This privacy policy explains how vpnguide.nz collects, uses and protects personal information when you visit the website. We follow New Zealand’s Privacy Act 2020. vpnguide.nz is an information site about VPNs, online security and broadband. We do not run a VPN service, we do not offer user accounts and we do not take payments.
In brief: we collect as little information about you as we can. We do not use advertising networks, behavioural tracking, a newsletter or analytics tools such as Google Analytics. The only information we handle is what you choose to send us by email, plus a small amount of technical information needed to deliver the website safely.
Who is responsible for your information
vpnguide.nz is represented by the website’s owner, who is responsible for the personal information described in this policy and acts as the point of contact for privacy matters.
If you have a question about how your information is handled, you can reach us through our contact page.
What personal information we collect
Information you give us by email
When you send us a message, we handle:
- Your email address
- Your name, if you include it
- The content of your message
- Anything else you choose to tell us
If a comment form is open on an article and you choose to use it, WordPress stores the name, email address and comment you submit, together with your IP address, so the comment can be displayed and spam can be filtered.
Technical information collected automatically
When you visit the website, some technical information is collected automatically by our hosting provider, Hetzner, and our security and delivery service, Cloudflare:
- IP address, used to deliver pages to you and to protect against misuse
- Browser type and version
- Operating system
- Referring page (the page you came from)
- Date and time of the visit
- Pages requested on the website
This information is gathered through server logs and necessary cookies. It is used only to keep the website running and to defend it against technical attacks. It is not used to build a profile of you.
Interactive tools
Some pages include tools that run in your browser, such as a speed test, an IP address check or a password checker. We do not store what you enter into these tools or the results they show you.
To produce a result, some tools connect your browser directly to a third-party service. A speed test, for example, exchanges data with a measurement server, which will see your IP address in the same way any website does. Where a tool relies on a third party, that provider’s own privacy policy applies to the connection.
We do not collect sensitive information such as health or financial details, and we ask you not to send it to us.
Cookies
We use only necessary cookies. These are required for the website to work and to be delivered securely. Because we set nothing beyond what is necessary, we do not ask for cookie consent.
The necessary cookies come only from:
- Cloudflare, for security and delivery, for example to tell people apart from bots
- LiteSpeed Cache, for cache cookies that make pages load faster
- WordPress, for core cookies that keep the website working correctly
We do not use:
- Google Analytics or other analytics tools
- Advertising cookies or behavioural tracking
- Social media plugins that track visitors
- Marketing or retargeting trackers
- Third-party cookies beyond the technical services listed above
You can delete existing cookies and block new ones at any time in your browser settings. Blocking necessary cookies may affect how the website works. There is more detail in our cookie policy.
Why we collect and use information
Under the Privacy Act 2020 we may only collect personal information for a lawful purpose connected with what we do, and only when it is necessary for that purpose. We use information for these purposes:
- Replying to messages you send us, so we can answer questions and correct errors you report.
- Running and delivering the website, which requires your browser and our servers to exchange technical information.
- Security and protection against misuse, through Cloudflare and our server logs.
- Understanding how the site performs in search, through Google Search Console. This shows aggregated search data only and does not identify individual visitors.
- Meeting legal obligations, where the law requires us to keep or disclose information.
We do not use personal information for any unrelated purpose.
How long we keep information
We keep personal information only for as long as it is needed for the purpose it was collected for:
- Email enquiries: up to three years after the last contact, then deleted, unless the law requires us to keep them longer.
- Server logs at Hetzner: normally deleted automatically after 14 to 30 days.
- Cloudflare security logs: normally kept for about 30 days.
- Necessary cookies: from a single session, deleted when you close your browser, up to one year for some Cloudflare security cookies.
We delete or anonymise information once it is no longer needed.
Who we share information with
We never sell personal information and we do not use it for advertising or marketing. We rely on the following third-party service providers to operate the website, and they handle information on our behalf:
- Hetzner Online GmbH (hosting) processes server logs and IP addresses as part of the hosting service. Location: Germany (EU). Privacy policy
- Cloudflare, Inc. (security and delivery) processes IP addresses and technical information. Location: United States, with servers worldwide. Privacy policy
- Google LLC (Search Console) provides aggregated, anonymised search performance data. Location: United States. Privacy policy
In rare cases we may be required to disclose information to a public authority where the law demands it.
Information held outside New Zealand
Our service providers are based overseas, so the technical information described above is processed outside New Zealand, mainly in Germany and the United States.
The Privacy Act 2020 sets conditions for sending personal information overseas. We choose providers that publish clear privacy and security commitments, and we take reasonable steps to make sure information they handle for us is protected to a standard comparable to the one the Act requires. Hetzner operates under the European Union’s data protection rules, and Cloudflare and Google publish data processing terms that govern how they handle information on behalf of their customers.
Security
We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect personal information against loss, unauthorised access, alteration and disclosure:
- HTTPS encryption across the whole website
- Cloudflare’s security infrastructure, including DDoS protection, a web application firewall and bot management
- Regular updates of WordPress, plugins and themes
- Restricted access to the administration system
- Hosting with Hetzner, whose data centres are ISO 27001 certified
- Secure storage of email correspondence
If a privacy breach occurs that has caused, or is likely to cause, serious harm, we will notify the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the people affected as soon as practicable, as the Privacy Act 2020 requires.
Your rights
Under the Privacy Act 2020 you have the right to:
- Ask whether we hold personal information about you and to see it
- Ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete
- Have a statement attached to your information if we decline to correct it, recording the correction you asked for
You can also ask us to delete information you have sent us, and we will do so unless we are required by law to keep it.
To use these rights, contact us through the contact page. Requests are free. We will respond as soon as we reasonably can and no later than 20 working days after receiving your request.
Complaints to the Privacy Commissioner
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first so we have the chance to put it right.
If you are still not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, New Zealand’s privacy regulator. Making a complaint is free.
Office of the Privacy Commissioner
Website: privacy.org.nz
Children and young people
vpnguide.nz is written for a general audience and is not aimed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has sent us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.
Changes to this privacy policy
We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in how the website works or in the law. The current version is always published on this page with the date it was last updated. If we make a significant change, we will say so clearly on the website.
Contact us
If you have questions about this privacy policy or about how we handle personal information, you can reach us through our contact page. Our terms of use explain more about using the website, and our AI policy explains how our content is produced.
Last updated: October 2026.