Privacy policy

About this policy

This policy explains what information the Starship website (starship.org.nz) and the Starship Clinical Guidance app (for iPhone, iPad and Android) collect, why, where it goes and the choices you have. The website and the app are provided by Starship Child Health, part of Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand (“we”, “us”). We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 2020.

Some parts of the website have their own privacy policies, which apply as well as this one:

• donations and information about Starship Foundation supporters: the Starship Foundation privacy policy;
• Safekids Aotearoa services: the Safekids privacy policy.

In short

The website

• You can read the website without giving us your name or contact details.
• We use analytics, performance monitoring and advertising measurement tools from Google, Meta, New Relic and Vercel to understand how the website is used, keep it working and measure our campaigns.
• Some pages show content or tools from other providers, such as videos, social media posts and forms. Those providers receive information when the page loads.
• Your guideline shortlist is kept only in your browser.

The app

• The app is a reference tool for health professionals. It has no account and no sign-in.
• The app does not ask for, store or send any information about patients.
• We do not collect your name, email address or phone number through the app.
• The app does not use an advertising identifier. Nothing is used for advertising, combined with data from other apps or websites to track you, or sold.
• We collect anonymous usage statistics and crash diagnostics to keep the app working and improve it. You can turn the usage statistics off in the app.
• The app needs an internet connection to show guidelines.

The Starship website

Information you give us

• Donations. Donation forms on the website are provided by Raisely on behalf of Starship Foundation. What you enter is handled under the Starship Foundation privacy policy.
• Guideline feedback. The feedback form on guideline pages is provided by Formsite. It receives what you type, along with the title and address of the guideline page, so we know which guideline your feedback is about.

Information collected automatically

When you visit the website, the following tools collect information about your visit. Unlike the app, the website uses advertising measurement.

• Google Tag Manager and Google Ads record the pages you visit so we can measure the results of our online campaigns, for example visits to Safekids pages that come from an advertisement.
• Meta Pixel records page views and donation activity, such as starting a donation and its amount, so we can measure and target Starship, Starship Foundation and Safekids campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. If you are logged in to Facebook or Instagram, Meta may link this activity to your account.
• New Relic records how quickly pages load and any errors in your browser, so we can find and fix problems.

These tools receive your IP address and details of your browser and device, such as its type, operating system and screen size, and may set cookies or similar identifiers in your browser.

Search

When you search the website, the words you type are sent to our search provider, Algolia, so that it can return matching pages. Algolia keeps search statistics for us, such as which search terms are used and how often, so we can improve search. Search terms can also appear in the page address, which means the tools listed above may see them.

Embedded content and third-party tools

Pages on the website can include content and tools from other providers. For example:

• videos from YouTube and Vimeo;
• forms, such as the Formsite feedback form and the Raisely donation form;
• web fonts from Google Fonts.

We may add other content and tools from time to time. When a page includes them, your browser connects to that provider, which receives your IP address and details of your browser and device, and may set its own cookies. Each provider handles that information under its own privacy policy.

Information kept in your browser

• My shortlist. Guidelines you add to your shortlist are saved in your browser’s local storage. They are not sent to us.
• Campaign tags. If you arrive from a link with campaign tags (for example from one of our emails or advertisements), the tags are kept in your browser until you close the tab.
• Offline copy. The website saves copies of pages, images and other files in your browser so that it loads faster and works with a poor connection.

The website does not set cookies of its own. Cookies in your browser from our pages come from the providers described above.

Your choices

• You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, or use private browsing. The website still works, but advertising measurement may not.
• You can control how Google uses information for advertising in Google’s ad settings, and how Meta does in your Meta ad preferences.
• Clearing this website’s data in your browser removes your shortlist and the offline copy.

The Starship Clinical Guidance app

Information kept only on your device

The app keeps a small amount of information on your device so it can remember your preferences:

• your favourite guidelines;
• guidelines you viewed recently;
• your recent searches;
• your settings, such as display and privacy choices.

This information is encrypted on your device, with a key held in the device’s secure storage (the iOS Keychain or the Android Keystore). It is never sent to us. You can clear it by uninstalling the app.

Guideline content and search

To show you a guideline, the app requests it from our content service, Contentful. Like any internet request, this reveals your device’s IP address to the service, which uses it to deliver the content.

When you search, the words you type are sent to our search provider, Algolia, so that it can return matching guidelines. Algolia also keeps search statistics for us, such as which search terms are used and how often, so we can improve search and find gaps in our guidance. These statistics are not linked to your name or to any account. Algolia may use your IP address as an anonymous identifier when counting searches.

Anonymous usage statistics

The app shares anonymous usage statistics with us through Google Analytics for Firebase, a service provided by Google. We use them to understand how the app is used (for example, how many people use it each week, which parts of the app are opened, and which app and device versions we need to support) so that we can improve it.

What is collected

• That the app was opened, how long it was in use, and app and operating system updates.
• Which screens of the app are opened, such as Home, Search, Browse, Favourites or Settings.
• The title of each guideline you open, so we can see which published guidelines are used. You can turn this off on its own (see below), in which case we record only that a guideline was opened.
• Technical information: device type and model, operating system and version, app version and language.
• An approximate location (country), worked out from your internet connection. Your IP address itself is not stored by Google Analytics.
• A random identifier created for this installation of the app, used only to count sessions. It is replaced if you reinstall the app.

What is not collected

• No information about any patient.
• No search terms. Search is handled separately, as described above.
• No name, email address or account.
• No advertising identifier. The data is not used for advertising, not combined with data from other apps or websites, and not sold.

Your choice

Usage statistics are shared by default. You can turn them off at any time in the app, under Settings → Privacy → Share anonymous usage statistics. Once turned off, the app stops sending them straight away and on every later launch.

To keep sharing usage statistics but not the titles of the guidelines you open, turn off Settings → Privacy → Include guideline titles.

Crash and performance diagnostics

When the app crashes or something goes wrong, such as a guideline failing to load, the app sends a diagnostic report to Sentry, a service that helps us find and fix problems. The app also sends a sample of performance measurements, such as how long the app takes to start and how long a screen takes to appear.

A report can contain:

• technical details of the error and the app code involved;
• device model, operating system and app version;
• the name of the app screen in use and the steps the app took just before the problem;
• timings of app start-up, screens and network requests;
• a random identifier for this installation of the app.

For a small sample of sessions, and when an error occurs, the report may include a replay of the screen layout. All text, images and graphics in a replay are masked, so it shows the shape of the screen, not what you were reading.

Diagnostic reports never include a screenshot, the guideline you were reading, what you typed or searched for, your IP address, or any patient information.

Information sent overseas

Our providers store and process information outside New Zealand. We use providers that are subject to privacy laws or contractual safeguards that protect information in a way comparable to the Privacy Act 2020, and we limit what is sent to the minimum each service needs.

How long information is kept

• App usage statistics: 2 months, after which Google Analytics deletes them automatically.
• App diagnostic reports and search statistics: for the retention period of the Sentry and Algolia services, after which they are deleted automatically.
• Website analytics, monitoring and advertising information: for the retention period set for each provider’s service, after which it is deleted automatically.
• Information on your device or in your browser: until you remove it, clear your browser data or uninstall the app.

Only authorised Starship staff can view the reports from these services.

Security

All connections to the website and all of the app’s network connections are encrypted (HTTPS); the app refuses unencrypted connections. Information the app stores on your device is encrypted. We do not sell or rent any information.

Children

The app is intended for health professionals. It is not designed for children and does not knowingly collect information from them. The website includes information for children and their families, but does not ask children for personal information.

Your rights

Under the Privacy Act 2020 you can ask for access to personal information we hold about you and ask for it to be corrected. Because the website and the app collect no name, email address or account for the purposes described here, we usually cannot link this information to you, and may not be able to find it from a request. Turning off usage statistics in the app stops further collection from the app.

For information about your donations or your support of Starship Foundation, see the Starship Foundation privacy policy.

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when the website or the app changes what it collects, and change the date at the top of this page. Since October 2026 the app’s usage statistics include the titles of guidelines opened, as described above.

Contact us

For privacy questions or requests about the Starship website or the Starship Clinical Guidance app, email ssfis@adhb.govt.nz.