Last updated: 14 October 2026
1. About this policy
Buzzy is an online platform for structured discussion, democratic participation and collective decision-making. People and organisations can create and participate in communities called Hives, including private Hives operated by research teams, community organisations and other groups.
Buzzy is currently operated in New Zealand by Kieran Belworthy and Campbell Sharplin. Kieran Belworthy is Buzzy’s Privacy Officer.
This Privacy Policy explains what personal information Buzzy collects and creates, why we use it, who may receive it, where it is processed, how we protect and retain it, and the rights and choices available to you.
Buzzy handles personal information in accordance with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020. Buzzy is intended for people aged 16 years and older.
Some Hives are operated by independent organisations. Those organisations may provide additional privacy notices, research participant information or terms explaining how they use information from their Hive. Those notices supplement this policy rather than replacing Buzzy’s responsibilities for the processing we control.
2. Information we collect
Buzzy collects information you provide, information generated through your use of the platform, and information created through Buzzy’s discussion and analysis features.
This may include:
- Account and contact information, such as your email address, mobile phone number, chosen pseudonymous username, profile information, account identifiers and authentication information.
- Required age and geographic area information, including your age range, region and local council. We use your age range to confirm that you are old enough to use Buzzy. Age and location may also be used to support demographic insights and, where relevant, to determine eligibility for particular Hives. We use your region and council to support local-level features and discussion.
- Optional demographic and background information, such as gender, ethnicity, educational information and other profile information made available through Buzzy.
- Hive information, including which Hives you belong to, your role, membership status, invitations and permissions.
- Discussion and participation information, including proposals, statements, comments, replies, votes, reactions, stances, levels of agreement or disagreement and other choices you make when participating.
- Questionnaire and profile information, including responses to questionnaires and classifications or profiles derived from those responses where relevant features are used.
- Reports and moderation information, including reports about content or users, moderation decisions and related records.
- Technical and usage information, such as device or installation identifiers, authentication/session information, timestamps, push-notification tokens, IP addresses where processed operationally, system logs and information about how you interact with Buzzy.
- Information you send us, such as support requests, feedback and other communications.
Because Buzzy is designed for democratic and civic conversations, information you contribute may reveal political, social, cultural or other opinions that can be sensitive. We take the nature and context of that information into account when deciding how it should be handled.
Using a pseudonym does not necessarily make information anonymous. Information linked to a pseudonymous account or identifier may still be personal information where you can reasonably be identified.
Information received from other people. Sometimes we receive information about you from somebody else. For example, a Hive administrator or organisation may provide your email address to invite you to a Hive, or another user may make a report involving you.
Where required, we take reasonable steps to tell you that this information has been collected, why we received it and how it will be used. This reflects New Zealand’s indirect-collection requirements under IPP3A.
3. Information Buzzy creates from participation
Buzzy does more than store information exactly as you enter it. Some features analyse activity within conversations and create new information from it.
Depending on the features being used, this may include aggregate results, opinion groups or clusters, participant positioning, relationships between statements and groups, discussion summaries, themes, areas of agreement or disagreement, common-ground insights, moderation assessments and other analytical results.
Where this information remains connected to an identifiable or reasonably identifiable participant, we continue to treat it as personal information.
We do not assume that information is anonymous merely because names or direct identifiers have been removed.
4. How we use your information
We use personal information where reasonably necessary to provide and operate Buzzy. This includes creating and securing accounts; operating Hives and permissions; providing discussion, voting and analysis features; displaying participation results; sending invitations, notifications and service communications; providing support; moderating content and responding to reports; detecting and resolving bugs, misuse or security issues; and complying with legal obligations.
We also use information about how Buzzy is used to understand whether the service works well, improve features and user experience, and make operational and product decisions.
Buzzy does not sell users’ personal information.
We do not use private-Hive participant information to create advertising profiles or sell targeted advertising.
We do not make one Hive’s non-public participant-level discussion, opinion, demographic, membership or research dataset available to unrelated customers or researchers simply because that information is held by Buzzy.
Buzzy may use appropriately aggregated or de-identified platform-level information to understand and improve the service. We do not treat substantive non-public political, civic, demographic or research data generated within a Hive as an unrestricted cross-client commercial dataset.
5. Hives and organisations
Hives can differ in both visibility and membership. Public Hives make configured content and outputs publicly visible, but membership may be open or restricted. Private Hives are not publicly visible and have restricted membership. Restricted membership may be based on invitations or other eligibility rules. Where access or participation is restricted, Buzzy checks the user’s Hive membership and permissions on the backend before returning protected information or permitting restricted actions.
An authorised Hive administrator can see pseudonymous usernames where they appear in Hive activity and information needed to administer that Hive. Depending on the Hive’s configuration, discussion contributions, participation results and aggregated demographic results may be visible to Hive members or publicly. Individual votes or stances are not displayed to other users or Hive administrators.
Hive administrators do not receive a member’s Buzzy account email address simply because they administer the Hive. They may already know an email address where they used it to invite that person.
An organisation operating a Hive does not automatically gain access to a participant’s activity in unrelated Hives, Buzzy-wide behavioural analytics, authentication information or other unrelated account information.
Hive exports. An authorised Hive operator may access or export information generated within their Hive where this is necessary to administer the Hive, analyse participation or carry out the purpose for which the Hive was created.
This may include Hive discussion content and pseudonymous usernames or identifiers associated with that content, relevant timestamps, aggregated voting or participation results, aggregated demographic results where those features are configured, and aggregate conversation-analysis outputs such as Pol.is results.
Standard Hive exports do not include individual votes or stances, participant-level voting records, participant-level Pol.is positioning, individual demographic or profile information, or Hive membership or eligibility lists.
Standard Hive exports. Buzzy does not provide Hive operators with members' Buzzy account email addresses, authentication information, IP addresses, device or security identifiers, PostHog analytics, activity in other Hives, or other Buzzy-internal operational information.
Information exported from a Hive may still be personal information even where direct identifiers have been removed. Hive operators are responsible for handling information they receive in accordance with applicable privacy, ethical and institutional requirements.
6. Pol.is, AI and product analytics
Pol.is. Buzzy integrates with Pol.is, an open-source system used to identify patterns of agreement and disagreement within conversations.
Where Pol.is is used, Buzzy may send the applicable Pol.is instance conversation or statement information, pseudonymous participant identifiers, votes or reactions, and related information needed for analysis. Pol.is can return analytical information such as opinion groups and participant positioning.
Buzzy may host and manage a Pol.is instance for a Hive, or a customer may use a separately hosted Pol.is deployment where supported.
Buzzy’s currently managed Pol.is environment runs alongside Buzzy’s backend in Heroku’s European Union region.
AI-assisted features. Buzzy uses the OpenAI API for features including moderation, discussion summaries, thematic analysis, descriptions of opinion groups and identification of areas of common ground.
When these features are enabled, relevant discussion text and context may be sent to OpenAI so that the requested analysis can be performed.
OpenAI states that inputs and outputs submitted through its API are not used to train or improve its models by default unless the API customer explicitly opts in. Buzzy does not opt Buzzy user or Hive content into model training. OpenAI also states that its default API abuse-monitoring logs may retain prompts, responses and related information for up to 30 days.
Hive owners can turn Buzzy’s AI-assisted features off for their Hive. Where a research or other sensitive Hive uses these features, additional information provided by the Hive operator may explain how AI is being used in that particular project.
AI-generated summaries and classifications can be imperfect and should not be treated as authoritative assessments of a person’s beliefs, character or identity.
PostHog product analytics. Buzzy uses PostHog Cloud in its EU environment to understand how people use Buzzy and improve the user experience.
This may include information about screens and features used, interactions with the application, timestamps, technical/browser/device information and analytics identifiers.
We use this information for product improvement, usability analysis and diagnosing problems. We do not use PostHog behavioural analytics to sell user profiles or provide third-party behavioural advertising.
7. Service providers and overseas processing
Buzzy uses specialist service providers to operate the platform. These include hosting, database, analytics, AI, communications and push-notification providers.
Our current primary infrastructure and service providers include:
- Heroku, where Buzzy’s backend and Buzzy-managed Pol.is are deployed in the European Union;
- MongoDB Atlas, where Buzzy’s primary database is hosted in Australia;
- PostHog Cloud, used in its European Union environment for product analytics;
- OpenAI, used for the AI-assisted features described above;
- Firebase, used for push notifications and related device messaging;
- SendGrid, used to send authentication, account and service-related emails;
- Twilio, used to send SMS messages to your mobile phone number and related communications where applicable; and
- Pol.is, used to analyse patterns of agreement and disagreement in conversations, either through Buzzy-managed infrastructure or a customer-hosted deployment where configured.Some personal information is therefore processed outside New Zealand.
Using an overseas cloud or SaaS provider does not remove Buzzy’s responsibility for information that the provider processes on our behalf. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner specifically notes that organisations remain responsible for information processed by third-party providers under section 11 of the Privacy Act where the provider is processing it on their behalf.
Where information is instead disclosed overseas in circumstances governed by Privacy Principle 12, Buzzy must ensure the disclosure meets the applicable overseas-transfer requirements.
We may update our providers as Buzzy develops. Material changes affecting how personal information is handled will be reflected in this policy or an associated service-provider notice.
8. Sharing Information
Buzzy does not sell or rent personal information.
Private Hives. Information generated within a private Hive is private to that Hive. Buzzy does not make private-Hive content or participant-level data available to other Hives, other Buzzy customers, advertisers, data brokers, or unrelated organisations.
Within a private Hive, information may be accessible to:
- Hive members, where the relevant feature is designed to be visible to members;
authorised Hive administrators, in accordance with the access limits described in this policy;
- Buzzy personnel, where access is reasonably necessary to operate, support, troubleshoot or secure the service; and
service providers acting on Buzzy’s behalf, where processing is necessary to provide Buzzy features, including the hosting, database, analytics, communications, Pol.is and AI services described in this policy.
Buzzy does not provide private-Hive participant data to unrelated organisations for their own advertising, profiling, research or commercial purposes.
An authorised Hive operator may access or export information generated within their Hive as described under Hive exports. If a Hive operator subsequently uses or shares information it has lawfully received from Buzzy, that organisation is responsible for doing so consistently with its own privacy, research, ethical and legal obligations.
Public information. Where a Buzzy feature or Hive is expressly public, information that users submit for public display and outputs configured for public display may be visible on the public internet, including outside the relevant Hive or without a Buzzy account. A public Hive may still restrict who can join or participate; restricted membership does not make information configured for public display private.
Depending on the Hive’s configuration, public information may include discussion contributions together with pseudonymous usernames, aggregated voting or participation results, aggregated demographic results, Pol.is outputs and other collective or analytical outputs.
Individual votes or stances are not publicly displayed. Individual demographic or profile information, membership or eligibility information, invitations, reports and moderation information, account information and other non-public information do not become public merely because a Hive is publicly visible.
We make the visibility of public participation clear through the service where applicable.
Legal and safety disclosures. We may disclose personal information where required or permitted by law, including in response to a valid legal requirement or where reasonably necessary to investigate serious misuse, protect the security of Buzzy, or protect the rights or safety of Buzzy or others.
Where we disclose information for one of these purposes, we limit the disclosure to what is reasonably necessary in the circumstances.
9. Security
Buzzy uses technical and organisational safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, use, alteration, disclosure and loss.
Current safeguards include encrypted HTTPS/TLS connections, secure email and SMS authentication, password hashing, strong authentication and multi-factor authentication for privileged access, network and firewall protections, access restrictions for administrative systems, server-side authorisation checks for access-controlled Hive information, restricted participation and administrative functions. MongoDB documents that Atlas requires TLS for cluster traffic and automatically encrypts customer data at rest.
Access to production personal information is restricted to people who require it to operate and maintain Buzzy. Such access may be necessary for purposes including technical debugging, support, maintenance, security and responding to privacy issues.
No online service can guarantee absolute security. If Buzzy experiences a privacy breach that has caused or is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner and affected people where required by law.
10. Retention and deletion
We keep personal information only for as long as it is reasonably required for the purposes for which it may lawfully be used. Different categories of information may therefore be retained for different periods. This reflects Privacy Principle 9.
Information may be retained while your account or a relevant Hive remains active, where needed to provide or secure the service, resolve disputes or moderation matters, meet legal requirements, or satisfy an agreed client or research-project retention arrangement.
Deleting your account. You can delete your Buzzy account. When you do, Buzzy programmatically removes the account information and personal identifiers that are no longer required from Buzzy and relevant external services holding that account-associated information.
Buzzy is also a discussion platform in which one person’s contribution may have replies from other people. Removing a contribution entirely could make the remaining conversation misleading or unintelligible.
For that reason, when an account is deleted, the user’s contribution may remain structurally in the conversation while its authored text is replaced with a neutral message such as “This comment has been deleted.” A pseudonymous structural reference to the deleted account may remain so that discussion relationships continue to function, but personal account information is removed.
Where a remaining pseudonymous record could still reasonably identify someone from surrounding information, we continue to treat it as protected information rather than automatically considering it anonymous.
Some infrastructure providers may retain residual encrypted backup, security or legally required copies for limited periods under their normal deletion and backup processes. We do not use those residual copies for new purposes.
Private-Hive organisations may also agree with Buzzy on project-specific export, retention or deletion requirements.
11. Aggregated, de-identified and collective information
Buzzy creates aggregated and de-identified information to provide conversation results, understand platform usage and improve the service.
Aggregation and de-identification reduce privacy risk, but they do not always make information truly anonymous. Small groups, unusual combinations of characteristics or persistent pseudonymous identifiers can sometimes still make people identifiable.
We therefore continue to protect information where there is a reasonable risk that individuals can be identified. Where demographic results are shown, Buzzy does not display breakdowns for groups small enough that individuals could reasonably be identified.
We also recognise that individual privacy is not the only consideration relevant to collective data. In particular, removing individual identifiers does not necessarily remove collective governance interests in information produced by or about Māori.
Buzzy is developing its approach to Māori Data Sovereignty and Māori data governance. We do not claim that Buzzy has already completed or been certified against a Māori Data Sovereignty framework. In the meantime, Buzzy does not treat Māori-derived private-Hive information or collective insights as unrestricted data that may be sold or repurposed for unrelated commercial or cross-client uses.
12. Users aged 16 and 17
Buzzy is available to people aged 16 or older. We recognise that privacy information and choices should be understandable to younger users and that the sensitivity and purpose of information collection are particularly important when dealing with young people.
We therefore distinguish information required to operate an account and provide core Buzzy features from information that is optional, such as some profile and demographic fields, and do not use young users’ participation information for unrelated advertising or commercial profiling.
Organisations using Buzzy for research or other activities involving people aged 16 or 17 may have additional ethical, institutional or consent requirements of their own.
13. Your privacy rights and choices
Under the New Zealand Privacy Act, you have the right to ask whether Buzzy holds personal information about you, request access to information that can readily be retrieved, and ask us to correct information you believe is inaccurate, incomplete or misleading.
We will normally make a decision on a Privacy Act access or correction request within 20 working days, subject to the limited extensions and withholding grounds permitted by law.
You may also:
- Delete your Buzzy account;
- Ask us about how your information is being used;
- Change optional profile information where the service allows;
- Ask for reasonable assistance obtaining a usable copy of information associated with your account or participation; and
- Raise a privacy complaint with us.
We may need to verify your identity before providing access to or changing personal information. Some information may contain information about other people, in which case we may need to redact, withhold or otherwise protect that information.
14. Contact and complaints
Buzzy’s Privacy Officer is: Kieran Belworthy, Buzzy, New Zealand
Contact: support@buzzyapp.co.nz
You can contact us with questions about this policy, requests to access or correct your information, deletion requests, or concerns about how your information has been handled.
We encourage you to contact us first so we can investigate and respond to your concern.
You also have the right to make a complaint to the New Zealand Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
15. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy as Buzzy’s technology, providers, business or legal obligations change. We will display the date of the current version. Where a change materially affects how we collect, use or share personal information, we will provide an appropriate additional notice.
Updating this policy does not by itself give Buzzy unrestricted authority to use information for materially incompatible new purposes.
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