Privacy policy

Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and look after your personal information when you use the Smoothy app and website.

Smoothy is operated by Smoothy Limited, NZBN 9429053923219, Suite 3, Level 3, 58 Surrey Crescent, Grey Lynn, Auckland 1021. We are the agency that collects and holds your information, and we are responsible for it under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 (Privacy Act).

By using the Smoothy app or website, or otherwise giving us your information, you accept this Privacy Policy and authorise us to collect, use and store your information as described here.

You can contact our Privacy Officer at support@smoothy.nz if you have any questions or concerns.

The TLDR;

Smoothy uses bank feeds and information about your household to give you an automated, personalised view of your finances.

• We use Akahu, New Zealand’s open finance platform, to obtain your bank feeds and categorise your transactions.
• We do not ask for bank login details for connections that use the official open banking API, and we never store any bank login details.
• We cannot move or take any money from your accounts without your explicit consent.
• We only collect what we need to provide the Smoothy features, and always with your explicit consent
• We do not sell your personal information, or share your bank data with any third parties
• We use analytics to improve the app.
• You can disconnect your bank feeds in one click from the Smoothy app or via Akahu, and your bank data will be deleted automatically.

Learn more about open banking

What information we collect

Personal information is any information about you that identifies you, or could be used to identify you. We collect three kinds, and treat each differently:

Account information — the email address you sign up with, and any other personal details you choose to add to your Smoothy account e.g. name, address etc.

Bank data — the account and transaction information your bank shares with us through Akahu, once you authorise it.

Usage information — how you use the app, such as which features you open and whether you hit any errors.

To sign up and explore the demo, you only need an email address. To use Smoothy with your own finances, you also need to authorise your bank to share bank feeds with Smoothy via Akahu. Giving us this information is voluntary and no law requires it, but we cannot provide Smoothy without it: without an email address we cannot create your account, and without a bank connection we cannot build your plan.

What bank data we receive

Bank feeds are a read-only view of your bank accounts, the same feature used by Xero, MYOB, Westpac CashNav, PocketSmith and others. When you authorise your bank, Akahu provides us with the following for the accounts you choose:

• 12 months of transaction history, and new transactions from then on until you disconnect
• transaction dates, amounts, descriptions, merchant names where the bank provides them, and the category Akahu assigns
• account names, account numbers and account types
• current and available balances

About Akahu

Smoothy uses Akahu, New Zealand’s open finance platform, to connect to your bank — see how Smoothy uses open banking. Akahu holds its own record of your connection under Akahu’s privacy policy, and you can manage every app you have connected at my.akahu.nz.

How we use your information

Account information (such as your name and email address) is used to create your account and to contact you about things that matter — changes to our terms, security, functionality and support.

Bank data is used for one purpose: to build and keep up to date your personalised budgeting plan in Smoothy — your balances, recurring expenses and subscriptions, predicted upcoming expenses and your safe-to-spend amount. We use it for this until you disconnect your bank feeds or delete your account.

Usage information is used to test, research, analyse and improve Smoothy, and to make it safer to use. We may ask for your feedback through a third party. You can opt out of analytics tracking at any time in the Smoothy app or by emailing support@smoothy.nz.

Who we share your information with

We never sell your information. We only share it with providers we need in order to run Smoothy securely, and with your consent where the law requires it. They are:

• Akahu and your bank, so we can receive your bank feeds
• Cloud storage, authentication and security providers that keep your information safe
• Software-as-a-service providers we use to run Smoothy, such as our secure authentication service
• Product analytics tools — your email address, name and usage information only, never your bank data
• Lawyers, accountants, insurers and professional advisors where we are legally required to

Your bank data is not shared with advertising, marketing or analytics platforms, and is not accessible to anyone outside the providers above.

Some of your information is securely stored outside of NZ, as is common for high-security financial applications. Smoothy’s application and database run in Singapore, and our analytics provider is hosted in the European Union. We take all reasonable steps to confirm these providers protect your information to a standard comparable to the Privacy Act, and by using Smoothy you authorise this disclosure.

Security

Your information is encrypted in transit and at rest. Every connection to Smoothy uses HTTPS, our database and its backups are encrypted with AES-256, and the credentials that let us read your bank feeds are encrypted separately again. We don’t publish every detail of how we secure your data or which services we use, because doing so would itself be a security risk. See How Smoothy protects your data for what we can share.

What you control

Disconnecting your bank feeds
You can revoke your open banking connection at any time from the Smoothy app, from your bank’s app, or at my.akahu.nz. Once revoked, Smoothy can no longer access your bank feeds, and we automatically delete the bank data we hold for you.

Deleting your account
When you delete your Smoothy account, your open banking connection is revoked and your bank data is deleted automatically. Your account information is also deleted, except where we are legally required to keep a record, for example, of who has paid us subscription fees.

Access & correction
You can ask us at any time for a copy of the information we hold about you, and ask us to correct anything that is wrong. We will respond within 20 working days, at no charge.

How long we keep your information

Bank data is kept while your account is connected and automatically deleted when you disconnect or delete your account, as above. We keep your accounts information only as long as we reasonably need it to provide Smoothy, as the Privacy Act requires and as our Akahu accreditation obliges us.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will post the updated version on our website and, if you have a Smoothy account, let you know about any material change.

Contact and complaints

For questions about this policy, or to request access to or correction of your information, contact our Privacy Officer at privacyofficer@smoothy.nz.

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your privacy, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz or investigations@privacy.org.nz. The Commissioner’s website also explains your rights and our obligations in more detail.