by MahiMatua
Last updated: 15 September 2026
This app is operated by Matua Holt, trading as MahiMatua. Questions about this policy: admin@mahimatua.co.nz.
Waka keeps records about your vehicles — manuals, service history, modifications, consumables and guides — and answers questions from the documents you add. It is built so that an answer always says which document and page it came from.
Account
Some of this is optional. If you would rather not give an email address, guest mode gives you an account with no email at all — but a guest account lives only on that phone, and everything in it is lost if the app is deleted.
What you add about your vehicles
What we do not collect
Documents are read on your device. Text extraction and, where a page is scanned, optical character recognition both run locally on your phone using Apple's frameworks. The document is not sent anywhere to be read.
The extracted text is then stored in your account so the assistant can search it.
When you ask a question, the question and the relevant extracts from your own documents are sent to OpenAI to produce an answer. Waka uses OpenAI's text-embedding-3-small and gpt-4o-mini models. Requests are made from our servers, not from your phone.
Almost everything you add is private to your account and enforced at the database level, not just in the app.
Two deliberate exceptions:
1. The vehicle catalogue is shared. When you add a vehicle that nobody has entered before, the make, model, year and engine become a catalogue entry other people can find. This contains no personal information and nothing about your particular vehicle.
2. Sending a copy is your choice. You can create a link that gives someone their own copy of one vehicle's records. The review screen shows exactly what is included before the link exists. Documents are included by default; your notes and your guides are OFF by default and only travel if you switch them on. A link expires after 14 days and you can revoke it at any time.
You can use Waka without an account. A guest account exists only on that phone and cannot be recovered if the app is deleted — the app says so wherever it matters.
Guest accounts that are over 30 days old and never had a vehicle added are deleted automatically each month. Guest accounts that DO have a garage are kept: they are in use, and deleting them would take someone's records away without warning.
We keep what you add until you delete it.
You can delete your account from Profile. Deleting removes your account, everything hanging off it, and every file you uploaded — manuals, page images, vehicle photos, modification files and guide media are all removed explicitly, not just unlinked.
If you have sent someone a copy of a vehicle, that copy belongs to them and is not deleted with your account. That is the point of sending it.
Waka is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their information.
You have the right to ask for a copy of any personal information we hold about you, and to ask us to correct it if you think it is wrong.
In practice you do not have to ask us for either: you can see everything Waka holds about you inside the app, correct it by editing it, and delete it by deleting your account. If you would still like to make a request in writing, or you are in a jurisdiction with additional rights over your personal information, contact admin@mahimatua.co.nz.
We may amend this policy from time to time. The current version is always available in the app and at https://mahimatua.co.nz/privacy. Any updated version applies from the date it is published, unless otherwise stated, and we will update the date at the top and note the change in the app.