This Privacy Notice explains in detail the types of personal data we may collect about you when you interact with us. It also explains how we'll store and handle that data, and keep it safe.
We want you to be fully informed about your rights, and how Placebuzz uses your data;
We hope the following sections will answer any questions you have but if not, please do get in touch with us.
It's likely that we'll need to update this Privacy Notice from time to time. We'll notify you of any significant changes, but you're welcome to come back and check it whenever you wish.
When you are using the Placebuzz websites or apps, Placebuzz is the data controller.
The law on data protection sets out a number of different reasons for which a company may collect and process your personal data, including:
In specific situations, we can collect and process your data with your consent. For example, when you tick a box to receive email newsletters.
When collecting your personal data, we'll always make clear to you which data is necessary in connection with a particular service.
In certain circumstances, we need your personal data to comply with our contractual obligations.
For example, if you enquire about a property for rent or sale on our site, we'll collect your details to send to the agents, and pass them to our partners who in turn send them onto the estate or letting agents.
If the law requires us to, we may need to collect and process your data.
For example, we can pass on details of people involved in fraud or other criminal activity affecting the company to law enforcement.
In specific situations, we require your data to pursue our legitimate interests in a way which might reasonably be expected as part of running our business and which does not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests.
For example, we will use your enquiry history to send you or make available similar properties or personalised offers.
We also combine the browsing and enquiry history of many customers to identify trends and ensure we can keep up with demand, or develop new products/services.
We will collect the information that you give to us when using our Site. If you choose to access a particular search feature or to fill in a form on the Site, you may be asked to provide information about yourself, such as your name and contact details. We may also collect other information about you at the same time, such as details of the sort of property you are interested in, the cost and location of the property etc. We will also collect information that you provide to us when you register as a Placebuzz user, request property email updates, participate in discussion boards or other social media functions on our Site or websites operated by associated third parties and enter into competitions, promotions or surveys. We will also collect information that you provide to us by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise.
This is different to "information you give us" because it relates to technical data that we collect. So for example, we may collect technical information that has the potential to identify you, such as the internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform. We may also collect information about your visit, including the full uniform resource locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our Site (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call our customer service number. We may also keep a record of the advertisers or partners you contact and the contents of the emails you send to them.
We may receive information about you if you use any of the other websites we operate or the other services we provide. In this case we will have informed you, when we collected that data, that it may be shared internally and combined with data collected on this Site. We are also working closely with third parties (including, for example, social media platforms, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers and credit reference agencies) and may receive information about you from them.
We want to give you the best possible user experience. One way to achieve that is to get the richest picture we can of who you are by combining the data we have about you.
We then use this to offer you promotions, products and services that are most likely to interest you.
The data privacy law allows this as part of our legitimate interest in understanding our customers and providing the highest levels of service.
Of course, if you wish to change how we use your data, you'll find details in the 'What are my rights?' section below.
Remember, if you choose not to share your personal data with us, or refuse certain contact permissions, we might not be able to provide some services you've asked for.
For example, if you've asked us to let you know when new properties are listed online, we can't do that if you've withdrawn your general consent to hear from us.
Here's how we'll use your personal data and why:
We want to bring you offers and promotions that are most relevant to your interests at particular times. To help us form a better, overall understanding of you as a customer, we combine your personal data gathered as described above. For this purpose we also combine the data that we collect directly from you with data that we obtain from third parties to whom you have given your consent to pass that data onto us —such as the Land Registry mentioned above.
We know how much data security matters to all our customers. With this in mind we will treat your data with the utmost care and take all appropriate steps to protect it.
We secure access to all transactional areas of our websites and apps using 'https' technology.
Access to your personal data is password-protected, and sensitive data is secured and tokenised to ensure it is protected.
We regularly monitor our system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks, and we carry out testing to identify ways to further strengthen security.
Whenever we collect or process your personal data, we'll only keep it for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.
At the end of that retention period, your data will either be deleted completely or anonymised, for example by aggregation with other data so that it can be used in a non-identifiable way for statistical analysis and business planning. Some examples of customer data retention periods:
We sometimes share your personal data with trusted third parties. For example, partner mortgage advisers, to help us personalise our offers to you and so on. Here's the policy we apply to those organisations to keep your data safe and protect your privacy:
Examples of the kind of third parties we work with are:
Sharing your data with third parties for their own purposes:
We will only do this in very specific circumstances, for example:
With your consent, given at the time you supply your personal data, we may pass that data to a third party for their direct marketing purposes. For example, if you enter a holiday competition and tick a box agreeing that the travel company can send you promotional information directly. Or if we run a joint event with a restaurant, and you agree to receive direct communications from them. For fraud management, we may share information about fraudulent or potentially fraudulent activity in our premises or systems. This may include sharing data about individuals with law enforcement bodies.
We may also be required to disclose your personal data to the police or other enforcement, regulatory or Government body, in your country of origin or elsewhere, upon a valid request to do so. These requests are assessed on a case-by-case basis and take the privacy of our customers into consideration.
We may, from time to time, expand, reduce or sell parts of our business and this may involve the transfer of divisions or the whole business to new owners. If this happens, your personal data will, where relevant, be transferred to the new owner or controlling party, under the terms of this Privacy Notice.
For further information please contact our Data Protection Officer.
Sometimes we will need to share your personal data with third parties and suppliers outside the European Economic Area (EEA), such as Australia or the USA.
The EEA includes all EU Member countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. We may transfer personal data that we collect from you to third-party data processors in countries that are outside the EEA. For example, this might be required in order to fulfil your order, process your payment details or provide support services. If we do this, we have procedures in place to ensure your data receives the same protection as if it were being processed inside the EEA. For example, our contracts with third parties stipulate the standards they must follow at all times. If you wish for more information about these contracts please contact our Data Protection Officer.
Any transfer of your personal data will follow applicable laws and we will treat the information under the guiding principles of this Privacy Notice.
You have the right to request:
You have the right to request a copy of any information about you that the Company holds at any time, and also to have that information corrected if it is inaccurate. To ask for your information, please contact:
Data Protection Officer, Placebuzz, email DPO@placebuzz.com. To ask for your information to be amended, please update your online account, or contact our Customer Services team.
If we choose not to action your request we will explain to you the reasons for our refusal.
Whenever you have given us your consent to use your personal data, you have the right to change your mind at any time and withdraw that consent.
In cases where we are processing your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest, you can ask us to stop for reasons connected to your individual situation. We must then do so unless we believe we have a legitimate overriding reason to continue processing your personal data.
You have the right to stop the use of your personal data for direct marketing activity through all channels, or selected channels. We must always comply with your request.
To protect the confidentiality of your information, we will ask you to verify your identity before proceeding with any request you make under this Privacy Notice. If you have authorised a third party to submit a request on your behalf, we will ask them to prove they have your permission to act.
We sell space on some of our websites to advertisers - they pay for the content you enjoy for free. As part of this, we allow several companies to collect information about your browsing behavior to help us and advertisers understand what adverts you might be interested in. In the following paragraph you will find information about these companies, their services, their data privacy statements and how to opt-out from their technology.
Partner: Nano Interactive GmbH
Data Privacy Policy: Nano Interactive Privacy Policy
Opt-Out: Nano Interactive Opt-Out
We also affiliate with other partners to provide added value services to our customers. In the following paragraph, you will find information about these companies and the services they provide:
Partner: UKCreditRatings.com
Data Privacy Policy: UKCreditRatings.com Privacy Policy
UKCreditRatings.com is a trading name of RSDataTech Ltd (Registration No. 8282923): No data is shared, unless you request to review your credit file and supply your data willingly.
Some of the web search services provided herein are provided by providers of third party web search services. For information on the web search services data collection, please visit the end user privacy statements of CodeFuel here and Bing here, both as updated from time to time and at any successor locations.
There are several ways you can stop direct marketing communications from us:
Please note that you may continue to receive communications for a short period after changing your preferences while our systems are fully updated.
When you enquire about a property, request a valuation or apply for a product or service from one of our chosen partners, your data will be collected and used by them under the terms of their own separate privacy policies.
If you feel that your data has not been handled correctly, or you are unhappy with our response to any requests you have made to us regarding the use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office. You can contact them by calling 0303 123 1113.
Or go online to Information Commissioner's Office – Make a Complaint (opens in a new window; please note we can't be responsible for the content of external websites)
If you are based outside the UK, you have the right to lodge your complaint with the relevant data protection regulator in your country of residence. Details can be found in Section 15.
By using our services or providing your personal data to us, you expressly consent to the processing of your personal data by us or on our behalf. Of course, you still have the right to ask us not to process your data in certain ways, and if you do so, we will respect your wishes. Sometimes we'll need to transfer your personal data between countries to enable us to supply the services you've requested. In the ordinary course of business, we may transfer your personal data from your country of residence to ourselves and to third parties located in the UK.
Where your data is transferred outside your country of residence, we ensure that adequate safeguards are in place to protect your information in line with applicable data protection laws. These may include standard contractual clauses, adequacy decisions, or other lawful transfer mechanisms.
This may occur because our information technology storage facilities and servers are located outside your country of residence, and could include storage of your personal data on servers in the UK.
We take appropriate steps to ensure that third parties outside your country of residence handle your personal data in compliance with this Privacy Notice.
We hope this Privacy Notice has been helpful in setting out the way we handle your personal data and your rights to control it.
If you have any questions that haven't been covered, please contact our Data Protection Officer who will be pleased to help you:
Email us at DPO@placebuzz.com