Privacy Policy — Equine Intelligence

Equine Intelligence ("Equine Intelligence", "we", "us", "our"), operated by Equine Science (equinescience.co.nz), is committed to protecting personal information and complying with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 and its Information Privacy Principles (IPPs). This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, how we use and protect it, and the choices and rights available to you.

By using our website and services you acknowledge the practices described in this policy.

1. Our Privacy Officer

We have appointed a Privacy Officer and is responsible for our compliance with the Privacy Act and for handling privacy enquiries, access and correction requests, opt-out requests, and complaints:

Privacy Officer — Equine Intelligence
Email: office@equinescience.co.nz

Please direct all privacy-related requests to this address.

2. What we do

Equine Intelligence is a sports-analytics platform. We compile publicly published equestrian competition results into rankings, ratings, benchmarks and performance analytics for horses and riders competing in New Zealand. Our purpose is to provide data-led insight to competitors, owners, trainers, breeders, event organisers and the wider equestrian community.

3. The personal information we collect

We collect two broad categories of information:

(a) Competition performance information (from publicly available results). We collect information from equestrian competition results that have already been published publicly by event organisers and results providers. This may include: the rider's name, the horse's name, the class and level, the test, the score or percentage, faults, placing, the event name, date, venue and region. This information relates to the individual's participation in public competition and their sporting performance. We do not collect contact details (such as email addresses, phone numbers or postal addresses) of competitors from these public results, and we do not use this information to market to competitors.

(b) Account and subscriber information (collected directly from you). If you create an account or subscribe, we collect information you provide directly, such as your name, email address, and account preferences. Payments are processed by our third-party payment provider (Stripe); we do not store full card details.

(c) Website and technical information. When you use our website we may collect standard technical information such as device/browser type and usage analytics, including through cookies (see section 11).

We do not knowingly collect sensitive information (such as health, ethnicity, or financial account details beyond what a payment provider requires) as part of our analytics.

4. Why we collect it, and our lawful purpose (IPP1)

We collect and use personal information for purposes connected with our functions and activities, namely to: operate the platform; produce rankings, ratings, benchmarks and analytics; provide our services to users; manage accounts and subscriptions; respond to enquiries and requests; and improve and secure the service.

5. How we collect it (IPP2 and IPP3)

Competition performance information is collected from information that has already been made publicly available by event organisers and results providers, rather than directly from each individual. The Privacy Act recognises circumstances in which personal information may be collected other than directly from the individual — including where the information is publicly available, or where direct collection is not reasonably practicable. We rely on those circumstances, and we publish this policy so that individuals are informed about our collection and use of their information and can exercise the choices described in section 9.

Account information is collected directly from you when you provide it.

6. How we use it (IPP10)

We use personal information only for the purposes described in section 4, or for directly related purposes that you would reasonably expect. We do not use competition performance information to send marketing to competitors.

7. Who we share it with (IPP11)

We do not sell personal information. We may share information with:

• Service providers who help us operate the platform (for example, cloud hosting, application-development and infrastructure providers, and our payment provider), who are permitted to use it only to provide services to us.
• Publicly, as part of our service — rankings, ratings and analytics that include rider and horse names and performance data are displayed to users of the platform, consistent with the public nature of the underlying results.
• Where required or permitted by law, or to protect our legal rights.

8. Storage, security and overseas disclosure (IPP5 and IPP12)

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, disclosure or modification, including access controls and reputable service providers.

Some of our service providers (including our hosting/application platform and payment provider) store or process information outside New Zealand (including in the United States). Where we disclose personal information to an overseas provider, we take reasonable steps to ensure comparable privacy protections apply, consistent with IPP12. By using the service you acknowledge that your information may be stored and processed overseas.

9. Your rights and choices

Access and correction (IPP6 and IPP7). You have the right to ask us what personal information we hold about you, and to request correction if it is wrong. Contact our Privacy Officer at office@equinescience.co.nz. We may need to verify your identity before responding.

Accuracy (IPP8). Our competition performance data reflects results as published by event organisers and results providers. If you believe information about you (or your horse) is inaccurate, tell us and we will investigate and correct or annotate it where appropriate.

Opt-out / removal. If you are a competitor and do not wish your performance information to be displayed in our rankings and analytics, you may request that we remove or suppress it. Email our Privacy Officer with the rider and/or horse name and we will action reasonable requests.

Retention (IPP9). We keep personal information only for as long as it is needed for the purposes described in this policy or as required by law, after which we delete or de-identify it.

10. Children and young competitors

Equestrian results can include junior, young-rider, pony and school-age competitors. We treat information about young people with particular care. If you are a parent or guardian and do not want your child's performance information displayed, please contact our Privacy Officer and we will remove or suppress it. We do not knowingly create accounts for, or market to, children.

11. Cookies and analytics

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to make the site work, remember preferences, and understand usage. You can control cookies through your browser settings; disabling some cookies may affect how the site functions.

12. Third-party links

Our site may link to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites, and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

13. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we handle personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer at office@equinescience.co.nz in the first instance, and we will work to resolve it. If you are not satisfied, you have the right to complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (www.privacy.org.nz, 0800 803 909).

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version, with its effective date, will always be available on our website.