Wellington, New Zealand · Clients across New Zealand and Asia

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Privacy policy

How we handle your information

Last updated 4 November 2026

This policy explains what personal information Advancer Limited collects, why we collect it, who we share it with and how you can see, correct or delete it. We are a New Zealand company and we follow the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020. Where we handle information about people in the European Union or the United Kingdom, we also give them the rights the GDPR and UK GDPR provide.

1. Who we are and what this covers

Advancer Limited ("Advancer", "we", "us") is a technology advisory and software delivery company based in Wellington, New Zealand. This policy covers:

  • our website at advancer.co.nz, including its contact, call request, assessment and associate application forms;
  • the Advancer Associate App, the signed-in area of this website our associates and staff use for profiles, projects, timesheets, expenses, invoices, customer records, learning and document signing;
  • document signing, including for people who are not associates and are invited by email to sign a document;
  • hosted business brains, the knowledge services Advancer hosts for clients;
  • client apps we run, the web and mobile apps Advancer builds and hosts for clients, where the app does not have its own privacy policy; and
  • our mobile apps, any app Advancer publishes in an app store under its own name.

Some Advancer products have their own policy, and that policy applies instead of this one. Askance has its own privacy policy.

When we host a business brain or run an app for a client, the client decides what information goes into it and why. We handle that information on the client's behalf and under our agreement with them. If you are a user of a client's service, the client is usually the right first contact for privacy questions, and we will help them answer you. If the client has no privacy policy of its own, this policy describes how we handle your information.

2. What we collect

We collect information you give us, information created when you use our services, and a small amount of information from other people, such as a colleague who invites you to sign a document.

Website forms

  • Contact form (on the contact page and our landing pages): your name, email address, organisation if you give one, what you are interested in and your message.
  • Call request: your name, email address, phone number if you give one, where you are based, the dates and time of day that suit you, your time zone and any comments.
  • Assessment report: your name, email address and organisation if you give one, so we can email you the report. Your answers to the assessment questions stay in your browser. We receive only your score for each area and the next step the assessment suggests.
  • Associate application: your name, email address, phone number, LinkedIn profile, city and country, your business entity type and insurance, your expertise, sectors and experience, and the other answers you give in the application.

The Associate App

  • Account and sign-in: your name, email address and the identifier of the Microsoft account you sign in with.
  • Profile: your photo, biography, skills, experience, LinkedIn profile, phone number and the other details you add, and a history of changes to your profile. Once a profile is approved and published, the details in it appear on our public people page.
  • Invoicing details: your business name and address, GST number if you have one and the bank account we pay you into.
  • Work records: projects you are assigned to, timesheets, tasks, board cards, expenses and the receipts you upload, and the invoices we issue or receive for your work.
  • Learning: which lessons you have completed and your quiz answers and results.
  • Customer records: names, roles, email addresses, phone numbers and notes about the people we deal with at client and prospective client organisations, and our conversations with them.

Document signing

When a document is sent for signing, we collect each recipient's name and email address from the sender. When you sign or decline, we record your signature (drawn, typed or uploaded), the text, dates and other fields you fill in, your reason if you decline, and an audit trail of each step: when you opened, viewed, signed or downloaded the document, with your IP address and browser details. The audit trail is added to the completed document so that everyone who signed can rely on it.

Hosted business brains and client apps

We store the content our clients and their users put into these services, the accounts of the people who use them (usually a name, email address and access rights) and records of who did what and when. What else is collected depends on the service and is set by the client.

Mobile apps

Our mobile apps collect the information you enter, your account details and basic technical information such as your device type, operating system version, app version and crash reports. If an app needs a device permission, such as the camera to photograph a receipt or notifications, it asks you first, and you can turn the permission off in your device settings at any time.

Technical information

Like most websites and apps, our services record technical information when you use them: your IP address, browser and device type, the pages and features you use, the time of each request and any errors. We use this to keep the services running, secure and fast.

3. How we use it

We use personal information to:

  • reply to enquiries, arrange calls, send reports you ask for and talk with you about whether we can help;
  • assess associate applications and, if one is approved, set up the associate's account and profile;
  • run projects with our clients and associates, record time and expenses, issue and pay invoices and keep the business records the law requires;
  • send documents for signing, collect signatures and give everyone who signed a copy with its audit trail;
  • provide the hosted services and apps our clients pay for, as our agreement with each client sets out;
  • keep our services secure, find and fix faults, and prevent fraud and misuse;
  • understand how our website is used so we can improve it; and
  • meet our legal obligations, such as tax, accounting and employment law.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not give it to other organisations for their own marketing. We do not use content in a client's hosted business brain or app to train AI models, and we do not make decisions about people by automated means alone that have a legal or similarly significant effect on them.

If the GDPR or UK GDPR applies to you, we rely on these legal bases:

  • contract, to provide a service you or your organisation have asked for, to work with you as an associate and to process documents you sign;
  • legal obligation, to keep tax and accounting records and to respond to lawful requests;
  • legitimate interests, to reply to enquiries, keep customer records, secure our services and improve our website, where those interests are not outweighed by your rights; and
  • consent, for website analytics cookies where consent is required, and for anything else where we ask for it. You can withdraw consent at any time.

For hosted business brains and client apps, our client is the controller and we are a processor acting on their instructions.

5. Who we share it with

Inside Advancer, people see only what their role needs. Access to our systems needs a sign-in and is limited by role. Associates see the projects, customers and documents they work on, and associate applications are seen only by the people who review them.

We use these service providers, who handle personal information for us and only on our instructions:

  • Microsoft Azure, which hosts our website, apps, databases and files, sends our emails, runs the Microsoft sign-in for the Associate App and records technical information so we can monitor the services.
  • Xero, our accounting system, which receives invoice, bill and payment details for our clients and associates.
  • Cloudflare, whose Turnstile service checks that a real person is sending our website forms. Cloudflare may process technical information about your browser to do this.
  • Google Analytics, which tells us how our public website is used. See Cookies and analytics.
  • Apple and Google, when you download one of our mobile apps from their app stores, under their own privacy policies.

We may also share personal information:

  • with the other people involved in a document you sign, who receive the completed document and its audit trail;
  • with a client, about the associates who work on the client's project, such as their name, profile and time on the project;
  • with our professional advisers, such as our accountants, auditors, lawyers and insurers;
  • when the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety or our legal rights; and
  • with a buyer of all or part of our business, who would have to keep handling it as this policy describes.

6. Where it is stored

Our website, the Associate App and their databases and files are hosted in Microsoft Azure's Australia East region, in Sydney. Some of our service providers, including Xero, Cloudflare and Google, may process information in other countries, including the United States. A hosted business brain or client app is stored in the region agreed with the client.

When personal information leaves New Zealand, we make sure it is protected in a way comparable to the New Zealand Privacy Act, as Information Privacy Principle 12 requires. For information about people in the EU or UK, we rely on adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses for transfers. You can ask us for more detail about any transfer.

7. Cookies and analytics

We keep cookies to a minimum.

  • Sign-in cookie: when you sign in to the Associate App or a hosted service, we set a cookie that keeps you signed in. The service cannot work without it.
  • Google Analytics: our public website uses Google Analytics cookies to count visits and see which pages are useful. Google receives your IP address and browser details. You can block these cookies in your browser settings or with Google's opt-out add-on, and the website still works.
  • Cloudflare Turnstile: our forms may set a cookie or read browser details to tell people from automated spam.

8. How we protect it

We encrypt information when it travels over the internet and when it is stored. Access to our systems needs a sign-in, uses Microsoft's security controls and is limited by role. Secrets and signing keys are kept in a managed key vault, completed signed documents are sealed so that any later change can be detected, and we keep a record of important actions.

No system is completely secure. If a privacy breach is likely to cause someone serious harm, we will tell the people affected and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner as soon as we practicably can, and we will tell any other regulator the law requires us to.

9. How long we keep it

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it.

  • Enquiries and customer records: for as long as they help us deal with the enquiry and any work that follows from it. We review old records and remove personal information we no longer need.
  • Associate applications that do not go ahead: for up to two years, in case a suitable role comes up, unless you ask us to delete yours sooner.
  • Invoices, timesheets, expenses and other business records: for at least seven years, because New Zealand tax law requires it.
  • Signed documents and their audit trails: for as long as the agreement they record may matter, so that the people who signed can rely on them. The sender can delete a document that was never sent, and we can delete a finished document when it is no longer needed.
  • Hosted business brains and client apps: as our agreement with the client sets out. When the agreement ends, we return or delete the client's content as agreed.
  • Technical logs: usually for no more than 90 days.

10. Your rights

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you and ask us to correct it. You can also ask us to delete it, and we will unless we need to keep it, for example to meet tax law or because it is part of a signed document other people rely on. Email hello@advancer.co.nz and tell us what you would like us to do. We may need to confirm who you are first. We will reply within 20 working days, and there is no charge for a reasonable request.

If the GDPR or UK GDPR applies to you, you also have the right to receive your information in a portable form, to object to or ask us to restrict how we use it, and to withdraw any consent you have given.

If you are not happy with how we handle your information or your request, please tell us first so we can try to put it right. You can also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz, or, if you live outside New Zealand, to the privacy regulator where you live, such as the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the UK Information Commissioner's Office or your EU data protection authority.

11. Children

Our services are for businesses and working adults, and they are not meant for children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you think a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our services or the law change. We will change the date at the top of the page, and if a change materially affects how we use your information, we will tell associates and clients directly before it takes effect.

13. Contact us

For any privacy question or request, contact our Privacy Officer:
Privacy Officer, Advancer Limited
PO Box 25263
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
hello@advancer.co.nz

See also our terms of service.