Privacy Policy

This is the privacy notice or policy (notice) of PropertyPal.com Limited (we, us or our).

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit and use our website (regardless of where you visit it from) http://www.propertypal.com (our website), whether as an estate agent, letting agent, property developer or property owner seeking to display a property you are marketing to users of our website interested in viewing properties for sale or for rental, as an interested party seeking to gather information shared by users of our website, or however otherwise.

It also informs you how we will look after your personal data when you generally interact with us as one of our customers, and about your privacy rights and how the law protects you. It does not cover any website you have used to access our website or any website that you access from it.

It is important that you read this privacy notice so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data.

Please use the Glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy notice.

1. WHO WE ARE

Under GDPR, we act as a data controller (make decisions) for your personal data that we collect and a data processor (process your data) or data controller for any of your data shared with us by a third-party.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise any of your legal rights, please contact us using the details set out below.

Contact Details

Our full details are:

Full Name of Legal Entity: PropertyPal.com Limited, a company incorporated in Northern Ireland under company number NI603400
Email Address: [email protected]
Postal Address: Unit 2D Jennymount Business Park, North Derby Street, Belfast, BT15 3HN
ICO Registration Number: ZA128377 (this is the number under which we are registered with the ICO for the processing of personal data)

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

If you would like to make a complaint to the ICO, their contact details are:
By phone - 0303 123 1113
Online - https://ico.org.uk/concerns

Changes to the Privacy Notice and your Duty to Inform us of Changes

This version was last updated on 25 May 2018 and historic versions can be obtained by contacting us.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Third-Party Links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

2. THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as set out below.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us. Where you have registered to use our website you can update your details or delete your account at any time.

Data that you Supply to Us

• General Personal Data - This is personal information about you that you share with us through filling in online or offline forms, by email, through the post, on the telephone or by any other means.
  
  Typically, when you visit, register or use the services on our website, as an ordinary user you will be asked to provide certain information about yourself, including your full name, emails address and mobile phone number.
  
  Where you are an estate agent or property developer using the site as a member, you will be asked to provide the above details, as well as your business name, bank account details for the purposes of administering your account, and addresses of properties that you submit.
  
  If you provide verbal personal information that you give us consent to use you will have such consent confirmed back to you in writing.
  
  Where payment is made, additional personal information we ask you to supply may include your information needed to carry out any checks, such as credit checks. We do not collect personal bank account details. If you apply for a role with our organisation, other personal data shared is likely to include your employment history, proof of identity, qualification checks, health information, or whatever other information you volunteer to us.
  
  You may also communicate your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences (including details you provide when you opt-in to receive marketing communications from us).
  
  IMPORTANT NOTE
  
  Unless submitted by the property owner or members of your social network, details held by us about a property do not comprise personal data as defined by the GDPR. We may use the data held about properties advertised to provide services to third parties.
  
  We do not accept property listings directly from consumers, with the exception of registered members of a government approved property redress scheme (including, in the Republic of Ireland, those licensed by the Property Services Regulatory Authority). If you are the owner of a property being displayed for sale or for rent on our website this is because the agent you have chosen to use for the sale or the letting of your property has a contract with us to display the details of your property on our website and thereby place the information about your property fully in the public domain.
  
  If the agent you have chosen to use for the sale or the letting of your property has a contract with us and has not elected to display the details of your property on our website, you can request for such details to be displayed via the agent.

• Project Specific Personal Data - This also includes specific personal data that we may gain technical access to (from you) through the services that we provide for you, including where we host websites or software solutions on your behalf, and can include numerous different kinds of personal data, depending on the nature of the databases or other information to which you grant us access. We have a separate data processing agreement that supplements this policy and which applies where we provide hosting services on your behalf.
  
  Where you are sharing personal data that does not directly relate to you (e.g. your representatives that legally act on your behalf), you must ensure you have the consent to do so and have shared this Notice with that person/those people.

Data that we collect

• Telephone Recordings - Telephone conversations may be recorded to improve training and to ensure a high level of consistent customer service.

• Technical Data - We may use the following technical services to gather technical data in the following ways:

You are not personally identifiable from any of the above data.

Information we receive from third-parties

• Business Partners - where we have formal relationships with business partners who may introduce new customers or sales opportunities to us, data would include personal contact details, information on the areas of interest and data required to fulfil a request, product or service.

• Social Media - where you have responded to a promotional item or offer from us through social media facilities such as Facebook, LinkedIn etc., we can receive profile information about you which can include your name, address, telephone number(s) and/or your business contact details. This information would be used to respond to your interest, to fulfil a request from you and/or to send you future information and offers, where you have given clear consent to do so.

• Publicly Available Information - we may collect personal information about you from publicly available sources. This can include your name, address and other publicly available information. As far as possible, we ensure that where any third-parties are involved in supplying such information, that they are compliant to do so. This may include credit reference agencies such as Experian or public registers such as the Companies House registry or the Electoral Register.

• Other - from time to time, we may receive personal information from other sources. We will always endeavour to ensure such information is provided from reputable sources, who are GDPR compliant to do so.

We may also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with services). In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

Cookies

A Cookie is a small text file that is added to your device's hard drive by a web server within our domain. Cookies cannot be used to run software programs or add a virus to your device. They are unique to you and avoid you having to input the same information and preferences each time you visit our web site(s). For more information on the cookies used by our website, please see our Cookies Policy which is available at: https://www.propertypal.com/cookie-policy.

Our website's servers automatically record 'log files' containing information about the volume and characteristics of our website's website traffic (e.g. IP address, numbers of pages viewed, length of time spent on our website). Log files are used to build pictures of how our website is used that help to monitor and improve the service provided by PropertyPal.com. You cannot be identified from your log files.

3. HOW we use your personal data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you, for the purposes contemplated in any separate terms of use for our website that you have entered into, including for the purposes set out in the “Our Standard Business Operations” section below.
• Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
• Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message (which is something that we do not typically do). If we do implement direct marketing in future, and you have consented to this, you have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

We may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data.

Our Standard Business Operations:

• To provide the services that we contract to do so with you;
• To provide you with information that you request from us;
• To confirm your identity as a natural living person; and
• As part of our billing, payments and recovery processes.

Marketing

We may use your data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).

We will only send you specific property alerts using our Site in relation to properties that you have subscribed to see.

We strive to provide you with choices regarding personal data uses for marketing and advertising and you can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us, as appropriate, at any time.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a service purchase, service experience or other transactions.

Change of Purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Legal Requirements

We will keep and use your data in terms of any legal or regulatory requirements that we have and can use your data to protect our legal position, if legal action is required, including the recovery of any outstanding debts.

By way of further example, we will share your personal data with the relevant agencies and without notice, where we are requested to or suspect fraudulent activities, money laundering, terrorist related activities.

Children Under Thirteen

Our website and services are not intended to be used by children under 13 years old. We will never knowingly collect data from or on children below 13 years old. If you become aware of such a child (or another person) supplying data on that child to us, please contact us.

4. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in paragraph 4 above.

• with HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances;
• with anyone, where your data has been disclosed to us for the purposes of a public advertising on our website, on the basis outlined above;
• with third party purchasers, if we buy, sell or merge any business or assets of our business and are required to share data as part of the buying, selling or merger agreement. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice;
• with third party purchasers, if our website is acquired by a third-party, and data is transferred as part of the purchased assets;
• with service providers acting as processors based in the European Union or United Kingdom who provide IT and system administration services;
• with our third party support platform providers, Freshdesk, where you contact us via social media or via our helpdesk email, and a record is created in of your email address, name or social media profile name, to see a history of contact between you and our support team;
• with analytical service providers in order to analyse our website traffic to improve products and services;
• with tools and products that are used to manage our relationship with Members e.g. to store documentation about our accounts;
• with professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the European Union or United Kingdom who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services, where they have a need to know same for any of the purposes set out above; or
• with reputable and trusted third-parties where we have asked them to contact you on our behalf, where you have given us consent, it is part of our contractual agreement, is a legal requirement or there is clear legitimate interest between us. These services may include sending you email, calling you by telephone, sending you information through the post etc.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process the minimal personal data required for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Third-party Marketing

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside of our own for marketing purposes.

If you have consented, we may provide your information to carefully screened third parties for the purposes detailed above, including advertisers, estate agents and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you and others. We do not disclose information about identifiable individuals to our advertisers, but we may provide them with aggregate information about our users (for example, we may inform them that 500 men aged under 30 have clicked on their advertisement on any given day). We may also use such aggregate information to help advertisers reach the kind of audience they want to target (for example, women in BT1). We may make use of the personal data we have collected from you to enable us to comply with our advertisers' wishes by displaying their advertisement to that target audience.

5. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

The data you provide to us will be securely stored and backed up within the EEA. We do not transfer your personal data outside the EEA.

6. DATA SECURITY

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website, and before it reaches us, such data is transmitted at your own risk.

7. DATA RETENTION

How long will you use my Personal Data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

We will keep your data for the term you have consented to, the contracted term between us where there is a legitimate interest for us to remain in contact with you, or for the legally required period, whichever is the longest.

By law we have to keep basic information about any of our customers (including contact, identity, financial and transaction data) for six years after you cease being a customer for tax purposes.

CHANGING THE INFORMATION HELD

Registered members of our website can update their information, change settings or cancel their membership at any time to ensure that such information is accurate and kept up-to-date.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see Section 9 below for further information.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

8. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law.

Generally, if requested whenever you cancel your membership, we will erase your data within three months of your request, subject to retention of any data which we are required to keep for legal or regulatory reasons (as outlined above).

Please note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

Where you exercise one of your rights, we may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to exercise such rights. This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

9. LEGAL

Changes to this Policy

We may change this policy from time to time. Any material changes to this policy will be notified to you.

Choice of Law and Jurisdiction

This policy shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of Northern Ireland and you irrevocably agree that the courts of Northern Ireland shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute which may arise out of, under, or in connection with this policy.

GLOSSARY