Kivvo Trust & Safety

• Trust and safety is core to what we do. Kivvo handles your savings, and we take that seriously.
• We protect users through structure, not just through features. Kivvo doesn't hold your money, doesn't sell your data, and doesn't pretend to be something we're not.
• We're honest and transparent. If something goes wrong, we tell you. If we don't know, we say so.
• You have a role to play too. Use a strong password, watch for phishing, and report anything suspicious.
• If something goes wrong, there are clear routes to follow. See our Report Fraud, Complaints Policy, and Vulnerability Disclosure pages.
• We're a very small New Zealand company — currently two people. We're honest about our limits.

Trust and safety covers everything that helps you use Kivvo with confidence — knowing that:

• Your money is handled carefully
• Your information is protected
• You're not going to be deceived or misled
• If something goes wrong, there are ways to put it right
• The people running Kivvo are accountable

It's not one feature. It's how the whole service is designed.

These are the principles that guide how we approach trust and safety at Kivvo.

We're an early-stage company. We won't pretend to be bigger, safer, or further along than we are. If there's something we can't do yet, we'll say so. If there's a risk you should know about, we'll tell you.

This matters because trust isn't built on marketing. It's built on consistently doing what you say and being honest when you can't.

Some trust and safety approaches rely on promising to do the right thing. We prefer to build so that certain risks can't arise in the first place.

The clearest example is custody. Kivvo doesn't hold your money. That's not just a promise — it's how the service is designed. Money moves through licensed third-party providers, and Kivvo never has access to it in a way that would let us misuse it.

We commit to telling you:

• What happens to your money
• What happens to your information
• What our limits are
• When something has gone wrong

This is harder than saying only the good things, but it's how trust gets earned.

If we get something wrong, we want to hear about it. We commit to:

• Responding to your concerns
• Investigating properly
• Telling you what we found
• Fixing what we can
• Learning from mistakes

We don't want to build a service that's technically compliant but unfair in practice. We aim to:

• Charge fees that are clear and defensible
• Handle complaints in good faith
• Treat users as people, not as numbers

Kivvo's approach to protecting your money comes down to one thing: we don't hold it.

Specifically:

• Payments are processed by Stripe. A licensed payment provider, not Kivvo.
• Kivvo doesn't take custody of your funds. Money moves through the payment provider's framework.
• We never have access to your money in a way that would let us misuse it. We can't move it outside the framework you've authorised.
• We can't pay ourselves from your contributions. Kivvo's revenue comes from fees, not from your savings.

For more detail on how money flows through Kivvo, see our Financial Services Disclosures and Bank Payments & Cards pages.

Protecting your personal information is part of trust and safety. Our approach:

• Collect as little as possible. We only collect information we need to run Kivvo.
• Store as little as possible. We rely on specialist providers for sensitive data.
• Never sell your data. Not to advertisers, not to anyone.
• Encrypt in transit and at rest. Standard, established practices.
• Restrict internal access. Only the people who need it, currently two.
• Be transparent about our providers. You can see who we work with in our Privacy Policy.
• Give you control. You can download your data and request deletion where we're able to delete.

For more detail, see our Privacy Policy and Privacy & Data Requests pages.

Fraud protection is a shared responsibility between us, you, and our payment provider.

• Use Stripe's fraud detection — industry-standard tools applied to payments.
• Monitor for unusual activity — patterns that suggest account compromise or abuse.
• Lock accounts when necessary — if we believe an account is compromised, we can act quickly to protect the user.
• Support investigations — working with users, banks, and law enforcement.
• Publish clear guidance — so users know what to look out for.

• Use a strong, unique password.
• Watch for phishing — no legitimate company will ask for your password or one-time codes.
• Review your account regularly — check contributions, payment methods, and notifications.
• Report anything suspicious — to us, your bank, and the police where appropriate.

For a full guide, see our Report Fraud page.

To keep Kivvo a safe place to save, we ask users to:

• Use Kivvo honestly. Don't use it for fraud, laundering, or anything illegal. See our Acceptable Use Policy.
• Keep your account secure. Strong password, keep your device updated.
• Provide accurate information. If we can't identify you, we may not be able to help you.
• Report problems. If something looks wrong, tell us.
• Be considerate of others. Kivvo is a shared service. Don't abuse it in ways that affect other users.
• Respect our team. We're two people doing our best. We'll be respectful to you and ask the same in return.

If you want to report something to Kivvo, here's where to go.

All reports go through the same support process — a support ticket on the Support page. We don't use email for support, except for security vulnerability reports, which use security@Kivvo.co.nz.

If we become aware of a safety incident — for example, fraud affecting users, a security breach, or a serious abuse of the service — we:

• Investigate immediately. We aim to understand what happened, how, and who's affected.
• Take protective action. Locking accounts, blocking payment methods, or resetting credentials where needed.
• Notify affected users. If the incident affects you, we'll tell you — what happened, what it means, and what to do.
• Notify relevant authorities where required — for example, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for a privacy breach.
• Fix the root cause. We don't just patch symptoms; we try to understand what allowed the incident and prevent it happening again.
• Review and learn. We review each incident and adjust our practices.

We don't hide safety incidents. Even when it's uncomfortable, we tell users what happened.

We're a very small New Zealand company — currently two people. We're honest about what that means.

• Move quickly on issues affecting users
• Talk to you directly
• Make decisions without layers of bureaucracy
• Be transparent and accountable

• Provide 24/7 monitoring
• Offer a large customer service team
• Fund a formal bug bounty program
• Provide enterprise-grade SLAs
• Guarantee immediate responses

We do our best with what we have, and we improve as we grow. If our size means we can't help you with something, we'll say so.

To be clear about what we commit to:

• We'll tell the truth about what Kivvo is and isn't.
• We'll never sell your data.
• We'll never take custody of your money.
• We'll respond to your concerns. Promptly where we can, honestly when we can't.
• We'll fix what we can, and be clear about what we can't.
• We'll tell you when something goes wrong.
• We'll learn and improve.

These commitments apply to every user, on every plan, whether you're paying us anything or not.

If you have feedback on how we approach trust and safety — including things we could do better, or things we've missed — we want to hear it.

Submit a support ticket via the Support page and tell us:

• What's on your mind
• What you think we should do differently
• Anything you think we should be doing that we're not

We read everything and take it seriously.

• Security — how Kivvo approaches security
• Report Fraud — how to report suspected fraud
• Vulnerability Disclosure — how to report a security vulnerability
• Privacy Policy — how we handle your personal information
• Complaints Policy — how to raise a concern
• Acceptable Use Policy — what you can and can't do on Kivvo
• Financial Services Disclosures — Kivvo's regulatory position
• Bank Payments & Cards — how payments flow through Kivvo
• About Kivvo — who we are and what we're building

To report an issue or ask a question, submit a support ticket via the Support page. We don't use email for support.

This page was last reviewed in October 2026.