What this policy covers
This policy covers the Nearby Arborist website and its tree job form, and "we" or "us" means Nearby Arborist.
New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020 applies to the details a homeowner sends from New Zealand. Under privacy principle 3, an agency collecting information from you has to tell you certain things. These are its name and address, why it's collecting the information, who it's meant for, and your rights to access and correct it.
That notice is due before the information is collected or, if that isn't practicable, as soon as practicable afterwards. The headings below follow those points.
Who we are
The details you send through the form are held by Nearby Arborist, which runs this site and the system that passes tree jobs to local arborists.
There's no phone number, email address or contact form for us on the site. Requests about your details go through the arborist who received them, as the section on seeing and correcting your details explains.
What the form collects
The job you pick, and your answers to a few questions about the tree. These cover things like its height, how many trees there are and whether it's near a power line. On removals, the form asks whether you know if the tree needs council consent. Then come your postcode, first name and mobile number.
If you choose to add them, an email address and a note for the arborist.
We also use recordings of how people move through the form, to make it work better. Those recordings never show what anyone types, and the form doesn't put personal details in the page address.
Why we collect it
To pass your job to a local arborist who can get in touch about it, and to run the form and make it better.
If you leave details out
The job, postcode, first name and mobile are what an arborist needs to get back to you, so the form can't be sent without them. The email address and the note are optional.
Who we share it with
Your details go to a local arborist so they can get in touch about the job, and you agree to that by ticking the consent box before you send. The arborist runs their own business.
Some services handle details on our behalf so the site and the form can work. Vercel hosts the site, Microsoft Clarity provides the form recordings, Google reCAPTCHA screens the form for spam, and the lead system that passes jobs to arborists runs on its own tools, some of them automated tools that read each job description. Microsoft and Google look after what they collect under their own privacy policies.
When details come from someone else (IPP 3A)
Privacy principle IPP 3A came into force on 1 May 2026, added by the Privacy Amendment Act 2025. It applies when an agency collects personal information from someone other than the person it's about. The agency then has to take reasonable steps to tell that person it has their information, why, who it'll be shared with, and its name and address.
That can happen here in two ways. The arborist receives your details from us rather than from you. And if you send a job on someone else's behalf, say a landlord, a tenant or a parent, and give their name and number, we're collecting their details from you.
The Privacy Commissioner's own IPP 3A example is a gardening business referring clients to a local arborist. Its client form names the arborist and links to its privacy policy, so the arborist doesn't need to notify the client again. Our form doesn't name an arborist, so the consent box and this policy are how we tell you, before you send, that a local arborist will receive your details.
If you send a job for someone else, please only give their name and number with their agreement, and point them to this policy. If we learn something about you from someone else, we'll let you know, unless an exception in the Privacy Act applies.
Storing details outside New Zealand
Your details may be stored or processed outside New Zealand. Vercel, Microsoft and Google are all United States companies, as are some of the tools behind the lead system.
How long we keep your details
Form details stay with us only while the service or a legal obligation needs them, and never longer than seven years. After that they're deleted, or anything that could identify you is removed.
Seeing and correcting your details
You have the right to ask for the details we hold about you, and to ask for them to be corrected.
Once an arborist has your job, they hold their own copy of your details, so ask them first. They can also pass on a request about anything Nearby Arborist still holds, and we answer those within 20 working days.
Privacy complaints
If you think your details have been mishandled, raise it with us through the arborist, the same way as a request above. If that doesn't settle it, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, which can investigate.
The complaints page covers problems with the tree work itself.