Terms of Service
Last updated 7 September 2026. Applies to Spotto for Android
(nz.co.spottoapp).
In short. Spotto is an app for recording interesting vehicles you see on New Zealand roads. Be decent to other people, photograph cars rather than people, do not use Spotto to follow or identify anybody, and do not use it while driving. Rarity figures are estimates from a public register, not valuations. If you break these rules your account can be removed.
You do not have to blur number plates. They are in every photo of every car and that is fine — what keeps this safe is that Spotto never publishes where or when you saw it.
1. Agreeing to these terms
By installing or using Spotto you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the app. If you make an account, you also agree to the Privacy Policy.
2. Who may use Spotto
Anyone may install and use Spotto on their own device. To create an account you must be at least 13, and if you are under 16 you should have a parent's or guardian's agreement. One person, one account.
3. Your account
You are responsible for what happens under your account and for keeping your sign-in secure. Choose a handle that is not offensive and does not impersonate someone else. We may reclaim a handle that impersonates a real person, a business or a marque.
4. Safety comes before spotting
Do not use Spotto while driving. Log the car afterwards. Do not trespass, do not enter private property, and do not follow, obstruct or confront anybody to get a photograph. Nothing in this app is worth a crash, a fine or a confrontation.
5. What you may not post
Spotto has a feed, direct messages and profiles, so what you post can reach other people. You must not post:
- Anything that turns a car into a person. Number plates appear in photographs and that is fine — see below. What is not fine is posting a plate together with a name, an address, a workplace, a claim about who owns the car, or where it is usually parked.
- Recognisable photographs of people, or anyone's home, driveway or address.
- Anything that follows a particular car or person. Spotto is for spotting, not for tracking. Do not use it to build a record of one vehicle's movements or to keep tabs on somebody.
- Anything harassing, threatening, abusive, hateful, or targeting a person or group.
- Sexual content, or any content involving a minor in a sexual way.
- Content that is unlawful in New Zealand, encourages a crime, or encourages dangerous or illegal driving.
- Spam, advertising, scams, or links you would not want a stranger to click.
- Someone else's photographs or writing presented as your own.
- Anything designed to make the leaderboard say something untrue.
Zero tolerance for abusive content and for people who behave abusively. Accounts that post it are removed.
About number plates
A photograph of a car has a number plate in it. That is unavoidable in an app for photographing cars, and you do not need to blur or crop anything. Plates are visible to anyone standing on the street, Spotto never records one as data, and a plate on its own tells a stranger very little.
What makes it safe is that Spotto does not publish where or when. A shared spot carries a region and a calendar date — never coordinates, never a place name, never a time of day. Keeping the location coarse is the reason we can be relaxed about the plate, so the two rules above exist to stop anyone putting the pieces back together by hand.
If someone asks for a photograph of their vehicle to be taken down, we take it down. No account needed, no reason required.
6. Reporting, blocking and moderation
Every post, message and profile can be reported from inside the app, and you can block any account. Reports reach a human by email. We aim to act within 24 hours and may remove content or accounts without warning where the content is serious.
Under the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 we pass a complaint to the author within 48 hours and, if there is no response, remove the content within a further 48 hours.
Content that draws reports from several different people is hidden automatically while it is reviewed. That is a safety measure, not a finding against you, and it is reversed if the content is fine.
7. Your content stays yours
You keep ownership of your notes and photographs. By publishing something to the feed, you give us permission to store it and to show it to the people you published it to — nothing more. That permission ends when you delete the content, subject to the limits in section 7 of the Privacy Policy. We will never use your photographs to promote the app without asking you first.
8. Rarity figures are estimates, not valuations
Rarity grades, registered counts and regional figures are calculated from the New Zealand Motor Vehicle Register, which is public data published by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. Spotto is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Waka Kotahi, any vehicle manufacturer, or any marque named in the catalogue.
The register is a snapshot and it contains errors and inconsistencies, some of which we correct and some of which we cannot. Counts change every month. Breakdowns by generation and trim rely on published year ranges and on how the register spells a model, and both are imperfect.
None of it is a valuation and none of it is advice. Do not buy, sell or price a vehicle on the strength of a number in this app.
9. Availability
Spotto is offered as it is. The app works offline and your collection lives on your phone, so it keeps working if our servers do not; the feed, messages and leaderboard need a connection and can be unavailable. We may change or withdraw the online features. If we ever shut the service down we will give notice in the app and leave you a way to export your collection.
10. Ending your use of Spotto
You can delete your account at any time from the Account screen, or simply uninstall the app. We may suspend or remove an account that breaks these terms, that is used to harass someone, or that is used to falsify the leaderboard. If we do, we will tell you why unless telling you would put someone at risk.
11. Liability
Nothing in these terms limits your rights under the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or the Fair Trading Act 1986 where those Acts apply to you as a consumer, and we do not attempt to contract out of them.
Subject to that, Spotto is provided without warranties, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, for loss of data you did not back up, or for anything arising from your use of the app in a vehicle or on the road.
12. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. If a change is significant we will tell you in the app before it takes effect, and the date at the top of this page always shows when it last changed.
13. Law
These terms are governed by New Zealand law, and the New Zealand courts have jurisdiction.
14. Contact
privacy@spotto.kiwi