ARA Wealth Privacy Notice
Last updated: 10 March 2026
ARA Wealth is designed to help households understand and manage their finances with clarity and confidence. Because this involves sensitive financial information, protecting your privacy is one of our most important responsibilities.
This notice explains what information we collect, how we use it, how it is protected, and the choices you have about your data.
If anything in this notice is unclear, please contact us. We believe people should always understand how their financial information is handled.
A Note on Trust
ARA Wealth was built to help households feel calmer and more confident about money. Connecting financial accounts requires trust, and we take that responsibility seriously.
ARA Wealth does not hold your money, move your money, or have access to your banking passwords.
Our role is simply to help you understand how money moves through your household so you can make better financial decisions.
1. Who We Are
ARA Wealth is a household financial clarity platform designed to help families organise and review their finances.
The platform provides tools that help households:
- track income
- organise spending
- plan allocations
- forecast cashflow
- build savings buffers
- review finances together through a regular process called Review & Reset
ARA Wealth does not provide banking services. Instead, ARA Wealth helps households understand their finances by analysing financial data retrieved from their bank accounts when users choose to connect them.
2. Information We Collect
To provide the service, ARA Wealth collects several types of information. We only collect information that is necessary to operate the platform and provide our services.
Account Information
When you create an ARA Wealth account we collect basic information such as:
- your name
- your email address
- household profile information
- login credentials used to access your ARA Wealth account
This information allows us to create and secure your household workspace inside the platform.
How Your Login Details Are Protected
ARA Wealth takes the protection of login credentials very seriously.
Your account password is never stored in plain text and cannot be viewed by ARA Wealth staff.
Instead:
- passwords are securely hashed and encrypted
- the original password cannot be recovered from our database
- only the encrypted version is stored
This means that even if someone accessed the database, your actual password would not be visible. Access to production systems containing customer data is strictly limited and monitored.
3. Financial Information
If you choose to connect a bank account, ARA Wealth may retrieve financial information including:
- bank account names
- account balances
- transaction history
- transaction descriptions
- transaction dates and amounts
This information is used to help you understand how money moves through your household finances. ARA Wealth only accesses the information required to provide its financial planning and household budgeting tools.
4. Bank Connections via Akahu
ARA Wealth uses Akahu, a New Zealand open banking provider, to securely connect to supported banks.
When you connect a bank account:
- You are redirected to Akahu's secure authentication system
- You log in directly with your bank through that system
- Your bank confirms the connection through Akahu
ARA Wealth never sees your banking password.
After the connection is authorised, Akahu provides ARA Wealth with a secure access token that allows the platform to retrieve financial data.
This data may include:
- account balances
- transaction history
- account identifiers
The access provided through Akahu is read-only. ARA Wealth cannot initiate payments, move money, or perform banking transactions on your behalf.
5. Secure Access Tokens
Bank connections remain active using secure access tokens provided by Akahu.
These tokens allow ARA Wealth to retrieve updated financial information without requiring you to log in to your bank repeatedly.
Important protections include:
- tokens are securely stored
- tokens are encrypted where appropriate
- tokens cannot be used to move money or initiate transactions
- tokens only allow read-only access to financial data
These tokens allow ARA Wealth to update financial data automatically so users can see an accurate view of their finances.
6. How Financial Data Is Protected
Because ARA Wealth works with sensitive financial information, we apply multiple layers of protection.
These include:
- encrypted connections between your device and our servers (HTTPS)
- secure server infrastructure
- protected databases for financial information
- restricted internal access to production systems
- monitoring systems designed to detect unusual activity
Access to financial data is limited to authorised personnel who require it to operate or support the platform. We continuously review and improve our security practices to ensure customer data is handled responsibly.
7. How We Use Your Information
We use your information to provide the services offered by ARA Wealth.
Financial Organisation
Helping households organise spending, income and financial plans.
Cashflow Forecasting
Showing how money moves through a household across weeks and months.
Weekly Financial Reviews
Supporting the Review & Reset process where households review and adjust their finances.
Financial Insights
Providing summaries, trends and alerts to help households make better financial decisions.
Platform Improvement
Understanding how the platform is used so we can improve the experience.
ARA Wealth does not sell personal or financial data to advertisers or third parties.
8. Who We Share Information With
ARA Wealth only shares information when necessary to operate the service.
This may include:
Akahu
Our open banking partner that securely connects bank accounts to ARA Wealth.
Infrastructure Providers
Secure cloud hosting providers used to operate the platform. These providers are required to maintain strict data security standards.
ARA Wealth does not sell or rent customer data to third parties.
9. Disconnecting Bank Accounts
You remain in control of your bank connections at all times.
If you no longer want ARA Wealth to access financial data from your bank, you can disconnect the connection within the application.
When a connection is disconnected:
- access tokens are revoked immediately and no further data is retrieved from the bank
- ARA Wealth stops syncing new financial information
- the connection between ARA Wealth and your bank account is terminated
Historical transaction data that has already been imported into ARA Wealth may remain available to you for financial history continuity. Financial data is retained only as long as reasonably required to provide the ARA Wealth service and in accordance with the New Zealand Privacy Act.
You may also revoke access through Akahu directly if you prefer.
10. Data Retention
Financial data is retained only as long as reasonably required to provide the ARA Wealth service and in accordance with the New Zealand Privacy Act.
Historical transaction data that has already been imported may remain available to you for financial history continuity. However, when you disconnect a bank connection, access tokens are revoked immediately and no further data is retrieved from that connection.
If you delete your ARA Wealth account:
- personal information will be deleted or anonymised where possible
- bank connections will be revoked
- access tokens will be invalidated
Some anonymised data may remain for system integrity or analytical purposes where permitted by law.
11. Your Privacy Rights
Under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, you have the right to:
- request access to the personal information we hold about you
- request correction of inaccurate information
- request deletion of your personal information where appropriate
If you would like to make a request, please contact us using the details below.
12. Contact Us
If you have questions about this notice or about how your information is handled, please contact us.
ARA Wealth
Email: privacy@arawealth.app
13. Updates to This Notice
We may update this Privacy Notice as ARA Wealth evolves. If significant changes are made, we will notify users through the platform.