NZ Standardbred Breeders' Association

The Breeders app: privacy

Last updated 4 October 2026

This page explains how The Breeders app looks after personal information. The app is published by the N.Z. Standardbred Breeders' Association Incorporated (NZSBA). Everything in the NZSBA Privacy Policy applies to the app too. This page adds the detail that is particular to the app.

In short

  • You can read the news, get foster and health alerts and use the tools without signing in. To sign in you only need an email address. If it is the one NZSBA has on file, your member benefits unlock.
  • Your mares, services, scans, paperwork and cost figures stay on your phone. You can save a backup file of them wherever you choose, and it never comes to NZSBA. HRNZ pedigrees you look up through Test Mating come from NZSBA's New Zealand hosted service and are kept on your phone only.
  • We count which screens get used against a random number, not your name. Crash reports carry only a random account ID, never your email address or name.
  • If you lock the app or sign in with Face ID, Touch ID or your fingerprint, the check happens on your phone. NZSBA never sees your face or fingerprint.
  • If you sign up for Breeders Weekly by email, we give that email address to Mailchimp, which sends it for us. If you are signed in, the app also checks with Mailchimp whether your own sign-in address is already on the list. You can unsubscribe any time.
  • We do not sell your information, we do not use advertising networks, and we do not track you across other apps or websites.
  • You can delete your app account at any time from Members > Account > Delete my account. It does not cancel your NZSBA membership.

Signing in and your membership

You can use most of the app without an account. To sign in you type your email address and we email you a one-time code to type in, so there is no password to remember. SMTP2GO sends the code email for us.

When you open the sign-in screen, the app checks with Cloudflare Turnstile that it is running on a real phone and not a program sending requests automatically (a bot), and sends the result with your request for a code. This runs in the background and usually shows nothing, though now and then you may be asked to tick a box. Cloudflare sees your phone's internet address and technical details about the phone and its built-in web browser, never your email address or account. Cloudflare also uses these details to improve its bot detection, under its own Turnstile privacy terms. The Breeders Weekly sign-up screen runs the same check when you type in an address to sign up (see Breeders Weekly by email below).

When you sign in we keep your email address and a basic account record: the date it was created, and whether NZSBA has made you an app administrator or an approved foster alert poster. The sign-in system also records when you sign in and the internet address and type of phone used, and Supabase keeps short-lived server logs of requests, including internet addresses, to keep the service secure.

The app does not ask for your membership details. Each week NZSBA loads its own membership records into the app's database: email address, name, member group, season, payment date and expiry date, and, where NZSBA has them, your membership type (for example Life Member), the name of the other person on a joint membership, the year you joined and your member number. When you sign in, the app looks up the record that matches your email address to show your membership card and unlock Crosses of Gold, member discounts and the other member features. You can see only your own record.

Face ID and fingerprint

You can choose to lock the app with Face ID, Touch ID, your fingerprint or your phone's passcode, and to sign back in with Face ID or your fingerprint instead of an email code. Both are off unless you turn them on under Members > Account. The check happens on your phone, inside its own secure hardware. The app is only told whether it worked, and your face, fingerprint and passcode never leave your phone. NZSBA never sees them, and neither does anyone else we work with.

If you turn on signing back in with Face ID, signing out keeps a copy of your sign-in on your phone, locked so that only your Face ID or fingerprint can open it, with your email address beside it so the sign-in screen can show whose it is. It stays on that phone only and is never included in a backup. It is removed when you next sign in, when you delete your account, when you turn the option off, or when you add or remove a face or fingerprint on your phone. While it is kept, your sign-in stays open on our sign-in system so the copy can use it.

Notifications

If you allow notifications, your phone is given a notification token: a code that lets a message reach that phone and no other. We store it with your choices: the notifications you want (news, Breeders Weekly, foster alerts, health and biosecurity alerts), which island's foster and health alerts you want, and your quiet hours if you set them (when they start and end, and whether foster alerts go quiet then too). Once you sign in on a phone, its token stays linked to your account until you sign out, delete your account, or someone else signs in on that phone. The link is how member-only notices reach members, and how replies on the members board and alerts about the horses you follow reach you.

Health and biosecurity alerts are notices from NZSBA about disease outbreaks or biosecurity rules that affect horses, and anyone using the app can read them. NZSBA's app administrators write them. They hold nothing about you, and sending one uses only the choices above. Urgent ones sound even during your quiet hours.

If you are signed in, you can tap the star beside a sire on Leading sires, or on a stallion's page in the stallion directory, to follow him. We keep the horses you follow against your account, up to 200 of them, and store only each horse's public name as the app shows it. We use them to tell you when his fee changes, when he enters a top 10 or climbs three or more places in the leading sires tables, or when a horse by him, or out of one of his daughters, is listed on BredEX. You get no more than one of these a day about each horse. Each one waits on our server until it is sent, and we delete our copy after 90 days. You can unfollow by tapping the star again, or under Members > Account > Notifications.

Notifications are passed to Apple or Google through Expo's push service, so the words of each notification go through them on the way to your phone. You can change your choices under Members > Account, or turn notifications off in your phone's settings. A token that stops working, for example after the app is removed, is deleted automatically the next time we send.

Foster alerts

Only stud reps approved by NZSBA, and NZSBA's app administrators, can post a foster alert. An alert holds the headline, details and region, the name and phone number the poster types, and an optional photo. All of these are shown on the alert to everyone using the app, so a breeder with a spare mare or a foal in need can make contact fast. Photos are stored so that anyone viewing the alert can see them. The email address the poster signed in with is not shown on the alert; the alert is linked to the poster's account so they can close it.

Closed alerts drop off the Foster list but are not deleted automatically. If you posted an alert and want it or its photo removed, email us and we will delete it.

If you are signed in, you can report an alert from its page. A report holds which alert, the reason you pick, your account and the time. Only NZSBA's app administrators see reports, and they are deleted after 90 days, or straight away if you delete your account.

You can also block the person who posted an alert. Their alerts then stop showing on your phone, and NZSBA's app administrators get a report of that alert, as above. The person is not told. We keep your list of blocked people until you unblock someone (Members > Account > Blocked people) or delete your account.

The members discussion board

The board is switched off when the app launches and NZSBA will open it later. Once it is open, financial members who accept the board terms can start topics and reply. We store what you post, the date you accepted the terms, any reports you make, and your list of blocked members.

Your posts show your name from NZSBA's membership records or, if we do not have one, the first part of your email address. Your email address itself is never shown. Posts are seen by other financial members who are signed in. You can edit a post for 15 minutes after posting and delete your own posts at any time. Reports are seen only by NZSBA's moderators, who can hide a post. Blocking a member hides their posts on your phone and sends the moderators a report of the post, so they can check it. The member is not told.

When someone replies to your topic, you get a notification with their name and the start of their reply.

Usage numbers

To see which parts of the app get used, the app makes a random number the first time it opens (a new one if you reinstall) and sends small records against it: that the app was opened, which screen was viewed (with anything that points to a particular story, alert or horse taken out), whether the phone is an iPhone or Android, the app version and the time. It also counts views of the featured stallion card on Home, taps on it, and presses of its call, email and website buttons. When you ask for a sign-in code, or sign up for Breeders Weekly with an address you type in, it records whether the bot check worked and how long it took. If you use Ask The Breeders, it records when you give permission, when an answer comes back or fails (with a count of the lookups used, or the reason it failed) and when you clear the chat, never the question or the answer. When you open a search result, it records the kind of result (a race or a news story, say), never what you searched for or which result you opened. If you use the stallion shortlist, it records when you save a stallion to a mare's shortlist and when you share a shortlist (with how many stallions were in it and whether it was your saved list), never the mare or the stallions.

These records never include your name, email address, account or anything you type. They are stored in our own database, only NZSBA's app administrators can see them, and they are deleted after 90 days. We share the featured stallion totals with the stud whose stallion was featured. They are counts only and say nothing about who looked.

Crash reports

When the app crashes or hits an error, a report goes to Sentry so we can find and fix the fault. A report holds what went wrong, the screen you were on and your recent steps in the app, the phone model, its software version and the app version. About one in five app starts and screen loads also sends timings, so we can see where the app is slow.

If you are signed in, a report carries your account ID (a random code the sign-in system gives your account) and nothing else about you: never your email address or name. The app is set up not to send your internet (IP) address, it cuts the search part off any web address in a report, and it never includes what you searched for in Test Mating, so no HRNZ data goes to Sentry. Sentry deletes reports after 30 days on our current plan.

Reporting a problem

Report a problem (under Members > Account) opens an email to [email protected] in your own email app. It fills in your phone model, its software version, the app version, the random number used for usage numbers, and whether you are signed in (yes or no). You can see and change all of it before you send, and nothing goes unless you send it. We receive it like any other email, with your email address, and handle it under the NZSBA Privacy Policy.

Report this listing, on a BredEX listing, works the same way: it opens an email to [email protected] in your own email app with the listing's name and link filled in, and nothing goes unless you send it.

Requests to NZSBA

If you are a financial member, you can send NZSBA a request from the app (Members > Requests to NZSBA): to update your details, to ask us to check something such as a mare's credit or Harness 5000 eligibility, to suggest an idea, or to ask about a story or something in the app. Ask The Breeders offers the same form when it cannot answer a question, with your question filled in for you to check before you send it.

A request holds what you choose and type: the kind of request, a subject, your message, a horse's name if you add one, and how you would like us to reply: by email, by phone on the number you give us, or no reply needed. We add your account, the email address you signed in with and your name from NZSBA's membership records, so we know who it is from. It is stored in our database, and the whole request, with your phone number if you give one, is also emailed to [email protected] through SMTP2GO, so the office sees it straight away.

NZSBA staff can see requests: our app administrators in the app, and the staff who read the office email. You can see your own under Your requests on the same screen, with where each one is up to and any note NZSBA adds for you. Please do not put bank or card details, or your IRD or GST number, in a request, and for a test mating, give us the horses' names rather than copying the test mating in.

In the app, we keep a request until it is dealt with and delete it two years after it is marked done, and if you delete your account, your requests are deleted from the app straight away. The copy emailed to the office is kept like any other email we receive. That email, and any change you ask us to make to your details in NZSBA's membership records, are handled under the NZSBA Privacy Policy.

Breeders Weekly by email

You can ask for Breeders Weekly, NZSBA's newsletter, by email from the card on the Home screen or, if you are signed in, from Members > Account. Signing up is up to you and has nothing to do with your membership. The email address you sign up with (your sign-in address, or another one you type) goes from our server to Mailchimp, which keeps NZSBA's newsletter list and sends the newsletter for us, marked as a sign-up from the app. Nothing else about you is sent.

Mailchimp first emails that address a link to confirm, and nothing more is sent unless you tap it. After that, Breeders Weekly and other NZSBA news emails go to that address until you unsubscribe, with the link at the bottom of any of them or, for your sign-in address, the switch under Members > Account. Unsubscribing stops the emails but does not take the address off the list: Mailchimp keeps it marked as unsubscribed, so it is not emailed again (see How long we keep it). The emails themselves, and the list, are handled under the NZSBA Privacy Policy, as for anyone else on it.

If you are signed in, the app asks Mailchimp whether your sign-in address is already on the list, so it does not ask you to sign up again. It does this weekly from the Home screen and each time you open Members > Account, whether or not you ever sign up. It only ever asks about your own sign-in address. Anyone else typing an address is not told whether it is, or was, on the list.

To stop the sign-up being misused, an address you type in on the sign-up screen goes with the same Cloudflare bot check as sign-in (see Signing in and your membership), and our server counts recent sign-ups, list checks and unsubscribes against scrambled codes made from the email address (and, for an address typed in, the phone's internet address) with a secret key only our server has, never the addresses themselves, and deletes the counts after two days. Your phone remembers whether you signed up on it or tapped No thanks, so the card does not ask again, and, until you sign out, your sign-in address and Mailchimp's last answer about it.

Membership card and Wallet pass

The membership card in the app shows your name, member group, season and expiry date from NZSBA's records, and your membership type, the other name on a joint membership, the year you joined and your member number when NZSBA has them.

Adding the card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet is switched off when the app launches. Once NZSBA switches it on, tapping the Wallet button sends your name, member group, season, expiry date and email address, and your membership type, the other name on a joint membership, the year you joined and your member number if we have them, from our server to Passcreator, which makes the pass. Your email address is used as the reference for your pass, so you get the same pass each time. We keep the links to your pass so the app can open it again. The pass then lives in the Wallet app on your phone.

Ask The Breeders

Ask The Breeders is an assistant for financial members that answers questions from NZSBA's own information, such as Crosses of Gold, the Sires Book, breeding schemes, events, BredEX listings and news. It is switched off when the app launches, and NZSBA may switch it on later without an app update. To write an answer, the app sends Anthropic, an AI company in the United States, your question, up to eight of your earlier questions and answers in the same chat, and the NZSBA information the app looked up to answer it. Your name, email address and account are not sent. Before your first question, the app explains this and asks your permission.

Your mares, My stud records and Test Mating pedigrees are never sent. The chat is kept on your phone, not by NZSBA (unless you report an answer, below, or send the question to us as a request), and you can clear it from the menu on the Ask The Breeders screen. Our server keeps only a daily count, linked to your account, of how many times your questions went to Anthropic, so we can hold everyone to a fair daily limit. The counts are deleted after 90 days, or straight away if you delete your account. Anthropic handles what it receives under its commercial terms, which say it is not used to train its models; see anthropic.com/legal for how long it is kept.

Each answer has a Report button, for an answer that is offensive, harmful or wrong. If you report one, that answer and the question you typed before it are sent to NZSBA for review, with the reason you pick, your account and the time. Nothing else from the chat is sent. Only NZSBA's app administrators see reports, and they are kept for 90 days, or deleted straight away if you delete your account.

Please do not type personal details such as phone numbers or addresses into Ask The Breeders.

What stays on your phone

Some features keep everything on your phone and send nothing to NZSBA:

  • My stud: your mares and their families, services, scans, foaling records and paperwork ticks, and the reminders you set, which are scheduled on the phone.
  • The breeding cost calculator and the figures you type into it.
  • A My stud backup, if you make one. Back up My stud (the menu on the My stud screen) puts your mares and their records, which reminders are on and your cost figures into one file and opens your phone's share sheet, so you choose where it goes: Files or iCloud Drive, Google Drive, or an email to yourself. The app never sends it to NZSBA or anyone else, and wherever you save it, that service's own terms apply. The file holds your stud records, so keep it private. HRNZ pedigrees from Test Mating are never in it, only each mare's Test Mating ID and family names. Restoring a backup reads the file on your phone and sends nothing.
  • HRNZ pedigrees. When you look up a mare, the name you type goes straight from your phone to NZSBA Test Mating, the Association's own pedigree tool. Test Mating is hosted by MyHost in New Zealand under NZSBA's arrangement with HRNZ, so HRNZ pedigree data stays onshore. The pedigrees and test matings it sends back are kept on your phone for 30 days and are never sent to our database, to Sentry or anywhere else. Your mare's record keeps only her Test Mating ID and her family names, and it stays on your phone too.
  • Your last few searches, as you typed them, which you can clear on the search screen.
  • Stallion shortlists you save, one for each mare: her name from My stud, or the sire and dam sire you typed, and the stallions you saved. They are not in a My stud backup. Sharing one sends plain text through your phone's share sheet to wherever you choose.
  • Your sign-in on this phone, and copies of the news, alerts and events you last loaded, so the app opens quickly.
  • Your Face ID and fingerprint choices, and the Face ID copy of your sign-in if you use one (see Face ID and fingerprint above).
  • Whether you signed up for Breeders Weekly on this phone or tapped No thanks on the Home card, and, while you are signed in, your sign-in address and whether it is on the Breeders Weekly list.

We cannot see this information, so we cannot restore it if you lose your phone or remove the app. A My stud backup file you have kept brings My stud back on a new phone, and your phone's own backup (iCloud or Google) may include it, under Apple's or Google's terms.

The app does not read your location or your contacts. It asks for the camera or your photos only when an approved rep or an administrator adds a picture to a foster alert or a featured stallion.

Who handles information for us, and where

We use these companies to run the app. They handle information on NZSBA's behalf to provide their service, and NZSBA stays responsible for it under the Privacy Act 2020.

  • Supabase: our database, sign-in, photo storage and the server functions that send notifications and pass Ask The Breeders questions to Anthropic. Stored in Sydney, Australia.
  • SMTP2GO: sends the sign-in code emails, and emails requests to NZSBA to our office. A New Zealand company, sending through its Australian servers.
  • Expo: passes notifications on to Apple and Google. United States.
  • Apple and Google: deliver notifications to your phone, and run the Wallet apps that hold passes. United States.
  • Sentry: crash reports and app timings. United States.
  • Cloudflare: checks that sign-in requests, and Breeders Weekly sign-ups of an address typed in, come from a real phone and not a bot (Cloudflare Turnstile). It sees the phone's internet address and technical details, never your email address or account. United States.
  • Passcreator: makes Wallet passes, once that is switched on. Based in Munich, Germany, and processes data in Germany.
  • Anthropic: answers questions in Ask The Breeders, once NZSBA switches it on. United States.
  • 1Team, through its EzyStream platform: runs the member discounts. If you are a financial member, we give it your email address and the date your membership ends, so it knows you are a current member, and the app's server fetches the discount list with them. It is not given your name or anything else about you.
  • Mailchimp: sends Breeders Weekly and keeps NZSBA's newsletter list. If you sign up for Breeders Weekly in the app, we give it the email address you sign up with, and nothing else about you. If you are signed in, the app's server also asks it whether your own sign-in address is already on the list, whether or not you sign up. The app's server also reads the list of Breeders Weekly issues from it. United States.

The app's server also reads from these, and sends them nothing about you:

  • BredEX and thebreeders.co.nz, for public listings and news.
  • Harness Racing New Zealand, Harness Racing Australia and Standardbred Canada, for the leading sires tables.

Some screens open web pages inside the app: Test Mating, BredEX, Breeding Matters, Breeders Weekly issues and stories on thebreeders.co.nz. The official leading sires pages of Harness Racing New Zealand, Harness Racing Australia and Standardbred Canada open in your browser. These load straight from those sites, which may set their own cookies under their own policies. News stories and other pages from thebreeders.co.nz open inside the app, and those pages use Google Analytics, as they do in a web browser. The app does not pass them your details. BredEX has its own sign-in, separate from the app.

We do not sell personal information or share it with advertisers or data brokers. The featured stallion card on Home is a paid spot NZSBA sells directly to studs. It uses no advertising network and no tracking.

Who at NZSBA can see what

The people NZSBA makes app administrators can see the list of app accounts and their email addresses, foster alerts, board reports, reported Ask The Breeders answers and foster alerts, the requests members send to NZSBA, and the usage numbers. They use this only to run the app. Information travels between the app and our systems encrypted, and our database checks every request, so a signed-in member sees only their own membership record, settings, requests and the horses they follow.

How long we keep it

  • Your account, email address and notification settings: until you delete your account.
  • The stallions and sires you follow: until you unfollow them or delete your account. Our copies of the alerts sent to you about them: 90 days.
  • Your Ask The Breeders daily counts: 90 days, or until you delete your account.
  • Reports you make of an Ask The Breeders answer (with the question before it) or a foster alert: 90 days, or until you delete your account.
  • A request to NZSBA, in the app: until it is dealt with, then for two years after it is marked done, or until you delete your account. The copy emailed to the office is kept like any other email we receive.
  • Usage records: 90 days.
  • A Breeders Weekly sign-up: on NZSBA's Mailchimp list, as set out in the NZSBA Privacy Policy. If you unsubscribe, the address stays on the list marked as unsubscribed, so it is not emailed again. An address that never confirms stays on it as waiting to confirm, and is never emailed Breeders Weekly. To have an address taken off the list completely, email [email protected]. Our counts of sign-ups, list checks and unsubscribes: two days.
  • Crash reports: 30 days, then Sentry deletes them.
  • Foster alerts: until you ask us to delete them. If you delete your account, the name and phone number from their contact fields, and their photos, are taken off them straight away.
  • Board posts: until you delete them, a moderator removes them, or you delete your account.
  • Wallet pass: until you ask us to remove it. After your membership expiry date the pass shows as expired in Wallet.
  • Your membership record: as set out in the NZSBA Privacy Policy.

Supabase keeps daily backups of our database for 7 days, so something deleted can stay in a backup for up to a week before that backup is replaced.

Deleting your account

This is how to delete your account in The Breeders app, listed as The Breeders NZ on Google Play and the App Store. Go to Members > Account > Delete my account and confirm. This straight away removes:

  • your sign-in and your account record
  • the notification tokens linked to your account, with your choices
  • your board topics (with the replies under them), your replies and reports, and your list of blocked people
  • the stallions and sires you follow, and our copies of the alerts sent to you about them
  • your Ask The Breeders daily counts, and your reports of Ask The Breeders answers and foster alerts
  • your requests to NZSBA, as kept in the app
  • the name and phone number you typed in the contact fields of foster alerts you posted, and every photo you added to one. Any of those alerts still live are closed, and any never sent out stay hidden from everyone but NZSBA's app administrators
  • on the phone you delete it from, the app lock and Face ID sign in, which are turned off, and any Face ID copy of your sign-in

You are then signed out. Deleting your account does not remove:

  • your NZSBA membership. Your membership record is part of the Association's membership list and is handled under the NZSBA Privacy Policy.
  • the rest of any foster alert you posted: its headline, details, region and dates stay as a record of what was posted, without the contact name, phone number or photo. The headline and details stay exactly as you wrote them, so a name or number you typed there stays too. Ask us and we will delete them completely.
  • a Wallet pass, if you added one. Ask us and we will remove it from Passcreator and from our records.
  • the copies of your requests to NZSBA that were emailed to the office, which are kept like any other email we receive and handled under the NZSBA Privacy Policy.
  • a Breeders Weekly sign-up. Breeders Weekly is NZSBA's newsletter list, not part of your app account. Turning Breeders Weekly off under Members > Account, or the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any Breeders Weekly email, stops the emails, but the address stays on the list marked as unsubscribed. To have it taken off completely, email [email protected].
  • usage records, which are not linked to your account and go after 90 days, or crash reports, which Sentry deletes after 30 days.
  • anything kept only on your phone. Removing the app deletes it. A My stud backup file you saved somewhere else stays there until you delete it.

If you keep using the app after deleting your account and notifications are still allowed, your phone is registered again for the notifications you have switched on, without your name. Turn notifications off in your phone's settings, or remove the app, to stop them.

You can also ask us to delete your account by emailing [email protected].

Seeing and correcting your information

Under the Privacy Act 2020 you can ask to see the personal information we hold about you and ask us to correct it. Email [email protected]. We will check it is you and reply within 20 working days, as set out in the NZSBA Privacy Policy. Your name and membership details in the app come from NZSBA's membership records. If something is wrong, tell us and we will fix it there, and the app picks up the change after the next weekly update.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please talk to us first. You can also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at www.privacy.org.nz.

Children

The app is for adults involved in breeding standardbreds and is not directed at children under 16. If you think a child has given us personal information through the app, email us and we will delete it.

Changes to this page

We will update this page when the app changes and change the date at the top. If a change affects how we use information you have already given us, we will tell members in the app or in Breeders Weekly before it takes effect.

Contact

Questions about privacy and the app go to our privacy officer, the Executive Manager, at [email protected], or by post to N.Z. Standardbred Breeders' Association, C/O Harness Racing New Zealand, 114 Wrights Road, Addington, Christchurch 8024.