Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy details how Hometrack Australia Pty Ltd handles personal information.
Under the Privacy Act ‘Personal information’ is an expression that has a defined meaning. It is information that can be used to identify an individual.
We are committed to complying with Australian Privacy laws and the Spam Act.
We believe in trusted relationships with our customers and consumers. We also believe it is important that consumers and businesses should have access to complete, accurate and timely property information.
Primarily, we use personal information for the provision of property information services to our subscribers, customers and consumers. Not all of the information collected and held by us will be personal information.
Application of Privacy Policy
This policy applies to Hometrack Australia and its subsidiaries, as set out below.
By using our services, including accessing our websites, APIs or reports, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, then you must not use our services.
Information
We collect personal information to enable us to provide our services. We also collect a broad range of non-personal information. Some of the information we collect includes:
- historical sales data for property, sales price and date of sale
- details regarding properties listed or advertised for sale
- property attributes and property location details
- contact information and payment details for our customers, users and subscribers
- information pertaining to products and services ordered from us and their use
- statistical and demographic information.
Accuracy and Completeness
We are committed to providing accurate and complete property information. If you become aware that any information in our databases is inaccurate or incomplete, then please notify us (with as much detail as possible) and we will use our best efforts to verify that information and correct or update the information in our databases.
Our contact details to provide corrected or updated information are support_au@hometrack.com|.
Collection
We may collect information about you or a property that you own:
- directly from you, for example, when you provide information to us (such as when you order a product or service from us, when you complete a form on a website, when you subscribe to a newsletter, and when you provide us with corrected or updated information about a property)
- from related companies of Hometrack Australia
- from third parties, such as State Government departments & agencies, local councils, valuers, banks, home loan providers, mortgage brokers and real estate agents
- from publicly available information about you or a property that you own (such as from newspaper advertisements and property listings).
If you provide data to us that includes personal information of another, you must first obtain consent from that person. By providing that information to us, you represent that you have obtained such consent.
Use and Disclosure
Personal information
We may use information about you to:
- provide products and services to you
- verify your identity
- administer and manage products and services provided to you, including charging, billing, account management, and debt collection
- perform administrative and operational tasks
- provide you with news and information, as well as promote and market products, services and special offers made available by us, our related companies (unless you ask us not to)
- generate records and reports based on your use of our services
- conduct research about our products and services
- develop products and services
- respond to any specific request you make of us
- prevent or investigate any fraud or crime (or a suspected fraud or crime)
- audit and monitor the services we provide.
We may disclose information about you to:
- your authorised representatives and agents
- our agents, contractors and third party service providers to enable them to provide administrative and other services for or to us
- others where the disclosure is required by law, for example, to government agencies and regulatory bodies as part of our statutory obligations, or for law enforcement purposes
- an organisation that acquires all or part of our assets or businesses.
- We may also use or disclose information about you where we have obtained your consent, where we have obtained the the information from another party (eg the valuer generals department of your state government) for a specified purpose, or as required by relevant laws, statutes, regulations, codes and external payment systems.
Where you provide information to us, you consent to use and disclosure of that information in accordance with this Policy.
We collect information from publicly available sources such as the valuer general office in each State and Territory. Your use of this information must be in accordance with the rules set down by the relevant information provider. These rules are contained in the terms and conditions of your contract with us. The information provider’s rules may be amended from time to time and therefore so too will the terms of your contract.
Websites
We are committed to ensuring the security of our websites, and we incorporate security practices and procedures which we consider are consistent with Australian industry standards. We review our security procedures from time to time and update them when relevant. All orders placed online using a credit card are covered by SSL security technology to protect customer details.
Each time you visit one of our websites, web servers may collect certain information including your IP address, the date, time and duration of your visit and the pages, documents and services accessed. We use these non-personalised statistics about the use of our websites to continually improve our websites and customer service, and to create aggregated data and data products regarding the property market or product trends that we may provide to third parties.
Our websites may contain links to the websites of third parties. If you access those third party websites they may collect information about you. You will need to contact them to ascertain their privacy standards. We are not responsible for the conduct of the operators of third party websites.
Our websites may use a technology called “cookies”. A cookie is a small text file that may be placed on your computer hard drive by a web page server. Cookies may be accessed later by our web servers. Cookies store information about your use of websites. Cookies also allow us to provide you with more personalised service. We use cookies to:
- aid in the security of your use of our Hometrack Australia websites
- aid in the log-in process
- facilitate administration of Hometrack Australia websites.
Most web browsers are set to accept cookies but you may configure your browser not to accept them. If you set your browser to reject cookies you may not be able to make full use of our websites.
We cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted over the internet. We recommend that you take all necessary precautions to protect your personal information while you are online, including installing appropriate operating system updates, browser updates, virus protection software and firewall software.
Credit card details
If you provide us with your credit card details for payment of products and services, we will only use that information for the purpose of processing your payment, which includes disclosing the information to our third party credit card gateway provider. We will retain a record of the last 4 digits of your credit card number for auditing and verification purposes only.
Access
We take reasonable steps to ensure that all personal information about you that we collect, use or disclose is accurate.
You may request access to personal information that we hold about you. Before providing you with access to the personal information that we hold about you, we may require that you first provide us with documentary evidence verifying your identity. Subject to us being satisfied with such verifying documents, we will only refuse a request for access to personal information when permitted by law (including the National Privacy Principles) and, in the unlikely event that this occurs, will give a written explanation for our decision. We will not charge you a fee for your access request but may charge you the reasonable cost of processing your request.
If you would like to request access to the information we hold about you, please contact our Privacy Officer (contact details below).
Opt-out
If, at any time, you do not wish to receive marketing correspondence from us, please use the “unsubscribe” link included in the correspondence or advise our Privacy Officer (contact details below), and we will cease future correspondence and, if requested, remove your personal information from our marketing database.
Sensitive Information
We will only collect sensitive information about you with your consent (unless we are otherwise allowed or required by law to collect that information). The Privacy Act defines the expression “Sensitive information’ It includes information about your health, your race or ethnic origin and religious beliefs.
Telephone Calls
We may record and monitor telephone calls between you and us for training, service quality control and compliance purposes.
Disputes
If you have a complaint about our treatment of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer (contact details below). Our Privacy Officer will investigate your complaint and endeavour to resolve any issue to your satisfaction.
If we do not adequately answer your concerns, you have the right to make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner.
Contact
If you have any questions relating to this privacy policy or your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer:
Email: support_au@hometrack.com|
Ph: +61 2 8257 1100
Hometrack Australia Pty Ltd
Suite 1, Level 8
92 Pitt St, Sydney 2000
Australia
Please provide us with your full name, address and contact number when contacting us.
General
This Privacy Policy is made on behalf of Hometrack Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 43 127 386 298) and its subsidiaries. All references to “Hometrack Australia”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this policy are references to Hometrack Australia Pty Ltd and its subsidiaries.
This policy is effective as of 1 January 2012. Hometrack Australia may vary this Privacy Policy from time to time. Hometrack Australia will notify you of these changes by publishing them on our websites. The current version of this Privacy Policy is located at:
http://hometrack.com.au/contact-us/privacy-policy
Hometrack Australia is a trademark of Hometrack Australia Pty Ltd.