Privacy Policy | Afterword

Afterword (“we”, “us”) operates afterword.co.nz, a place to publish and read death notices and obituaries, leave condolences, and find related services. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, who we share it with, and your rights under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020.

Information we collect

Account details — your name, email address, and password (stored hashed) when you register.
Death-notice submissions — the notice content, the deceased's details, photos you upload, and the submitter's name and email (used for verification; not published).
Memorials & condolences — content you add to a memorial, and condolence messages (your name, optional relationship, and a private email for moderation).
Enquiries & leads — details you provide in funeral-insurance, probate, or funeral-director enquiry forms.
Will drafts — the answers you enter into the will questionnaire, saved to your account.
Usage data — pages visited and basic device/analytics information (see Cookies & analytics).

How we use it

To publish death notices and memorials you submit, and display approved condolences.
To create and manage your account and the documents you create.
To pass enquiries to the relevant provider (e.g. a funeral director or insurance partner) where you ask us to.
To moderate content, prevent abuse, and keep the service secure.
To understand how the site is used and improve it.

Cookies & analytics

We use privacy-friendly analytics (Usermaven) to understand how the site is used. For signed-in members we may associate usage with your account so we can improve member features (such as the will drafter). We do not send your will contents, memorial text, or a deceased person's details to analytics.

Who we share it with

We don't sell your personal information. We share it only with service providers who help us run Afterword, and only as needed:

Hosting & database — Vercel and Neon (the site and its data).
Analytics — Usermaven.
Email — our email provider, to send notifications you've asked for.
Service partners — when you submit an enquiry, the funeral director or insurance/probate partner you're enquiring with.
Payments — if/when paid products are offered, a payment processor (e.g. Stripe). We don't store card details.

Some providers are overseas; where information is sent outside New Zealand we take reasonable steps to ensure comparable protection.

Your rights

Under the Privacy Act 2020 you can ask to access or correct the personal information we hold about you. You can also ask us to remove a death notice or condolence — we provide a takedown path for families. Contact us using the details below.

Retention

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes above or as required by law. Published death notices and memorials are intended to remain available as a lasting record unless you ask us to remove them.

Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit and hashed passwords. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to keep your data safe.

Children

Afterword is not directed at children, and accounts are intended for adults (18+).

Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. We'll update the date above when we do.

Contact

Questions, access/correction requests, or takedowns: privacy@afterword.co.nz. See also our Terms of Service.