Legal · New Zealand

Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 18, 2026

Who we are

Ostrall New Zealand ("we", "us", "our") is the New Zealand edition of Ostrall, a shopping search service, at nz.ostrall.com. It is operated by Jarta Labs LLC (USA), which also runs ostrall.com. This policy explains what information is collected when you use nz.ostrall.com, how it is handled under the Privacy Act 2020 and its Information Privacy Principles (IPPs), and the choices you have. The other Ostrall sites have their own policies.

What we collect

To improve our search results, the site records these actions:

• Visits: that a page was opened, which kind (the home page, results or a product page), and whether it was on a phone or tablet or on a computer. We keep only "mobile" or "desktop", not your browser or device model.
• Searches: the text you type into the search box, or say into it with the microphone button. Speech is turned into text by your own browser (in Chrome by Google, in Safari by Apple), which may happen outside New Zealand; Ostrall only receives the words, the same as a typed search, and never your voice. A search that at least two different visitors to nz.ostrall.com have made in the last 90 days may be shown to others there as a suggestion while they type; a search only you made is never shown to anyone else, and searches from other Ostrall sites are never suggested here. Your own recent searches are suggested only to you.
• Clicks: which product or store you open from the results, and where it was in the list.
• Steps toward a product: the choices you make between searching and opening a store, such as answering a question, picking a model, year or type, choosing a budget, adding a must-have, opening a product's specs or tapping "Show more".
• Ratings: when you rate results or a listing up or down, the reason you pick, what you tell us you were looking for if you choose to type it, what you write if you pick "Something else", and which listing it was (its title, store, price and position), plus three signals that tell a person from a bot (whether your browser marked the click as a real one, how long after the results appeared you rated, and whether there was any real tap, click or key press on the page).
• A session code: a random code your browser makes each time it loads the page, so actions from one visit can be grouped together. It changes on every visit and is not linked to who you are.

We do not ask for, and do not store, your name, email address, phone number, location, IP address or payment details. Because search text is whatever you type, please don't put personal details such as names, addresses or account numbers into the search box.

Your recent searches and the stores you hide from your results (the × in the Stores row) are kept only in your own browser on this device and are never sent to us. Clearing your browser's site data removes them. Ostrall New Zealand has no accounts or sign-in; if we add them, we will update this page first.

Why we collect it and how we use it

We collect this information only for a lawful purpose connected with running Ostrall New Zealand (IPP 1): to make it better at understanding what New Zealand shoppers are looking for, by finding searches we answered badly, learning which questions help, and improving how results are ranked. It is reviewed by automated checks and by people. We do not use it to build a profile of you, and we do not use it for advertising or direct marketing.

Where it is kept

Ostrall New Zealand's records are kept in their own database, separate from the other Ostrall sites', which our host Cloudflare places in its Oceania region. We protect them with reasonable security safeguards (IPP 5). Records from nz.ostrall.com are never mixed with or used for another country's results.

Sending information overseas (IPP 12)

Some processing is done by companies based in the United States:

• Prices: to show current prices, our server sends the product being searched for to SerpApi (USA), which returns current listings from stores that sell to New Zealand. Only the search words are sent. When you open a product, our server also asks SerpApi for that product's page at the store, sending only the product's ID (nothing about you); the store link is saved for up to 30 days so the next click doesn't need it again.
• Search planning: to work out what a new search is for (which questions to ask and how to sort results), our server sends the search words, and only the search words, to Anthropic (USA), whose Claude model returns a plan for that kind of search.
• Hosting: the site is served by Cloudflare (USA), which, like any web host, processes technical data such as IP addresses to deliver the site and protect it from attacks. We do not copy that data into our records.

Nothing that identifies you, such as your IP address or session code, is sent with the search words. Listings and plans are kept in our database (listings up to 90 days, though prices are only shown while under 7 days old; plans up to 30 days) and contain store data, never anything about you.

Cookies and analytics

Ostrall New Zealand uses no advertising tools. It sets one cookie of its own, and only if you pick a country with the flags at the bottom of each page: os_country, which remembers only that choice ("nz", "us", "au", "ca" or "uk") for a year, so you are not sent back to another country's site. Otherwise your first visit to the home page goes to the site for the country your connection comes from (New Zealand, the US, Australia, Canada or the UK), and no cookie is set. We may count page views with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which Cloudflare says uses no cookies and does not track you across other websites; we see only totals. Google Analytics is not used on nz.ostrall.com; if that changes we will update this page first.

Protecting against abuse

Ratings shape how Ostrall answers everyone, so we only accept them from the Ostrall page itself, count each rating once per visit, limit how many any one visitor can send in an hour, and leave out ratings from visits that look automated. New price lookups cost money, so they are limited per visitor using a scrambled code made from your IP address, the current hour or day and a secret key only our server knows. The code can't be turned back into your IP address and is deleted within a day.

Retailer sites

When you follow a link to a retailer, you leave our site and the retailer's own privacy policy applies there, including to anything you buy. See our Affiliate Disclosure.

Sharing

We do not sell or share this information with anyone for their own use. We may disclose it if required or allowed by New Zealand law, or to protect the rights or safety of our users or the public.

How long we keep it

We keep event records for up to 24 months, then delete them or reduce them to totals that cannot be tied to any visit (IPP 9).

Access and correction

You have the right to ask for access to, and correction of, personal information we hold about you (IPPs 6 and 7). Because we don't collect anything that identifies you and the session code changes on every visit, we hold no record we could link back to you, so there is usually nothing for us to give you or correct.

Complaints

If you think we have mishandled personal information, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.

Children

Ostrall New Zealand is a general shopping tool and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to this policy

If we change how Ostrall New Zealand handles information, we will update this page and the "Last updated" date before the change takes effect.