies other people made under your arguments are removed with them.
• Reports you made are kept for moderation records but no longer linked to you.
• Waitlist emails are kept until we've invited you, or until you ask us to remove yours.
• Short-lived technical logs and backups held by our providers may keep copies for a limited time before they are overwritten.

• Change or remove your age group and region at any time on your profile.
• Delete your account at any time on your profile.
• Ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it, by contacting the person who invited you to the private beta (a dedicated email address will be listed here before public launch). We'll respond within 20 working days.
• If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You can also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Access rules are built into the database, every action is checked on the server, and staff tools are restricted to staff. No system is perfectly secure, but if a privacy breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify the Privacy Commissioner and the people affected as the law requires.

Take Harbour is for people aged 18 and over. If we learn that someone under 18 has joined, we'll delete their account.

If we make important changes, we'll tell members in the app before they take effect. The date at the top shows when this policy last changed.