Privacy and Safety
-
Who can access the Neighbourly website?
Access to Neighbourly requires every member to be address verified. However, when a new member does sign up there may be a short period where they are only phone verified whilst address information is sent.
During this time they will be clearly identified as a “new member” with an L on their profile picture, and they will have limited access to the website. If you have any reason to believe a new member is not who they say they are, please contact us immediately so we can investigate.
Please use common sense and only share information on Neighbourly that you are comfortable sharing with your community. Sending a private message is useful if you wish to speak to selected neighbours or organisations only.
-
I want to hide my street number
If you wish, you may display only your street name on your profile. But before you make the change, take a look at the help article on whether you should hide your street number.
To hide your street number using your computer
Visit your profile by clicking MY NEIGHBOURLY in the top right-hand corner of the page
Click YOUR PROFILE
Click EDIT PROFILE
Decide how you wish to SHOW YOUR ADDRESS (street number and name or just street name)
Click the SAVE button at the bottom of the page
To hide your street number using your mobile device
Tap the top right-hand corner to visit your profile
Select the PROFILE tab
Tap the button next to "show my full address", selecting ON to show your full address, or OFF to hide your street number
Tap SAVE
Showing your street number helps to build trust among neighbours. This trusted environment leads to better communication amongst neighbours and fosters a stronger community.
-
Why do I have to use my real name?
Neighbourly has been designed to help create stronger, safer communities, and we believe a big part of this is knowing who lives next door or down the road from you. For us that starts with sharing your real first and last name on Neighbourly (not an alias, pseudonym or abbreviation), just as you'd introduce yourself in person.
If an emergency ever does occur in your neighbourhood, knowing and trusting your neighbours goes a long way in allowing you to work together as a community.
Please note that using real names on Neighbourly is part of the Neighbourly Member Agreement.
-
Why can I see posts from other neighbourhoods?
Every neighbourhood has a few other neighbourhoods identified as Nearby Neighbourhoods. This is why you may see posts from members outside your own neighbourhood.
This Nearby Neighbourhood features enable Neighbourly members to communicate with members who live in other nearby neighbourhoods when needed. When a member starts a new conversation, they can choose to share the conversation with either:
their own neighbourhood only, or
their own neighbourhood + all other nearby neighbourhoods.
-
Should I hide my street number?
While most Neighbourly members choose to leave their full address displayed, you can hide the street number if you wish to. This is a personal choice for each member but here are a few reasons why showing your full address makes your Neighbourly experience an even better one:
It helps you know who your neighbours are - and vice versa! By sharing your street number you're able to show your neighbours that you're living right next door which is the first step in creating closer neighbour-to-neighbour connections. You can say hi to "Bob from number 3" and "Barbara from number 18" just by checking who lives where in the Neighbours Directory.
It helps kickstart connections. Sharing a little information with a few people in your suburb is a great way to start the connections - plus we like to think that for the little bit of yourself you share you'll have a neighbourhood full of people watching your back in return. We ask members to share their real name, address and when they moved to the area - if you'd like to share more you can do so in your personal profile.
It tackles community disconnectedness. Neighbourly has been set up to tackle the tough challenge of building connections with people living in our own neighbourhoods and those close by. These days, one of the biggest challenges facing our communities is that we no longer know who lives where - even those living right next door!
Two things to remember:
Only fully verified Neighbourly members in your suburb see your address.
Neighbourly won't make changes to how your personal details are displayed on Neighbourly without notifying you first. You can double check your personal Neighbourly settings here.
-
Can I set up a profile/account with no address?
Neighbourly does reserve the right to hide a user's full address (street and street number) from view if we feel there is a genuine safety and/or privacy concern that is hindering their ability to display a real address. In this event, the Neighbourly member will simply be shown as living in a suburb.
Examples of users who may be granted this right are local MPs, members of the Police, or any individual with genuine security issues. Members will be expected to provide evidence of their situation, as well as proof of their address.
If you would like to discuss the possibility of your account being displayed in this fashion, please contact us.
Neighbourly reserves the final judgement on any decision relating to this subject.
-
I would like to submit a complaint about content posted on Neighbourly
Neighbourly follows the 'safe harbour' process, outlined in the Harmful Digital Communications Act, when handling complaints about content posted by individuals on the Neighbourly website.
You can read more about the 'safe harbour' process here.
If you wish to make a complaint about another member's post or reply, please submit your complaint on our contact us page (select Privacy and safety concerns as the category), or email helpdesk@neighbourly.co.nz (with the subject line "Formal Complaint").
Your complaint must include the following details:
1. Personal details *
Your name
Your phone number
Your physical address
Your email address
* You will need to supply your personal details for your complaint to be valid but they will only be sent to the author of the content if you agree to this. If you and the author agree to share contact details you may be able to work together to resolve the matter.
Your complaint may be sent to the author of the content.
2. Disclosure
Do you agree to your personal details being disclosed to the person who wrote the content you are complaining about? (YES/NO)
3. The content
Please tell us where we can find the content (eg url of the post, title of the post, author's name and suburb).
Please identify or describe the content you are complaining about.*
* Please note: your complaint must refer to specific posts / replies, not "all this member's messages".
4. Why you are complaining about the content. Please answer either section (A) or (B)
(A) Please tell me why you think this content breaks the law. For example, has it breached your privacy?
(B) Please indicate which communication principle the content breaches (choose one or more):
1. It discloses sensitive personal facts about another individual.
2. It is threatening, intimidating or menacing.
3. It is grossly offensive to a reasonable person in the position of the affected individual.
4. It is indecent or obscene.
5. It is being used to harass an individual.
6. It makes a false statement.
7. It contains a matter that is published in breach of confidence.
8. It incites or encourages anyone to send a message to an individual for the purpose of causing harm to the individual.
9. It incites or encourages another individual to commit suicide.
10. It denigrates an individual by reason of his or her colour, race, ethnic or national origins, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.
Please explain how the content posted has caused harm (serious emotional distress).
5. Anything else?
Is there anything else you think is relevant?
________
What happens once I submit a complaint?
Once your complaint is received by the Neighbourly Team, we will first assess whether there has been a breach of the Neighbourly Guidelines. If there has been a breach, the content will be removed straight away and you will be notified accordingly.
If there has not been a breach, a copy of your complaint (excluding your personal details, unless you agree to sharing these) will be sent to the content author within 48 hours.
The content author will need to respond within 48 hours if they want to send a counter-notice. If we do not hear back from the author of the content within 48 hours, we will remove the content from our website.
If the author responds within 48 hours and agrees to the content being removed, we will remove the content immediately and notify you. The author may decide to remove the content themselves at this point.
If the author doesn’t agree to the content's removal, the content will remain on our website. We will notify you of the author's decision.
-
Can I say whatever I like on Neighbourly?
Only to a degree...
Neighbourly is designed to be a safe space for kind community communication. Unlike other social networks, all users are identified by full name and location, so unkind conversations can leave people feeling particularly vulnerable.
Members can certainly bring alternate views to discussions (as neighbours often do!) and raise topics on Neighbourly that matter to them, but the Neighbourly website is still a moderated platform with a set of rules (known as the Neighbourly Guidelines). These rules dictate what members should and shouldn’t post, and all members inherently agree to our rules and site terms when creating an account.
You may be thinking it’s not very neighbourly to enforce rules, or prevent someone from having their say - and from time to time members feel that our moderation of their content goes against their freedom of speech.
However, just as you might have rules as to what is acceptable in your home, we similarly have rules outlining what is acceptable to post on our website.
Why are guidelines and moderation necessary?
The Neighbourly platform has been designed as:
a place to have productive and locally relevant conversations
a site encouraging kindness and collaboration
a safe space for neighbours to contribute to discussions
As such, we take care to ensure content on Neighbourly is purposeful. Moderation improves member experiences by removing any ‘noise’ that gets in the way of productive neighbourhood discussions. By ‘noise’ we mean anything we consider to be:
Bullying
Harassment
Offensive language
Ranting, venting and hostility
Threats
Trolling
Spamming
Personal attacks and insults
Post-hijacking
Discrimination
Offensive material
Inciting violence
Public criticism
Naming and shaming
Derogatory or dehumanising terms
Anything distracting or destructive to neighbourhood conversation
You can report a post or reply at any time by following these instructions.
If you’re ever unsure about what you can post on Neighbourly, please get in touch with us and our Member Experience Team will be happy to guide you.
Please note:
We reserve the right to disable replies on any post if we feel it is creating disharmony or is likely to attract further guideline breaches.
