Privacy Policy

Effective date: 13 October 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Friendswith Limited (Friendswith, we, us, our) collects, uses, discloses and protects personal information in connection with the Appraisal Builder platform, including the web application, the Gmail add-on and appraisal share links (the Service). We comply with the Privacy Act 2020, including the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs).

This policy applies to real estate agents and staff who use the Service (users), to vendors and other people who receive appraisals (recipients), and to anyone else whose information is entered into the Service.

1. Who is responsible for your information

The Service is provided to real estate businesses (Customers). Responsibility for your information depends on how we hold it.

  • Information the Customer controls. Information about vendors, clients and properties, and the appraisals and other content users create, is held by us on behalf of the Customer, as the Customer’s agent under section 11 of the Privacy Act 2020. The Customer, usually the real estate agency the agent works for, is responsible for that information. We use it only to provide the Service to that Customer. If you are a vendor or client, please contact the agency that sent you the appraisal about your information. If you contact us instead, we will pass your request on to that agency.
  • Information we are responsible for. We are responsible for user account information, billing and contact information, Usage Data and security logs, and our own business records.

2. Information we collect

About users

  • Account details, such as your name, email address, Google account email (if you sign in with Google), agency and role.
  • Profile details you choose to add, such as your phone number, licence number, headshot photo, biography and branding.
  • Your Trade Me agent profile and sold listings, including photos, if you connect them to import your previous sales.
  • Billing contact details for the Customer.
  • Information about how you use the Service, such as features used, appraisals created, usage counts for billing, error reports, and device and browser information. Our hosting providers also record IP addresses in server and security logs.
  • Messages you send to us, such as support requests and feedback.

About vendors, clients and property owners

  • Names, email addresses and other contact details that users enter, or that the Gmail add-on extracts from an appraisal request email, as described in section 4.
  • Property information, such as the address, property and title details, photographs, and the content of the appraisal.
  • Records of how recipients engage with appraisals sent to them, as described in section 5.

From other sources

  • Property and title information from Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ). Title records can include the names of registered owners.
  • Address and location data from Google Maps Platform.
  • Publicly available property listings, sales information, and results of web searches made by our AI provider to find comparable sales and market information.
  • Spreadsheets, documents and images uploaded by users, such as sales data exports.

When we collect personal information about someone from a source other than that person, we or the Customer will take reasonable steps to make sure the person is aware of it, as required by IPP 3A, unless an exception applies. For vendors, this is generally done by the agent and through the notice in the appraisal email.

3. How we use information

  • To provide the Service, including creating, generating, storing, displaying and sharing appraisals.
  • To authenticate users, manage invite-only access, and keep the Service and its users secure.
  • To measure usage, invoice Customers and keep financial records.
  • To provide support, and to tell users about changes, maintenance and security matters.
  • To maintain, troubleshoot and improve the Service. For this we use Usage Data and aggregated information that does not identify any person.
  • To detect and prevent misuse, and to enforce our Terms.
  • To comply with the law and respond to lawful requests.

We do not sell personal information. We do not use it for advertising. We do not use Customer content to train our own or anyone else’s general-purpose AI models.

4. AI processing and the Gmail add-on

AI features. To draft appraisal text, find comparable sales, and recommend campaigns and sale methods, the Service sends relevant property details and appraisal content to OpenAI’s API. When our AI provider searches the web for comparable sales, the property address is included in the search. Under OpenAI’s API terms, data sent through the API is not used to train general-purpose AI models. OpenAI may keep a request for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring and, under its standard API settings, as stored application state.

Gmail add-on. If a user installs the optional Gmail add-on, the following happens each time they open an email in Gmail while the add-on is installed:

  • The email’s subject, sender, and up to the first 12,000 characters of its text are sent to our servers and to OpenAI.
  • This information is used only to work out whether the email is a request for an appraisal.
  • We do not write the email text into our database. It is sent to OpenAI’s API for that classification. OpenAI does not use API data to train general-purpose models. OpenAI may retain the request for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring and, under its standard API settings, as stored application state.
  • If the user chooses to build an appraisal from the email, we save the property address, the vendor’s name and email address, and the email’s subject, sender, and message identifiers, so that appraisal can be reopened from the same email. We do not save the email text.
  • The add-on does not read other emails in the background, does not change labels or filters, and does not send email.

Google user data. Appraisal Builder’s use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We use Gmail data only to provide the feature described above. We do not transfer it to anyone except as needed to provide that feature (to OpenAI, for classification), for security, or as required by law. We do not use it for advertising. Humans do not read it unless the user gives consent, it is needed for security or legal reasons, or it has been aggregated and anonymised.

5. Appraisals sent to recipients

When an agent sends an appraisal, each recipient receives a personal link. We record the following information and make it visible to the agent who sent the appraisal:

  • when the email is delivered and opened, and when its link is clicked, as reported by our email provider, Resend;
  • when the recipient opens the appraisal, and how many times they return to it;
  • how long the appraisal is on screen, in total and for each page; and
  • whether the recipient downloads the PDF.

We tell recipients about this in the email and again on the appraisal itself, when the information is collected.

We do not store a recipient’s IP address or their device or browser details, and we do not use analytics or advertising cookies on appraisal pages. Agents can set share links to expire. Expired links are removed from our systems within 14 days of expiry, and an agent can revoke a link at any time. Deleting the appraisal deletes this engagement record.

6. Who we share information with

We share personal information only as follows:

  • Within the Customer. Information in the Service is available to authorised users of the Customer. For example, agency administrators can see appraisals and activity within their agency.
  • With recipients chosen by users. Appraisals are disclosed to the people a user chooses to share them with.
  • With service providers who store or process information for us, under contractual confidentiality and security obligations. These are listed in section 7.
  • Where the law requires or permits it. This includes disclosures to comply with a court order or to protect the safety of any person.
  • On a business transfer. If our business or the Service is sold or restructured, personal information may be transferred to the buyer. The buyer will be required to protect it in line with this policy.

7. Service providers and overseas storage

We use the following providers to run the Service. Some of them store or process information outside New Zealand.

  • Google Cloud / Firebase: authentication, database, file storage, server functions, security checks (App Check and reCAPTCHA) and app analytics. Australia and the United States.
  • Vercel: website hosting and cookieless page-view analytics. United States and global edge network.
  • OpenAI: AI text generation, email classification and web search. United States.
  • Resend: sending appraisal emails and reporting delivery events. United States.
  • Google Maps Platform: address search and validation. United States.

These providers act on our behalf to store or process information. Under section 11 of the Privacy Act 2020, this is not a disclosure under IPP 12. We take reasonable steps to choose providers with security and privacy safeguards comparable to those required by New Zealand law. We remain responsible for how they handle personal information for us. We may change providers from time to time and will update this list when we do.

8. How long we keep information

  • Account and Customer content is kept while the Customer’s subscription is active. After a subscription ends, it is deleted or de-identified within 90 days. Information in routine backups is deleted when those backups expire.
  • When a user deletes their account, their account information is deleted.
  • Appraisal engagement records are deleted when the appraisal is deleted.
  • Billing and financial records are kept for seven years, as required by the Tax Administration Act 1994.
  • Security logs are kept only as long as needed for security and troubleshooting.

Agents may have their own record-keeping obligations, for example under the Real Estate Agents Act (Professional Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2012. Agents should keep their own copies of appraisals they need to retain.

9. Security

We protect personal information with reasonable safeguards. These include encryption in transit and at rest, invite-only access, per-agency access rules enforced on every database request, secure session cookies, App Check attestation, rate limiting, and restricted administrative access. No system is completely secure. Please keep your sign-in details safe and tell us immediately if you suspect unauthorised access.

10. Privacy breaches

If a privacy breach occurs that has caused, or is likely to cause, serious harm, we will notify the Privacy Commissioner and affected individuals as required by Part 6 of the Privacy Act 2020. Where the breach affects information we hold for a Customer, we will promptly notify that Customer and work with them on any notification.

11. Your rights

Under IPPs 6 and 7, you have the right to ask for access to the personal information we hold about you, and to ask for it to be corrected. To make a request, email our Privacy Officer. We will respond as soon as reasonably practicable, and within 20 working days. We may need to verify your identity first. For information we hold for a Customer, we will refer your request to that Customer, as described in section 1.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.

12. Cookies

Our Cookie Policy explains the cookies and similar technologies we use.

13. Age

The Service is a business tool for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information about children through the Service.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. We will post the updated version here with a new effective date. If the changes are significant, we will also notify users and Customers.

15. Contact

Privacy Officer: Daniel Hubbard
Friendswith Limited, 597 Takatu Road, RD 6, Matakana 0986, New Zealand
Email: friendswithco@gmail.com

See also our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy.