Privacy Notice

Introduction

This notice applies across all websites that we own and operate and all services we provide, including our online and mobile accounting and business education content and teaching tools, and any other services we may offer. For the purpose of this notice, we'll just call them our 'services'.

When we say 'personal data' we mean identifiable information about you, like your name, email, address, telephone number, payment information, support queries, community comments and so on. If you can't be identified (for example, when personal data has been aggregated and anonymised) then this notice doesn't apply. Check out our terms of use for more information on how we treat your other data.

We may need to update this notice from time to time. Where a change is significant, we'll make sure we let you know – usually by sending you an email.

Last updated: 14 August 2026 and are effective immediately.

Who are 'we'?

When we refer to 'we' (or 'our' or 'us'), that means AccountingPod Limited. Our headquarters are in New Zealand but our team is global. Address details for AccountingPod Limited in New Zealand is: P.O. Box 1970, Queenstown 9300.

We are an Educational Technology Company [EdTech] providing easy-to-use online dynamic accounting and business scenario/case study content, technology and teaching tools to deliver services to educators and their students within the online business software and services environment. Our technology includes auto-marking, feedback and cheat prevention for Invited Students. If you want to find out more about what we do, see our website.

Our principles of data protection

Our approach to data protection is built around four key principles. They're at the heart of everything we do relating to personal data.

Transparency: We take a human approach to how we process personal data by being open, honest and transparent. We won't ask for more information than is absolutely necessary to deliver our Services to you.

Enablement: We enable effective support to Educational Providers and their Invited Students by active understanding of their learning needs and particular challenges.

Security: We include industry leading approaches to securing the personal data entrusted to us.

Stewardship: We accept the responsibility that comes with processing personal data.

How we collect your data

When you visit our websites or use our services, we collect personal data. The ways we collect it can be broadly categorised into the following:

Information you provide to us directly: When you register to use our Services we ask you to provide personal data to us. For example, we ask for your contact information when you sign up for a Course or Free Trial, respond to an email offer, participate in community forums, join us on social media, take part in training and events, contact us with questions or request support. If you are an Invited Student we require a minimum amount of identifying data [First Name, Last Name, Educational Provider Email Address] to be able to deliver Services to you on behalf of your Educational Provider. If you don't want to provide us with further personal data [eg Alternate Email address, Mobile phone number, Student ID] you don't have to, but it may mean You [Educational Provider or Invited Student] can't use or benefit from some parts of our websites or services.

Information we collect automatically: We collect some information about you automatically when you visit our websites or use our services, like your IP address and device type. We also collect information when you navigate through our websites and services, including what pages you looked at, what links you clicked on, what tasks you completed and the time(s) you were active. This information is useful for us as it helps us get a better understanding of how you're using our websites and services so that we can continue to provide the best learning experience possible (e.g., by providing activity and task error analytics and reporting to Educational Providers or personalising/randomising the content you see).

Some of this information is collected using cookies and similar tracking technologies. If you want to find out more about the types of cookies we use, why, and how you can control them, just ask our support desk via our in-web chat box or email support@accountingpod.com

Information we get from third parties: The majority of information we collect, we collect directly from you the user, an Educational Provider or Invited Student. Sometimes we might collect personal data about you from other sources, such as publicly available materials or trusted third parties like our marketing and research partners. We use this information to supplement the personal data we already hold about you, in order to better inform, personalise and improve our services, and to validate the personal data you provide.

Where we collect personal data, we'll only process it:

- to perform a contract with you, or

- where we have legitimate interests to process the personal data and they're not overridden by your rights, or

- in accordance with a legal obligation, or

- where we have your consent.

If we don't collect your personal data, we may be unable to provide you with all our services, and some functions and features on our websites may not be available to you.

If you're someone who doesn't have a relationship with us, but believe that an Educational Provider has entered/or provided your personal data for entry into our websites or services, you'll need to contact that Educational Provider for any questions you have about your personal data (including where you want to access, correct, amend, or request that the Educational Provider delete, your personal data).

How we use your data

First and foremost, we use your personal data to provide you with any Services you've registered for, and to manage our relationship with you. We also use your personal data for other purposes, which may include the following:

To communicate with you. This may include:

- providing you with information/Services you've requested from us (like accounting and business educational Content materials) or information we are required to send to you

- operational communications, like changes to our websites and services, security updates, or assistance with using our websites and services

- marketing communications, where You are an Educational Provider, (about AccountingPod or another product or service we think you might be interested in) in accordance with your marketing preferences

- asking you for feedback or to take part in any research we are conducting (which we may engage a third party to assist with).

To support you: This may include assisting with the resolution of technical support issues or other learning issues relating to the websites or services, whether by email, in-web support or otherwise.

To enhance our websites and services and develop new ones: For example, by tracking and monitoring your use of websites and services so we can keep improving, or by carrying out technical analysis of our websites and services so that we can optimise your user experience and provide you with more efficient tools.

To protect: So that we can detect and prevent any academic misconduct, fraudulent or malicious activity, and make sure that everyone is using our websites and services fairly and in accordance with our terms of use.

We do not share Learner or Invited Student personal data with advertisers, advertising networks or data brokers, and we do not display advertising or promotional material within the AccountingPod learner environment. Communications shown to learners are limited to operational, educational, support or service-related information needed to deliver the learning experience.

To market to you: IF you are an Educational Provider, in addition to sending you marketing communications, we may also use your personal data to display targeted advertising to you online – through our own websites and services or through third party websites and their platforms.

To analyse, aggregate and report: We may use the personal data we collect about you and other users of our websites and services (whether obtained directly or from third parties) to produce aggregated and anonymised analytics and reports, which we may share publicly or with third parties.

Responsible use of Large Language Models (AI)

We may use Large Language Models and other artificial intelligence tools to help improve, support and deliver our services, including support responses, educational content workflows, aggregated or anonymised analysis, optional AI tasks in case sets, and service efficiency.

When we use AI tools, we apply our principles of transparency, enablement, security and stewardship. We minimise personal data use, apply appropriate security controls, avoid unsuitable uses, and keep human oversight for outputs that may affect Educational Providers, Invited Students or other users.

We do not rely on AI tools to make solely automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. Where AI assists our team, we remain responsible for reviewing outputs before they are used in services or communications.

If an AI tool involves a third-party provider, we assess its privacy, confidentiality and security practices and require appropriate safeguards before personal data is shared or processed. You can contact us with questions about AI use or request AccountingPod's current AI Policy Framework using the details in the Contact us section below.

How we can share your data

There will be times when we need to share your personal data with third parties. We will only disclose your personal data to:

- third party service providers and partners who assist and enable us to, for example support delivery of or provide functionality on the website or Services [these providers or partners will be required to execute an applicable Confidentiality agreement],

- regulators, law enforcement bodies, government agencies, courts or other third parties where we think it's necessary to comply with applicable laws or regulations, or to exercise, establish or defend our legal rights. Where you are an Educational Provider, we will notify you of this type of disclosure in respect of your Invited Students otherwise where possible or appropriate,

- where you are an Educational Provider [and not otherwise]: an actual or potential buyer (and its agents and advisers) in connection with an actual or proposed purchase, merger or acquisition of any part of our business

- other people where we have your consent.

International Data Transfers

When we share data, it may be transferred to, and processed in, countries other than the country you live in – such as to Australia or the UK, where our data hosting provider's servers are located. These countries may have laws different to what you're used to.

Rest assured, where we disclose personal data to a third party in another country, we put safeguards in place to ensure your personal data remains protected.

For individuals in the European Economic Area (EEA), this means that your data may be transferred outside of the EEA. Where your personal data is transferred outside the EEA, it will only be transferred to countries that have been identified as providing adequate protection for EEA data (like New Zealand or the UK), or to a third party where we have approved transfer mechanisms in place to protect your personal data – i.e., by entering into the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, or by ensuring the entity is Privacy Shield certified (for transfers to US-based third parties). For further information, please contact us using the details set out in the Contact us section below.

Security

Security is a priority for us when it comes to your personal data. We're committed to protecting your personal data and have appropriate technical and organisational measures in place to make sure that happens.

If you want more detailed information about our security contact us at support@accountingpod.com.

Third Party Data Processing

The AccountingPod Ltd (APOD) digital learning and assessment platform is built and managed within Microsoft Azure cloud servers. We have two end to end solutions which are hosted in different regions to adhere to privacy and security standards. All United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU) data is stored in the UK and all other data is stored in Australia. To support the day to day operations of the business, APOD also works with third party Software as a Service applications. These applications are primarily utilised by our back office teams such as Finance, Human Resources, Marketing and Customer Support to ensure we can fulfil our legal and financial reporting obligations as well as provide world class service to our customers.

Third Parties do not have access to the information that is stored and processed by them. Services are evaluated by APOD before use and on a regular schedule ensuring they have appropriate security mechanisms in place as well as externally validated compliance. As part of our Privacy Program we proactively monitor applicable legislation to ensure that we are in compliance with appropriate data protection legislation.

Please also note that while we collect some student/learner data, this is limited to the minimum amount of information required for the functioning of the APOD Platform including user authentication. Student data is stored within APOD's digital learning platform only and is not shared with any third party systems.