Privacy Policy | Flathive Shared Living in New Zealand

Introduction

Flathive is New Zealand’s trusted flatmate and shared accommodation platform, helping people find rooms and compatible flatmates across the country. We are committed to safeguarding your personal data at every step.

Data We Collect

Personal Information

• Full name and contact details
• Profile information and preferences
• Payment information (for premium services)

Property Information

• Property details when listing a room
• Photos and descriptions of listings
• Location data and amenities

Usage Data

• Search preferences and saved properties
• IP address and browser type
• Sign-in security records (IP address and device/browser information) for up to 90 days
• Cookies and similar tracking technologies

Communication Data

• Messages between users
• Customer support inquiries
• Feedback and survey responses

Camera & Photos

Camera access

Camera permission is requested only when you choose to take a photo for your profile or listing. We never access the camera in the background or without your action.

Photo uploads

Photos you upload are used solely to create property and flatmate listings, or to set your profile image. They are stored securely and displayed only to other Flathive users.

No advertising use

Your photos are never used for advertising, profiling, or shared with third-party advertisers. They exist only to support your listing or profile on Flathive.

Deleting your photos

You can remove individual listing photos at any time from your listing editor. Deleting your account removes all associated photos and listing data from our systems.

For any questions about how your photos are stored or to request photo removal, contact us at hello@flathive.com.au.

How We Use Your Data

Service Provision

To provide and maintain our service, notify you about changes to listings, and enable communication between potential housemates.

Communication

To contact you with relevant listings, roommate matches, and platform updates.

Improvements

To analyze usage patterns and enhance our matching algorithms and user experience.

Security

To verify user identities, prevent fraud, and maintain platform safety.

Who We Share Data With

We share personal information only with the recipients below, and only as needed for the purposes described in this policy. Service providers process data on our behalf under contract and may not use it for their own purposes.

Other Flathive users

Published listings (photos, description, rent, suburb and approximate location) are publicly visible. Your profile and messages are shared with the other member when you contact them or reply to them.

Hosting & infrastructure

Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosts our servers, database, file storage and content delivery network, primarily in the Sydney (ap-southeast-2) region. AWS also sends our transactional emails (Amazon SES).

AI processing

Some features (such as listing-writing help, photo suggestions and automated safety checks on new conversations) send the relevant content to AI models hosted on AWS Bedrock. This content is not used to train those models.

Maps, sign-in & notifications

Google (Maps and Places for location search and maps, Google sign-in, Firebase push notifications), Facebook and Apple (only if you choose to sign in with them).

Payments & analytics

Stripe processes payments for paid features; we never see or store your full card details. Google Analytics measures how our website is used.

OpenAI (ChatGPT)

If you use the Flathive app in ChatGPT, OpenAI receives the listing results we return. See “Flathive in ChatGPT” below.

Credit checks (Certn)

In Australia and New Zealand, a landlord can ask you for a credit check. If you choose to do one, Certn runs it: you give your consent and details directly to Certn, and we send them your email address to start the check. We receive only the check's status and overall result, never your credit report, and landlords only see that you've completed one.

Legal & safety

We may disclose information where required by law, to respond to valid legal requests, or to protect the safety of our users and the public.

Flathive in ChatGPT

The Flathive app for ChatGPT lets you search published Flathive rental listings from inside ChatGPT. It is read-only: it cannot create listings, send messages, save properties or access any Flathive account, and it does not require you to sign in. This section explains exactly what data the app handles.

What we receive (tool inputs)

When ChatGPT calls the app, it sends us only search parameters: country, suburb/city, state or region, postcodes, rent range, number of bedrooms, accommodation type, move-in date, length of stay, keywords and the number of results wanted — or, for a single listing, its listing ID. We do not receive your ChatGPT conversation, your name, email address or ChatGPT account details. Please don’t include personal information in your search keywords.

What we return (tool outputs)

Only information that advertisers have already published on Flathive: listing title, suburb, city, state and postcode, property type, bedrooms and bathrooms, rent, bills/furnished/own-bathroom details, availability date, stay length, description, features, tags, photo links, the public listing URL, and an approximate map location deliberately offset by about 100 metres. We never return street addresses, exact coordinates, advertiser names or contact details, messages, or any user account data.

Why we use it

To run your search and return matching listings; to keep the service secure and prevent abuse (rate limiting); and to understand overall usage and fix problems. We do not build a profile of you, use this data for advertising, or sell it.

Who receives it

OpenAI receives the results we return so ChatGPT can show them to you, and handles them under OpenAI’s own privacy policy. The interactive map loads from Google Maps and listing photos load from our content delivery network (AWS CloudFront), so your browser connects directly to those services, which receive standard request information such as your IP address.

How long we keep it

Request logs (tool used, search parameters, number of results) are kept in our server logs for 30 days and then automatically deleted. The connecting IP address is used only for rate limiting and held for 60 seconds; it is written to logs only if the rate limit is exceeded. Nothing from the app is linked to a Flathive account.

Your controls

You can disconnect the Flathive app at any time in ChatGPT’s settings, and manage your ChatGPT history through OpenAI. You can ask us to delete app request logs by emailing hello@flathive.com.au. Advertisers can remove a listing from ChatGPT results by deactivating or deleting it on Flathive.

Data Retention

• Account, profile, listing and message data: kept while your account is active. When you delete your account, we delete it from our live systems.
• Database backups: automatically expire after 30 days, so deleted data is fully removed from backups within that period.
• Sign-in security records: IP address and device/browser information, kept for 90 days.
• Server and application logs (including ChatGPT app requests): kept for 30 days.
• Credit check records (status, overall result and payment reference): kept while your account is active. Your credit report is held by Certn under its own privacy policy, not by us.
• Payment records: kept as long as required by tax and accounting law.

Your Choices & Rights

• Access & correction: view and edit your profile and listings in your account at any time, or ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Deletion: delete individual photos or listings, deactivate your listings, or delete your account and its associated data.
• Marketing emails: unsubscribe using the link in any marketing email, or contact us.
• Device permissions: camera, photo library, location and push notification access can be turned off at any time in your device settings.
• Cookies: you can block or delete cookies in your browser; some features, such as staying signed in, need them to work.
• ChatGPT app: disconnect it at any time in ChatGPT’s settings.

To make a request, email hello@flathive.com.au. We respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to your local privacy regulator, such as the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) or New Zealand’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Data Protection

We implement industry-standard security measures including encryption, secure servers, and regular audits to protect your information.

We will never sell your personal data to third parties. Your information is only shared with potential housemates when you initiate contact about a listing.

All payment information is processed through PCI-compliant third-party services and is never stored on our servers.

To help detect fraud and keep your account secure, we log the IP address and device/browser information used each time you sign in. These sign-in records are kept for 90 days and then automatically deleted.

Your Privacy, Our Priority