Terms & Conditions

Effective date: June 2026

1. About this service

How Does This Affect Me? ("the Service", "we", "us") is an independent information service that collects publicly available documents published by local councils and government bodies, processes them using artificial intelligence, and presents summaries ("impact cards") intended to help citizens understand how decisions may affect them.

The Service is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated in partnership with any local council, government authority, or regulatory body. Any council or authority names used are for identification purposes only.

2. Information only — not advice

The content presented through the Service, including all impact cards, summaries, and associated descriptions, is provided for general information purposes only. It does not constitute and must not be relied upon as:

• Legal advice
• Financial advice
• Investment advice
• Regulatory or compliance advice
• Any other form of professional advice

If you need advice about how a council decision or regulatory change affects your specific situation, you should consult a qualified legal or financial professional.

3. Accuracy and completeness

Impact cards are generated using AI language models and are subject to error. While we review cards before they are published, we cannot guarantee that any summary is accurate, complete, current, or free from error. In particular:

• Summaries may omit context that changes the meaning of a decision
• Dollar figures, dates, and percentages may be incorrectly extracted or presented
• A decision described as final may subsequently be amended, deferred, or reversed
• Not all decisions made by a council or government body will appear in the Service
• The effective date of a decision shown may differ from the actual implementation date

You should always verify information directly with the original source document or the relevant council or authority before taking any action.

4. No warranty

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranty of any kind, express or implied. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any particular decision or document will be included or processed.

5. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we exclude all liability for any loss or damage arising from your use of, or reliance on, the Service or its content. This includes but is not limited to:

• Financial loss resulting from reliance on a summary
• Missed deadlines, compliance failures, or regulatory consequences
• Loss of opportunity or damage to property
• Any indirect, incidental, or consequential loss

This exclusion applies even if we have been advised of the possibility of such loss.

6. Your profile and data

When you use the Service, you provide information about yourself (council area, ward, property status, and circumstances). This information is stored locally in your browser using localStorage so the Service can tailor what you see. It is not transmitted to or stored on our servers, and we do not sell it or share it with third parties.

We use PostHog, a privacy-friendly analytics tool, to understand how people move around the site and to catch errors. It records anonymous usage — pages viewed and interactions — and sets a cookie to recognize a returning browser. We do not create identified profiles of anonymous visitors, and we do not use advertising trackers. You can opt out of this analytics at any time by choosing “No thanks” on the privacy notice; your choice is remembered on your device.

You can delete your profile at any time by clicking "Edit profile" and starting over, or by clearing your browser's local storage.

7. Intellectual property

The summaries, design, and software of the Service are our intellectual property. Council and government documents referenced or linked through the Service remain the property of the relevant authority. We reproduce extracts of original text for the sole purpose of informational quotation.

8. Third-party links and sources

The Service links to original council documents and other external websites. We are not responsible for the content, accuracy, or availability of those external sites. A link does not imply endorsement.

9. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms & Conditions from time to time. The effective date above will be updated when changes are made. Continued use of the Service after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

10. Governing law

These Terms & Conditions are governed by the laws of New Zealand. Any dispute arising from your use of the Service will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New Zealand.

11. Contact

If you have questions about these terms, please use the contact page.