Privacy Policy

At BookABuoy, we're committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring you understand how we handle your personal information. This privacy policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights regarding your data.

This policy applies to all services provided through bookabuoy.co.nz, bookabuoy.nz, and our associated platforms.

Information We Collect

Personal Information

• Name and contact details
• Email address and phone number
• Billing and payment information
• Vessel details and documentation
• Mooring location and details
• Communication history and preferences
• Profile pictures and account information

Automatically Collected Information

• IP address and device information
• Browser type and settings
• Booking and transaction history
• Website usage and interaction data
• Location data (when permitted by your device)

How We Use Your Information

Essential Services

• Process bookings and payments
• Connect mooring owners with sailors
• Send booking confirmations and updates
• Verify identity and vessel information
• Coordinate with harbour masters
• Handle customer support inquiries

Service Improvement

• Enhance platform features and usability
• Analyse booking patterns and preferences
• Improve our mooring location services
• Develop new features and services

Information Sharing

We share information with the following parties only as necessary:

• Hosts receive customer contact and vessel details only as needed to administer bookings, including arrival, access, safety, changes, and disputes.
• Payment processors for secure transactions
• Harbour masters (as required by regulations)
• Legal authorities (when required by law)
• Service providers helping operate our platform

Hosts may not use booking data for their own marketing or event promotion unless the customer separately opts in using the host marketing consent checkbox at checkout. Hosts must not further share, sell, or transfer customer data to third parties. Customers can withdraw host marketing consent at any time through account settings.

Hosts may retain exported customer data for the duration of the booking relationship and a reasonable period afterward for audit and tax purposes. The exact retention period is pending confirmation.

Analytics and Session Recording

We use two outside services to understand how the website is used and where people get stuck, so we can fix problems and make booking easier:

• Google Analytics counts visits and page views.
• Contentsquare records how visitors use our public pages, such as the pages viewed, clicks, taps, scrolling and the steps taken through a booking. A visit can be replayed so we can see where the site is confusing or not working.

These services use cookies or similar identifiers and receive technical details such as your IP address, device and browser. They handle this information under their own privacy policies.

To limit what is recorded, Contentsquare is not loaded on the log-in and sign-up pages, on your profile, messages or payment history pages, or on the screens used by hosts and BookABuoy staff. Card details are entered directly with our payment processor and are not recorded.

You can block these services with your browser's privacy settings or a content blocker and still use BookABuoy.

Data Security

We implement best practice security measures to protect your personal information. All payment information is handled by our payment processor and is never stored on our servers. Passwords are stored using strong one-way encryption.

Your Rights

Under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, you have the right to access, correct, and in some circumstances request deletion of your personal information held by us.

Contact Us About Your Privacy