Who This Policy Covers
This policy explains how AIREA DIGITAL LIMITED (NZBN 9429053969149), trading as Buzz, handles personal information under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020. It covers our website at buzz.airea.co.nz, the barbershop websites we build and host, online booking, the walk-in queue, website chat, the owner and staff consoles, our emails and texts, and support.
It applies to barbershop owners and staff who use Buzz, people who book, queue, chat or send photos through a shop's website, visitors to those websites, barbershops we contact about Buzz, and anyone who gets in touch with us.
Who Is Responsible
For shops and their staff, and for our own marketing and prospect contact, Airea Digital Limited is responsible for your information.
For a shop's customers (bookings, the walk-in queue, website chat, gallery photos and the shop's client list), the barbershop decides what it collects and why. Buzz holds and processes that information on the shop's behalf, as its service provider, and does not use it for its own purposes. You can ask the shop or us about it, and we will help either way.
What We Collect And Why
Shop owners and staff: names, email addresses, phone numbers, business details, website content, photos and sign-in activity, so we can build and run your website, take payment and support you. Card details are handled by Stripe; we never see or store full card numbers.
Online bookings: your name, email, phone number, the service and time you choose, any note you add and your payment status. These are used to confirm the booking, send a reminder and a thank-you message, and let you reschedule or cancel. The shop keeps a client record of your visits so it can look after you.
Walk-in queue: the name and phone number you enter, the service you choose and, if you pick one, your preferred barber. No email is needed. Your name and number are used only to run the queue: the shop can call you when your chair is ready, shared screens show just your first name and last initial, and unfinished entries close at the end of the shop's day. The shop sees queue history and wait times so it can plan staffing. We never use queue details for marketing.
Website chat: the questions you type and the replies. They are used to answer you and, if you ask for a person, to pass the conversation to the shop.
Gallery photos: a photo of your cut, your first name and a comment, shared only with your consent and shown only once the shop approves it.
Website visits: we count page views and taps on call, directions and booking buttons for each shop, so owners can see how their site is doing. We do not use advertising trackers, sell data or build profiles of visitors.
Barbershops we contact about Buzz: publicly listed business details (name, address, phone number and website, mostly from Google Maps) and any replies. We use them to offer a demo website, and texts are sent to the business number the shop publishes. Reply STOP and we will not contact that number again; we keep the number on a do-not-contact list so it stays that way.
Security and reliability: IP addresses, device and browser details and server logs, to keep accounts safe, stop abuse and fix problems.
Emails And Messages
We send service messages that come with using Buzz: booking confirmations and reminders, sign-in links, billing notices and site updates. These are not marketing and you cannot opt out of them while you use the service.
While you are a paying Buzz customer, we may email you from time to time with product news and updates about Buzz. These emails are sent through Brevo (Sendinblue SAS, France). We share only your name, email address and the product you use. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and you can opt out at any time. Opting out does not affect service emails about your account, billing or bookings.
Connecting Your Instagram Account
If you choose to show your Instagram posts on your Buzz website, you can connect your Instagram Business or Creator account through Meta's official Instagram API. Connecting is optional, and you authorise it yourself through Instagram's own login screen.
When you connect, we receive and store your Instagram account ID and username, an access token that lets us fetch your content, and your recent media (images, videos and reels), along with their captions, links and posted dates. We use this only to display your own posts on your own Buzz website, styled to match your site. We cache the images and videos on our servers so your website visitors load them quickly and reliably.
We do not post to your Instagram, read your private messages, access your followers, or use your Instagram data for advertising. We never sell it. Access tokens are encrypted at rest and are never shown publicly. Our use and transfer of information received from Meta's APIs follows Meta's Platform Terms and Developer Policies.
You can disconnect your Instagram at any time from your Buzz console, which deletes the stored token and cached posts. Removing the Buzz app from your Instagram settings, or asking us to delete your data, triggers the same removal. For data-deletion requests, disconnect in your console or email hello@airea.co.nz.
AI Features
Website chat answers come from a language model given only that shop's own details (services, prices, hours and location) and your question. The model normally runs on a computer Airea operates in New Zealand. If that computer is unavailable, the question goes to a backup model through OpenRouter in the United States. We also use AI to draft website copy from the shop's details. We do not use your information to train AI models, and AI answers can be wrong, so check anything important with the shop.
Service Providers And Overseas Storage
We use trusted providers to run Buzz. They process information only to provide their service to us: Stripe (payments), Cloudflare (website hosting and security), Hostinger (email delivery), Brevo (product newsletters), Google (maps, business listings and sign-in), Meta (Instagram display), Telegram (alerts to shop owners), Apple iMessage (texts to barbershops) and OpenRouter (backup AI chat). Our own servers and backups are in New Zealand.
Some of these providers store or process information in other countries, including the United States, Europe and Australia. Before we share information overseas we make sure it is protected in a way that is comparable to the New Zealand Privacy Act, as principle 12 requires, through the provider's contract terms and security commitments. We never sell personal information.
How Long We Keep Information
We keep information only as long as there is a real need, then delete it automatically:
While a shop uses Buzz: its bookings and client list are kept so the shop has its history. Walk-in queue history is kept while a customer keeps visiting and is deleted 24 months after their last visit. Website chat conversations (12 months after the last message), page-view counts, email and text logs, and messages to and from barbershops we have contacted are deleted after 12 to 24 months. Sign-in links are deleted 7 days after use or expiry. Gallery photos are removed after 24 months.
Financial records (invoices, payments and fee records) are kept for seven full New Zealand tax years, as Inland Revenue requires, then deleted.
When a shop leaves Buzz and its account is closed, its records are kept until the seven tax years have passed and are then permanently deleted, including the shop's bookings and client list.
Barbershops we have contacted: details are deleted after 24 months with no contact. A STOP request is kept permanently so we never contact that number again.
Nightly backups are kept for about 30 days.
Security
We protect information with encryption in transit, restricted and logged staff access, separate sign-ins for owners and staff, encrypted storage for sensitive tokens, and regular backups. If a privacy breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will tell the Privacy Commissioner and the people affected as soon as practicable, as the Privacy Act requires.
Cookies
We use a small number of cookies and browser storage for sign-in, security, booking and remembering preferences. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, so there is nothing to opt out of. Blocking cookies may stop sign-in or booking from working.
Your Rights
You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you and ask us to correct it. We will respond within 20 working days and there is no charge. You can also ask us to delete information we no longer need, or to stop contacting you. We may need to confirm your identity first. If your request is about a shop's customer records, we will work with that shop to answer it.
Contact And Complaints
Email hello@airea.co.nz or write to AIREA DIGITAL LIMITED, 4 Sackville Street, Grey Lynn, Auckland, New Zealand. If you are not happy with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.
We will update this policy when our services change and show the date of the latest version at the top of this page.