Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

1. Introduction Welcome to [Your Website Name]. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy explains how we collect and process your personal data when you visit our website, including any data you provide when you register, submit a review, or otherwise interact with our platform. Our platform allows tenants and prospective tenants to write and read reviews of landlords and property management companies, helping people make informed decisions about where they live. This policy covers all data collected through that process. This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children. Please read this policy carefully alongside any other notices we provide at the time of collecting your data. 2. Who We Are (Controller) [Your Company Name] (referred to as "we", "us", or "our") is the data controller responsible for your personal data. Contact details: Full name of legal entity: [Your Legal Company Name] Email address: [your@email.com] Postal address: [Your Address] If you have any questions about this privacy policy or wish to exercise your legal rights, please contact us using the details above. You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at www.ico.org.uk. We would, however, appreciate the chance to address your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance. 3. Third-Party Links Our 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 policy of every website you visit. 4. The Data We Collect About You Personal data 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 the following kinds of personal data about you: Identity Data Your first name, last name, and username used on our platform. Contact Data Your email address and, if provided, phone number. Review Data When you submit a review of a landlord or property management company, we collect the information you provide in the review, including: the name of the landlord or company being reviewed, the property address, details of your tenancy experience, and your rating or evaluation. Reviews are published on our platform and are visible to other users. Profile Data Your username and password, your tenancy history (addresses and dates you choose to share), your user type (tenant, prospective tenant, or other), and your feedback and survey responses. Usage Data Information about how you use our website and services, including dates and frequency of use. Technical Data Your IP address (used to identify misuse and determine approximate location by city or region), browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system, and other technology on the devices you use to access our website. Social Data If you choose to connect your account with a social network (e.g., Facebook), we may collect the information you have made publicly available on that network, such as your name, email address, profile photo, and location. You will be informed of what information will be collected before you connect your accounts. Marketing and Communications Data Your preferences for receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences. Data About Other Individuals If you provide information about other individuals (for example, a co-tenant), you confirm that the other person has authorised you to act on their behalf and has agreed to the processing of their personal data. Note that uploading information about other individuals may affect their privacy rights. Special Categories of Data We do not collect any special categories of personal data (such as race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, political opinions, health data, or biometric data), nor any information about criminal convictions or offences. Data About Landlords and Property Managers Our platform processes landlord names and property addresses as submitted in reviews by users. Landlords, like any business providing services to the public, would reasonably expect customers to share their experiences online. This processing is necessary for the legitimate purpose of our platform: enabling tenants to make informed decisions and encouraging landlords to maintain high standards of service. We have processes in place to ensure no excessively private information (such as personal phone numbers or email addresses of individuals) is made available through reviews. 5. How We Collect Your Personal Data We collect data through the following methods: Direct interactions: You provide data when you register an account, submit a review or rating, contact us, report a problem, request marketing, or enter a survey or competition. Automated technologies: As you use our website, we automatically collect Technical Data via cookies, server logs, and similar technologies. Please see our Cookie Policy for further details. Third-party sources: We may receive Technical Data from analytics providers (e.g., Google Analytics) and Usage Data from service providers who support the operation of our website. 6. How We Use Your Personal Data We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. We rely on the following legal bases: Performance of a contract — where processing is necessary to provide you with our services. Legitimate interests — where processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests, balanced against your rights (see below for details). Legal obligation — where processing is necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory requirement. Consent — for sending you direct marketing communications by email. You may withdraw consent at any time. We use your data for the following purposes: To register you as a user and manage your account. To allow you to submit, edit, and publish reviews of landlords and property management companies. To display reviews and other submissions to other users of the platform. To send you service messages, updates, and newsletters about our site. To administer and protect our website (including troubleshooting, security, and fraud prevention). To analyse usage patterns and improve our website and services. To investigate complaints about reviews, including any alleged defamation or rights infringement. To notify you of changes to our terms or privacy policy. To send you marketing communications where you have agreed to receive them. Legitimate Interests Assessment Where we rely on legitimate interests, our primary interest is in providing a safe, transparent, and balanced platform for tenants to share their experiences. This benefits future renters, encourages landlords to maintain good standards, and supports the public interest in accountable housing practices. We do not use your personal data in ways where your interests or fundamental rights override ours. We do not generally rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data, except for third-party direct marketing communications. You may withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us or using the unsubscribe link in any marketing email. 7. Disclosures of Your Personal Data We may share your personal data with the following parties: Service providers who provide IT, hosting, analytics, and administration services — they process your data only on our instructions and are bound by confidentiality. Professional advisers including lawyers, accountants, and insurers. Law enforcement agencies, regulators, courts, or governmental bodies where required by law or in connection with any investigation to help prevent unlawful activity. Any third party in the event of a sale, merger, or acquisition of our business — the new owner will use your data in accordance with this policy. We may disclose anonymised, aggregated review data to third parties for research or reporting purposes. This data cannot be used to identify any individual. 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. 8. Cookies Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users, improve your experience, and help us improve our site. You can set your browser to refuse all or some cookies, or to alert you when websites set cookies. Please note that disabling cookies may prevent some parts of our website from functioning properly. We use the following types of cookies: Strictly necessary cookies — required for core website functions such as logging in. Analytical/performance cookies — allow us to count visitors and understand how users navigate our site, so we can improve it. We use Google Analytics and Clarity for this purpose. Functionality cookies — allow us to recognise you when you return to the site and personalise your experience. Targeting cookies — record your visit and the pages you viewed in order to make our website and advertising more relevant to your interests. For further details about the specific cookies we use, please see our Cookie Policy. 9. International Transfers Some of our service providers are based outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area (EEA). Where we transfer your personal data outside the UK/EEA, we ensure that an equivalent level of protection is maintained by using at least one of the following safeguards: Transferring to countries approved by the relevant authority as providing adequate protection. Using contracts approved by the relevant authority (such as Standard Contractual Clauses) that give your personal data the same protection it has in the UK/EEA. Please contact us if you would like further information about the specific mechanism we use when transferring your personal data internationally. 10. Data Security We have put in place appropriate technical and organisational measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, accessed, altered, or disclosed without authorisation. These include: Password-protected user accounts with unique credentials. Storage of personal data on secure, encrypted servers. Access to personal data limited to employees and contractors who need it to perform their job, and who are subject to a duty of confidentiality. While we use all reasonable efforts to safeguard your personal data, please be aware that the internet is not entirely secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to or from our website. We have procedures in place 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. 11. Data Retention We will retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including to satisfy any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, or reporting requirements. We may retain your data for a longer period if there is a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation relating to our relationship with you. To determine the appropriate retention period, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the data; the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure; the purposes for which we process the data; and the applicable legal requirements. In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use that information indefinitely without further notice. Published reviews may remain visible on the platform in anonymised form after your account is closed. 12. Your Legal Rights Under data protection law, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data: Request access — you may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you (a "data subject access request"). Request correction — you may ask us to correct any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you. Request erasure — you may ask us to delete or remove your personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue processing it. Object to processing — you may object to our processing of your data where we rely on legitimate interests, or where we process it for direct marketing purposes. Request restriction — you may ask us to suspend processing of your personal data in certain circumstances. Request transfer — you may request that we transfer your personal data to you or a third party in a structured, machine-readable format. Withdraw consent — where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal. You will not be charged a fee to exercise these rights in most circumstances. We will respond to legitimate requests within one month, though complex or multiple requests may take longer, in which case we will notify you. To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at the details provided in Section 2. 13. Marketing Where you have given your permission, we may contact you by email about products, services, promotions, or special offers that may be of interest to you. You may opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by clicking the 'Unsubscribe' link in any marketing email or by contacting us directly. Opting out of marketing will not affect personal data we process in connection with your account or your use of our services. 14. Changes to This Privacy Policy We keep this privacy policy under regular review and may update it from time to time. We will notify you of any significant changes. You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are aware of the most recent version. The date at the top of this policy indicates when it was last updated. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes while you are using our services. 15. Contact Us We welcome your feedback and questions. If you have any queries about this privacy policy or wish to exercise your legal rights, please contact us: Email: [your@email.com] Post: [Your Company Name, Your Address] You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at www.ico.org.uk, though we would appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns first.