Privacy policy
Pine Pollen New Zealand Limited, trading as Biogold
Effective: 28 March 2026 | Last updated: 28 March 2026
1. The Short Version
Look, we know nobody wakes up on a Saturday morning thinking "can't wait to read a privacy policy." We get it. But this stuff matters, so we've done our best to make it actually readable instead of the usual wall of legal sludge.
This policy explains what info we collect, what we do with it, who we share it with, and how we keep it safe. We're Pine Pollen New Zealand Limited, trading as Biogold. We run biogoldnz.com, and we play by the rules: the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007, and the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993. No dodgy stuff.
By using our site, buying our gear, signing up for emails or texts, leaving a review, or otherwise handing us your details, you're saying "yeah, sweet, I'm good with how you handle my info as described below." If you're not comfortable with any of it, no hard feelings at all, but you probably shouldn't use the site or give us your details.
This policy works hand in hand with our Terms and Conditions. Think of them as a matching set.
2. What Counts as Personal Information
"Personal information" is basically anything that identifies you or could reasonably be used to figure out who you are. Your name, email, address, phone number, payment details, order history, what you browsed on our site, your IP address, the device you're using, where you roughly are in the world, survey answers, reviews, health info you've shared with us voluntarily, and anything else along those lines. If it points back to you, it counts.
"Processing" covers the full buffet of things we might do with that info: collecting, storing, using, sharing, analysing, and any other handling. Basically, if we touch it, that's processing.
3. What We Collect and Where It Comes From
3.1 Stuff you hand over yourself
When you place an order, create an account, sign up for our emails or texts, fill out a survey, leave a review, message our support legends, refer a mate, or interact with us in pretty much any way, you might give us things like:
- Your name, email, phone number, and addresses (shipping, billing, the lot)
- Payment details (handled by our payment providers, not stored in full by us, so relax)
- Account login info
- Reviews, photos, and videos you submit
- Survey responses and feedback
- Referral details (your name and the contact info of the legend you're referring)
- Subscription preferences
- Messages you send our support team
- Anything else you feel like sharing
3.2 Stuff we pick up automatically
When you visit the site, our tech quietly collects a few things in the background. Your IP address and rough location, browser and device details, which pages you visit and how long you spend on them, how you found us, click and scroll patterns, shopping cart activity (yes, we notice when you load up the cart and then ghost us at checkout), and engagement data from our emails and texts.
We also use session recording tools that track things like mouse movements, clicks, and scrolling. Before you get spooked: this is so we can see how people actually use the site and make it better. Not so we can watch you specifically. The data gets turned into heatmaps showing where people click, scroll, and lose interest. Think of it as a performance review for the website, not for you.
3.3 Stuff we get from elsewhere
Sometimes info about you arrives via third parties. Payment processors (Shopify Payments, PayPal, Afterpay) send us transaction and fraud screening data. Advertising platforms (Meta/Facebook, Google) pass along conversion and audience data. Analytics providers chip in browsing behaviour data. Subscription platforms share subscription status info. Referral partners and publicly available sources round it out.
4. What We Actually Do With Your Information
4.1 Getting your order to your door
Processing, packing, and shipping your orders. Sorting out returns and refunds when needed. Keeping you in the loop on deliveries. Answering your questions (we're pretty good at that). Managing your account and subscriptions. Processing payments and keeping the fraudsters out.
4.2 Marketing (the good kind, not the annoying kind)
Sending you emails and texts about products, offers, and content we reckon you'll actually find useful. This includes automated messages triggered by what you do on the site. Abandoned your cart? We'll give you a gentle nudge. Just bought something? We'll follow up. Haven't been around for a while? We'll check in. Subscription coming up? We'll let you know.
We personalise what you get based on your purchase history, browsing behaviour, and how you engage with our messages. We'd rather send you stuff you actually want to read than blast the same thing to everyone and hope for the best.
4.3 Advertising
Showing you targeted ads on platforms like Meta (Facebook, Instagram) and Google. Building custom and lookalike audiences so our ads reach people who might genuinely be interested rather than just randomly annoying strangers. Measuring how our campaigns are going. Retargeting you if you've browsed or bought from us before. You know those ads that follow you around the internet? Yeah, that's us. Sorry. But also, you're welcome.
4.4 Making things better
We're constantly tinkering. Analysing site traffic and conversion patterns. Running A/B tests (that's where we show different versions of a page to see which one works better). Building heatmaps and session recordings. Reading survey responses. Studying purchase patterns and customer lifetime value. Product development. Business planning. Creating anonymised datasets. Basically, we're obsessed with improving the experience.
4.5 Automated profiling
We use automated systems to build profiles based on your purchase history, browsing, email engagement, subscription status, and other data. These profiles help us decide which messages you get, when you get them, and what content is tailored for you. It's less "creepy surveillance" and more "trying not to send you irrelevant rubbish." By using our site and services, you're consenting to this.
4.6 The boring but important legal stuff
Complying with laws and regulations. Enforcing our Terms and Conditions. Protecting our rights and yours. Detecting and preventing fraud. Nobody's favourite section, but it has to be here.
5. Cookies and Tracking
Our site uses cookies, pixels, tags, and similar tracking tech. No, not the chocolate chip kind. Here's what's going on.
Essential cookies
The ones that keep the lights on. Session management, shopping cart, security features. Turn these off and the whole thing falls over. Please don't.
Analytics cookies
Help us understand how people use the site. Which pages get attention, how long people stick around, where they navigate. We use Google Analytics and Shopify Analytics. Think of these as the site's report card.
Marketing and advertising cookies
Used to serve you relevant ads, track how those ads perform, and build audience profiles. Meta Pixel, Google Ads conversion tracking, and their mates all live here.
Functionality cookies
Remember your preferences and keep things like saved cart contents working so you don't have to start from scratch every time. The helpful ones.
Session recording cookies
Used by Hotjar and/or Microsoft Clarity to record how you interact with the site. Mouse movements, clicks, scrolling, page navigation. Sounds a bit intense, but it genuinely just helps us figure out where the site is confusing or clunky so we can fix it.
Third-party cookies
Our site plays host to cookies from Shopify, Meta/Facebook, Google, Klaviyo, Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, Judge.me, Recharge, Afterpay, PayPal, Social Snowball, and Fairing. Each of those outfits handles data according to their own privacy policies. We don't control what they do in their own houses, so if you're keen to know more, check their policies directly.
Your choices
Most browsers let you manage cookies through settings. Refuse them, delete them, get alerts when they show up. Just know that blocking certain cookies might break things on the site. And opting out of advertising cookies doesn't mean ads disappear from your life (sadly). It just means they'll be less targeted, which arguably makes them more annoying, but that's your call.
6. Emails and Texts
6.1 How we get the green light
We only send you marketing stuff if you've opted in. That happens through the checkbox at checkout, sign-up forms and pop-ups on the site, providing your email or phone number where marketing comms are reasonably expected, or placing an order (which covers transactional messages and related commercial stuff).
6.2 Behavioural triggers
Our email and SMS platform pays attention to how you interact with the site and our messages, and sends automated follow-ups based on what you do. Loaded up the cart and wandered off? Nudge. Browsed a product page three times without buying? Nudge. Bought something and we think you might be running low? Nudge. Been quiet for a while? Friendly "hey, you still alive?" nudge. Subscription event? You guessed it. Nudge.
6.3 Changing your mind
Want out? No worries at all. Click unsubscribe in any email, reply STOP to any text, email customersupport@pinepollen.co.nz, or update your preferences in your account settings. Easy as.
Even if you opt out of marketing, we'll still send you transactional stuff about your orders, subscriptions, and account. That's part of the deal when you buy from us, and honestly, you'd be pretty annoyed if we didn't tell you your order shipped.
We process opt-out requests as quickly as we can, and always within the timeframes the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 requires.
7. Who We Share Your Information With
We don't sell your data. But we do work with a bunch of third-party providers who help us run the ship. Here's who gets what and why.
Ecommerce and payments
Shopify (runs the store, processes orders and payments, sniffs out fraud), PayPal (payments), and Afterpay (buy-now-pay-later, because sometimes you want the pine pollen now and the invoice later).
Marketing and advertising
Klaviyo (email and SMS marketing, customer profiling, behavioural tracking, segmentation, automated flows), Meta (advertising, conversion tracking, audience building, retargeting), Google (same deal, different platform), and Social Snowball (referral programme, because good things should be shared).
Analytics and optimisation
Google Analytics, Hotjar (session recording, heatmaps), Microsoft Clarity (same story), and Fairing (post-checkout surveys, attribution). These help us understand what's working and what needs work.
Subscriptions and reviews
Recharge (subscription management, recurring payments) and Judge.me (review collection and display, because your words carry more weight than ours ever will).
Shipping
New Zealand Post and/or other courier services. Someone's gotta get the goods to your door.
Other situations
We might also share information with professional advisors (lawyers, accountants), in connection with any sale, merger, or restructure of the business, when the law or a court tells us to, to protect rights and safety, or when you've given us the nod. Standard stuff.
We require our providers to handle your info properly and only use it for what we shared it for. But their own privacy practices are their business, not ours.
8. Your Data Goes Overseas
We're a Kiwi company, but our tech stack is decidedly international. Most of our service providers are based in the United States, which means your data crosses borders. By using our site, ordering, subscribing, or sharing your info with us, you're consenting to that.
Here's who lives where:
- Shopify: Canada and United States
- Klaviyo: United States
- Meta: United States
- Google: United States
- Recharge: United States
- Judge.me: United States
- PayPal: United States
- Hotjar: Malta, European Union
- Microsoft: United States
- Fairing: United States
- Social Snowball: United States
We take reasonable steps to make sure your info is handled properly overseas in line with the Privacy Act 2020. That said, other countries' data protection laws might not be as thorough as New Zealand's. By agreeing to this policy, you're accepting that trade-off.
9. How Long We Keep Things
We don't hoard your data forever like that drawer full of old cables you can't bring yourself to throw out. But we do hold onto it for as long as there's a legitimate reason:
- While you've got an active account, subscription, or are getting comms from us
- For a reasonable stretch after your last interaction, so we can follow up or be ready when you come back
- As long as NZ law requires (tax records need to stick around for at least seven years, for example)
- To sort out disputes, enforce agreements, and cover our legal bases
- While the data is genuinely useful for analytics, product improvement, and business planning
When none of those reasons apply anymore, we'll de-identify, anonymise, or securely destroy the information. Anonymised and aggregated data that can't be traced back to anyone can hang around indefinitely.
10. Keeping Your Data Safe
We take this seriously. SSL/TLS encryption across the entire site. PCI-DSS compliant payment processing (your full card details never touch our systems). Access controls so only the team members who genuinely need your info can see it. Secure hosting through Shopify's infrastructure. Regular reviews of how we handle data.
But let's be real: nothing on the internet is 100% Fort Knox. We do everything we reasonably can, but no system anywhere is completely bulletproof. Sending us your info is ultimately at your own risk. We'll look after it, but we can't promise perfection. Nobody honestly can.
11. Your Rights
The Privacy Act 2020 gives you some solid rights. Here's the highlight reel.
Access
You can ask us what personal information we hold about you, and we'll tell you. We've got 20 working days to respond. There might be a small fee to cover costs, and there are a few narrow situations where we can decline (like if it would compromise someone else's safety), but generally, you're entitled to the full picture.
Correction
Got something wrong on file? Tell us and we'll fix it. If we disagree that it needs fixing (rare, but possible), you can ask for a note about the correction you wanted to be attached to the record. Fair's fair.
Deletion
The Privacy Act doesn't give you an absolute "delete everything" button, but you can ask and we'll genuinely consider it. If there's no good reason to keep something, we'll get rid of it. Some things (tax records, for example) we're legally stuck with for a while. Nothing personal.
How to get in touch about any of this
Email: customersupport@pinepollen.co.nz
Post: Privacy Officer, Pine Pollen New Zealand Limited, PO Box 517, Whakatane 3158, New Zealand
We might need to verify who you are before we can action anything. Stops randoms from requesting your info, which is actually a good thing.
12. For Our Mates Across the Ditch
If you're in Australia, your personal information may also be covered by the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. We handle Aussie customers' data in line with both the NZ Privacy Act 2020 and, where it applies, the Australian Privacy Act. You've got similar rights to access and correct your information, and if you want to lodge a complaint, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at www.oaic.gov.au is your port of call.
13. For Our Friends in Europe and the UK
If you're in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you might have extra rights under the GDPR or UK GDPR, including erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, and the right to object. We're not specifically targeting EEA or UK customers, but if you're over there and want to exercise any rights, flick us a message at the contact details in Section 11 and we'll work through it with you.
14. Your End of the Deal
This is a two-way street, so here's what we need from you:
- Give us info that's actually accurate and up to date
- Let us know if your details change
- Keep your login credentials to yourself (don't share them with your flatmate, your dog, or anyone else)
- Tell us straight away if you think someone's got into your account uninvited
- Pop back and check this policy now and then
If you refer a mate through our referral programme, you're confirming they've given you the thumbs up and you've told them about this policy. Don't go signing people up without asking first. That's not cool.
15. Kids
Our site and products are for adults. 18 and over only. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If we find out we've accidentally picked up data from a minor, we'll delete it. No questions asked.
16. Anonymised and Aggregated Data
We sometimes create aggregated or anonymised data from your personal information (and other people's). Once data has been properly anonymised so nobody can be identified from it, it stops being personal information and this policy no longer applies to it. We can use that anonymised data for product development, analytics, research, marketing, benchmarking, or whatever else we need. It's just numbers at that point.
17. Limitation of Liability
To the extent the law allows, we're not liable for losses caused by: unauthorised access to your info due to things genuinely outside our control, data breaches at any of our third-party providers (Shopify, Klaviyo, Meta, Google, Recharge, PayPal, Afterpay, Judge.me, Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, Fairing, Social Snowball, or anyone else we work with), you not keeping your login details secure, you giving us inaccurate information, or your use of third-party websites linked from ours.
Nothing in this policy limits or excludes any rights you have under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, the Privacy Act 2020, or any other NZ law that can't be contracted out of. Your statutory rights are rock solid regardless of what any policy says.
18. Links to Other Sites
Our site might link out to third-party websites, apps, or services. Once you click away from our patch, you're on their turf and their rules apply. This policy only covers biogoldnz.com. We can't vouch for anyone else's privacy practices, so check their policies if you're heading off-site.
19. Changes to This Policy
We might update this policy from time to time. Nothing dramatic, but the world changes and sometimes policies need to keep up. Any changes take effect the moment we post the updated version with a new "Last updated" date. If you keep using the site after that, you're accepting the new version.
If we make a big change to how we handle your data, we'll try to give you a heads up through a notice on the site or whatever other method makes sense. But ultimately, it's worth checking back here every now and then. We promise it won't take long. You've already proven you can get through the whole thing.
20. Complaints
If something's not sitting right about how we've handled your information, come to us first. Seriously. We'd much rather sort it out directly.
Email: customersupport@pinepollen.co.nz
Post: Privacy Officer, Pine Pollen New Zealand Limited, PO Box 517, Whakatane 3158, New Zealand
We'll acknowledge your complaint, look into it properly, and aim to get back to you within 20 working days.
21. Get in Touch
Questions? Concerns? Just want to say g'day? Here's where to find us:
Pine Pollen New Zealand Limited (trading as Biogold)
PO Box 517
Whakatane 3158
New Zealand
Email: customersupport@pinepollen.co.nz
Website: biogoldnz.com
22. Governing Law
This policy runs under New Zealand law. If things ever go sideways (they won't, but just in case), New Zealand courts have jurisdiction. Home turf advantage.
This Privacy Policy was last updated on 28 March 2026.
