DroneTrust Wingman Privacy Policy

Version: 2026-09-16
Applies to: the DroneTrust Wingman apps (iOS, Android) and the web portal at app.dronetrust.co.nz

1. Who we are

Drone Trust Limited ("DroneTrust", "we"), a New Zealand CAA Part 141 certificated training organisation, is responsible for this information under the Privacy Act 2020. Contact: support@dronetrust.co.nz.

2. What we collect

DroneTrust Wingman is a compliance tool for remote pilots and the organisations that oversee them. We collect what the compliance record requires and nothing for advertising:

  • Account: name, email, phone, date of birth, address, CAA pilot certificate number, examiner number where held, and an optional profile photo.
  • Credentials and training: certificates, ratings, supporting documents, course enrolments and progress.
  • Flight tests: booking details, the identification you present, results, examiner comments and your signature.
  • Operational records: pre-flight plans, flight logs, occurrence reports, operation notifications and your aircraft.
  • Organisation: your UAOC membership and role, and the documents your organisation files.
  • Communications: feed posts, comments and likes, messages with an examiner, conversations with the in-app assistant, and notification preferences.
  • Location: precise device location only when you tap "Use my location" or "Fetch current weather", in the foreground, never in the background. Address text typed during onboarding goes to an address-lookup service for suggestions, without your name.
  • Diagnostics: app version, online status, over-the-air updates, and crash diagnostics (the error, your account id and a trail of step names; never screen contents, screenshots or session recordings).

No advertising identifiers, analytics, usage tracking, data brokers or advertising software.

3. Why we use it

To run your account, keep and export your compliance records, let your organisation oversee you and an examiner assess you, remind you about things like an expiring certificate, answer support questions, meet aviation, safety, contractual and audit record-keeping obligations, and keep the service secure. We do not sell personal information or use it for advertising.

4. The in-app assistant

The assistant answers questions about your own records and can read only what you can. Your messages and the records it retrieves are processed by an AI provider that does not train on them. It may keep short notes on your training goals, which you can see by asking it. We keep conversations for accuracy and safety review by DroneTrust staff. Notes and conversations are deleted with your account. No automated decision in the app has a legal or similarly significant effect on you.

5. Who sees it

  • Your organisation: its prime person, chief pilot and fleet administrators see the plans, logs, occurrences and certificate status you file under it.
  • DroneTrust examiners: pilot profiles, filed flight plans and logs, bookings and assessments.
  • DroneTrust staff: to run the service, review applications and give support.
  • Publicly: a certificate's verification page, reachable only by its unique link, shows the certificate type, number, dates, status and your profile photo. A record you choose to share opens for 7 days for anyone holding the link.
  • Service providers, under contract and on our instructions: cloud hosting and storage, sign-in, email delivery, app updates, error monitoring, address suggestions, weather (coordinates only), the AI and review services behind the assistant, and our course platform and customer records system.
  • Where required by law, safety or an aviation authority, and our professional advisers in confidence.

6. Where it is held

Your records are stored in Australia; some providers process information in the United States, Europe and Japan. We satisfy ourselves, as the Privacy Act requires, that overseas recipients are subject to comparable safeguards.

7. Security

Information is encrypted in transit and at rest, and access is controlled per record. The app keeps you signed in and keeps a copy of your records and unsent work on the device so you can work without signal (unsent work shows as queued until it syncs); signing out clears it. If a breach is likely to cause serious harm, we notify the Privacy Commissioner and affected people as the Act requires.

8. How long we keep it

Aviation records are evidence and survive an account closing: certificates, flight logs, plans, occurrences, operation notifications, assessments and maintenance records are kept for as long as aviation, safety, contractual or audit obligations require, with your identity details as they were when filed. Contact details are removed or anonymised when no longer needed. Assistant data is deleted with your account. Audit logs are kept to evidence who changed what.

9. Deleting your account

Account, then Delete account, in the app or at app.dronetrust.co.nz. A prime person of a UAOC organisation first hands that role to another member or deletes the organisation with their account. Deletion happens straight away. You get a reference number, sign-in is permanently disabled, and your profile, contact details, memberships, assistant data and feed preferences are removed. The regulated evidence in section 8 is kept without your contact details.

10. Your rights

You can ask for a copy of your information, ask us to correct it, withdraw consent to optional processing such as location or reminder email, and complain to us at support@dronetrust.co.nz and then to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (privacy.org.nz, 0800 803 909). We respond within 20 working days.

11. Children

The app is not directed at children. You must be at least 16 to hold an account; a student under 18 is enrolled with a parent, guardian or training organisation involved.

12. Changes

Changes are posted here with a new version number; the app asks you to accept a materially changed version before you continue.