Delete Your Data

Last updated: 14 August 2026

Delete your account in the app

  1. Open VoteSmart and go to Profile
  2. Tap Delete account
  3. Confirm when prompted

Your account, policy responses, push notification token, and sign-in identity are permanently deleted straight away. Nothing is archived.

Three things are kept:

  • The anonymous running totals your responses contributed to. These were never linked to your identity and can't be traced back to you.
  • If you donated, a record of the amount, date, payment reference and your account ID. This one is not anonymous. We're required to keep records of money received for seven years under New Zealand's tax rules, and that applies whether or not you still have an account. We delete it once the seven years are up.
  • If you wrote to us through the support form, that message — for 24 months from when you sent it. It already reached our support inbox as an email, so deleting our copy wouldn't unsend it. Ask us and we'll delete it sooner.

Delete your account without the app

Email support@votesmart.co.nz with the subject "Account Deletion Request" and the email address or phone number linked to your account, so we can verify it's you. We'll delete your account within 20 working days.

If you signed in with Facebook or Google

Deleting your VoteSmart account through the app or by email removes your data from our systems. You can also separately manage what VoteSmart can access via:

  • Facebook → Settings & Privacy → Settings → Apps and Websites → find "VoteSmart" → Remove
  • Google → myaccount.google.com → Security → Third-party apps with account access → find "VoteSmart" → Remove access

Take yourself off the launch list

If you gave us your email address on our website to be told when VoteSmart launches, that address isn't part of an account and isn't covered by the steps above — it sits on its own.

  • Click the unsubscribe link in any email we've sent you, or
  • Email support@votesmart.co.nz asking to be taken off the launch list.

Either one deletes your address rather than marking it inactive. Emailed requests are actioned within five working days.

We delete the whole list ourselves once we've sent the two launch emails — one when the beta opens, one when the full app goes live — or 12 months after you signed up if we haven't launched by then, whichever comes first. See the Privacy Policy for what the list is and isn't used for.

Delete a message you sent us

Messages you send us — through the support form in the app, or the contact form on our website — are kept for 24 months so we can pick up a conversation later, then deleted automatically. That applies whether or not you still have an account.

If you'd rather we deleted yours sooner, email support@votesmart.co.nz from the address you used and we'll remove it within 20 working days.

Donations

Deleting your VoteSmart account does not delete Stripe's own transaction records, which they retain under their own policies and for our tax and accounting obligations. Our own donation record is kept too, as described above — for seven years, with your account ID still attached, so the two can be matched if a payment ever has to be traced.

Questions

support@votesmart.co.nz