Privacy Policy

Philo Software Limited (“us”, “we”, or “our”) operates the https://www.philo.co.nz website and other sites and provides software development, consulting, support and related professional services (collectively, the “Service”).

This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information when you use our Service, communicate with us, participate in meetings, or when a customer supplies information to us to deliver the Service. It also explains your choices and rights.

We use personal information for the purposes described in this policy and as permitted by law. This policy does not provide blanket consent to otherwise unlawful processing. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions, accessible from https://www.philo.co.nz

Information Collection And Use

We collect several different types of information for various purposes to provide and improve our Service to you.

We comply with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 when dealing with personal data. This policy does not limit or exclude any of your rights under the Privacy Act 2020. For information about your statutory rights, visit the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Types of Data Collected

Personal Data

While using our Service, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you (“Personal Data”). Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:

• Email address
• First name and last name
• Phone number
• Organisation, role and business contact details
• Personal information contained in project materials, support requests and correspondence
• Meeting contributions, recordings, transcripts, summaries and action items, where collected
• Cookies and Usage Data

Customer-Supplied Information

To deliver the Service, we may receive source code, technical documentation, project information and business data from customers. These materials may include personal information about their employees, customers, suppliers or other people. We ask customers to provide only information needed for the work, identify sensitive information or restrictions, and ensure they have authority to supply it and have given any required notices.

Where we collect personal information indirectly and the Privacy Act requires notification, we take reasonable steps to ensure the person knows about the collection, its purpose, intended recipients, who collects and holds it, any law requiring or authorising it, and their access and correction rights, unless a legal exception applies. A customer’s obligations do not replace our own.

Usage Data

We may also collect information how the Service is accessed and used (“Usage Data”). This Usage Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

Tracking & Cookies Data

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our Service and hold certain information.

Cookies are files with small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Tracking technologies also used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyse our Service.

You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some aspects of our Service.

Examples of Cookies we use:

• Session Cookies. We use Session Cookies to operate our Service.
• Preference Cookies. We use Preference Cookies to remember your preferences and various settings.
• Security Cookies. We use Security Cookies for security purposes.

Use of Data

Philo Software uses the collected data for various purposes:

• To provide and maintain the Service
• To notify you about changes to our Service
• To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Service when you choose to do so
• To provide customer care and support
• To develop, test, review and maintain software and analyse project information
• To prepare content, documentation and communications relating to our work
• To document meetings, decisions and agreed actions
• To provide analysis or valuable information so that we can improve the Service
• To monitor the usage of the Service
• To detect, prevent and address technical issues

Philo Software may also elect to share your Personal Data with a credit reference agency for the purpose of obtaining a credit check on you.

Artificial Intelligence

We use AI tools to assist with software development and review, information analysis, content generation, documentation, correspondence and meeting notes. Depending on the task, these tools may process relevant source code, documents, business data, communications and personal information. We take reasonable steps to limit the information processed to what is needed for the task and apply review and validation appropriate to its intended use.

We use AI providers under terms and settings that do not permit your information to be used to train or improve their AI models. We do not use your information to train general-purpose AI models ourselves. Providers may retain information for authorised service delivery, security or legal purposes; no training does not mean that no information is stored.

Meetings, Recording and Transcription

We may use AI tools for recording, transcription, summaries and action items in in-person meetings, telephone calls and virtual meetings. Before recording or live transcription begins, we will tell participants what is being used and why and obtain any consent required by law. Participants may raise concerns or ask for recording or transcription to be paused or disabled, and we will agree an appropriate alternative.

We use this information to support the work discussed and maintain appropriate service records. Access and sharing are limited to people and providers who need it for those purposes, or as otherwise permitted by law. AI-generated notes may be inaccurate; please contact us to request a correction. They do not by themselves approve a contract or a change to agreed work.

Transfer Of Data

Your information may be held and processed in New Zealand and overseas by providers that support our Service, including hosting, collaboration and AI providers. Overseas locations may have different privacy laws.

Where a provider acts solely on our behalf, we require appropriate contractual and security protections and remain responsible for our obligations under New Zealand privacy law.

Where an overseas transfer is a disclosure subject to information privacy principle 12, we will meet its requirements, including establishing comparable safeguards or another lawful basis for the disclosure. We do not rely on acceptance of this policy alone as authorisation for a transfer that otherwise requires specific informed authorisation.

Philo Software will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organisation or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.

Disclosure Of Data

Legal Requirements

Philo Software may disclose your Personal Data to:

• a person who can require us to supply your personal information (e.g. a regulatory authority):
• any other person authorised under the Privacy Act 2020 or another law (e.g. a law enforcement agency)
• protect and/or defend the rights or property of Philo Software
• prevent and/or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
• protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public
• protect Philo Software against legal liability

Security Of Data

The security of your data is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Service Providers

We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service (“Service Providers”), to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analysing how our Service is used.

Providers acting on our behalf may access personal information only as needed for their authorised tasks, under appropriate confidentiality, security and use restrictions. These providers include hosting and storage services, project and support systems, communication and collaboration services, and AI and transcription services. We can provide further information about providers relevant to your engagement on request. Website analytics are described separately below.

Analytics

We may use third-party Service Providers to monitor and analyse the use of our Service.

• Google Analytics

  Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualise and personalise the ads of its own advertising network.

  You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.

  For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

Retention of Information

We retain personal information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected or another lawful retention need. Necessary contractual, financial, health and safety, and final service records are retained in accordance with applicable law and the record requirements in your agreement.

Raw meeting recordings, working transcripts, temporary AI inputs and other working material are not automatically retained for the same period as final service records. We delete or de-identify them when no longer reasonably needed for their collection purpose, an agreed record-keeping requirement or a lawful retention need. Any project-specific retention period will be recorded in the Statement of Work. We consider provider retention and deletion arrangements when selecting and configuring services.

Access, Correction and Privacy Concerns

You may request access to personal information we hold about you or ask us to correct it, including information in meeting notes, by using the contact details below. We may need to verify your identity and will respond in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. If we do not make a requested correction, you may ask for a statement of the correction sought to be attached to the information.

Contact us if you have questions about AI processing, retention or a privacy concern. If your concern is not resolved, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Links To Other Sites

Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Children’s Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 18 (“Children”).

We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Children has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page with its effective date and version number. The previous version is linked at the top of this page. Changes to this policy do not themselves vary an existing service agreement.

We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “effective date” at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes take effect on the effective date stated in the revised policy.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

• By email: info@philo.co.nz
• By visiting this page on our website: https://www.philo.co.nz
• By phone number: +64 07 929 7100
• By mail: PO Box 13164, Tauranga Central, Tauranga 3141, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand