privacy & cookie policy
1. Important information and who we are
Purpose of this privacy notice
This privacy notice aims to give you information on how Property Collection collects and processes your personal data, however you provide it to us.
It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
Controller Property Collection is the controller and is responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as "PC", "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy notice).
We have appointed a data privacy manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the data privacy manager using the details set out below.
Contact details
Name of data privacy manager: Claire Cook
Email address: gdpr@thepropertycollection.co.uk
Postal address: The Property Collection, Pioneer House, Vision Park, Histon, Cambridge. CB24 9NL
We also operate the website at www.property-collection.co.uk
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.
Processor
Please note that much of the personal data we process is provided to us by the estate agents to whom we provide our services/products. We process this data on the estate agent’s behalf for the purpose of performing our contract with them. We use this personal data to send information, web-based tools, and other products on the estate agent’s behalf to the estate agent’s customers. We refer to this data as “Third Party Personal Data”.
We process Third Party Personal Data as a data processor on behalf of our estate agent clients (who will be the data controller in these circumstances). Where we process Third Party Personal Data as a data processor we do so strictly in accordance with our contractual obligations to the relevant data controller (i.e. the estate agent), and in accordance with the legal requirements upon data processors. Note that the lawful basis on which we process Third Party Personal Data (for the purposes of performing our contract with the estate agent) may be different from the lawful basis on which the estate agent processes that personal data (which may be on the basis of consent, or some other basis).
Where we are acting as a data processor, we do not use or engage sub-processors of personal data, without the relevant data controller’s prior authorisation. Furthermore we will, upon the relevant data controller’s direction, either return to them or destroy the Third Party Personal Data we have processed on their behalf, at the end of our contractual relationship with them.
Generally, however, this privacy policy deals with the personal data that you may give to us direct, and in respect of which we are the data controller (rather than the Third Party Personal Data provided to us by our estate agency clients).
Changes to the privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes
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.
We reserve the right to make changes to this privacy notice at any time.
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 follows:
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Identity Data includes first name, last name and title.
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Contact Data includes home address, email address and telephone numbers.
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Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details, and details about payments to and from you.
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Transaction Data includes details of services/products you have purchased or otherwise received from us.
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Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access our website.
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Marketing and Profile Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences, your interests, feedback and survey responses.
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. 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.
Please also note that we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.
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 or to provide you with services/products you have requested, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or to provide you with the services/products you have requested from us. In this case, we may have to cancel the contract in question that you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
3. How is your personal data collected?
We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:
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Direct interactions. You may give us your data by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes for example personal data you provide when you complete a registration form or complete an enquiry form on our website.
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Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources. This includes for example Technical Data from analytics providers such as Google, and Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and other services.
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Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns by using cookies, and other similar technologies.
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4. 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:
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Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
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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.
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Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation
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Purposes for which we will use your personal data
We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so.
Note that 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 where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.
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Marketing
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 at any time.
Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data that we process and use on a different lawful basis, or in respect of which you continue to consent to us processing.
We will not share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes.
Our Website - Cookies
We may use cookies on our website which collect personal data. We may publish a separate Cookie Policy on our website to provide more information about the cookies we use. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our website may become inaccessible or not function properly.
Our Website - 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 notice of every website you visit.
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.
5. 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 the table in paragraph 4 above.
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Service providers who provide services to us, including; (i) IT service providers (in particular for systems maintenance and Cloud database provision); (ii) Bailiffs and debt collection agencies; and (iii) Payment processing service providers.
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Professional advisers including bankers, lawyers, accountants and insurers who provide banking, consultancy, legal, insurance and accounting services.
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HM Revenue & Customs and other authorities who may require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
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Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. 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.
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 your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
6. International transfers
We share your personal data within the Rackspace Group (who provide cloud database services). This will involve transferring your data outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to the USA. Rackspace are part of the Privacy Shield programme, which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between Europe and the US.
7. 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.
8. 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.
Please note that by law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including certain Contact, Identity and Transaction Data) for 7 years after they cease being customers, for tax purposes.
We keep personal data relating to suppliers for longer, as it is in both our interests and theirs that they remain on our system.
In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see 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.
9. Your legal rights
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Please see the further information towards the bottom of this privacy policy. If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact our data privacy manager.
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.
10. Glossary
LAWFUL BASIS
Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.
Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.
YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
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. 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.