Privacy Policy

Scope and Consent
1. This Privacy Policy describes how Homes.com.au Limited ACN 625 496 139, an Australian company (“Homes.com.au”), collects, uses, stores, shares and protects your personal information.
2. This Privacy Policy applies to the Homes.com.au website and all related websites, applications, services and tools (our “Websites”) regardless of how you access or use them. And the words “our”, “us” and “we” refer to Homes.com.au and its related bodies corporate.
3. Homes.com.au commits to protect your personal information and to honour our privacy obligations regardless of where your personal information is collected, processed or stored. We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including the Australian Privacy Principles, and applicable privacy regulations.
4. “Personal information” is information that can be associated with a specific person and can be used to identify that person. Personal information does not include information that has been made anonymous or that has been aggregated so that it cannot be used to identify a specific person, whether in combination with other information or otherwise.
5. By accessing or using our Websites and/or registering for an account with Homes, you expressly consent to our collection, use, disclosure and retention of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy and in our Terms of Use.
6. We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time by posting the amended terms on this site. All amended terms take effect 30 days after they are posted on the site. We may also notify you via email of any material changes to this Privacy Policy.
7. This Privacy Policy is effective on 7 March 2024.
Collection
1. When you visit our Websites using your computer, mobile phone or other access device, we may collect information about you that may not personally identify you, using web analytics tools which record your use of our Websites, through (amongst other things) web log data (recording your IP address, the date and time of your visit to the Websites, the pages accessed and documents downloaded, device identifiers, the type of operating system and browser you are using, any referrer URL, your location, and mobile network information) and “cookies” (as explained below). This information does not usually contain personal information.
2. If you register an account with us, you give us your personal information. The information we collect is associated with you personally if you are a registered user.
3. When you provide us with personal information, you consent to the transfer and storage of that information on our servers and third party servers located in Australia and elsewhere in the world. We may transfer data outside of Australia to our service providers for storage, hosting, backup and data retrieval purposes.
4. We collect personal information from you when you engage with us to use our products and services, request information from us, complete and submit an application or make an enquiry regarding a property listing.
5. We may collect the following types of personal information in order to provide you with the use and access to our Websites, and for the additional purposes set out in this Privacy Policy:
  1. name, address, email address, gender, age, telephone number, mobile telephone number, physical contact information, and depending on the service used, occupation and financial information;
  2. additional personal information we ask you to submit to authenticate yourself or your entitlement to particular benefits;
  3. data and transactional information based on your activities on our Websites;
  4. personal information you provide to us through member information pages, correspondence, chats, community discussions, dispute resolution, or user name, photo and member ID shared by you if you access our Websites through your social network sites;
  5. other supplemental information obtained from third parties such as demographic and navigation data;
  6. information obtained from third parties relating to credit reference information, and additional information about you from a credit reference agency, as permitted by law;
  7. information from your interaction with our Websites, including, but not limited to, device ID, device type, geo-location information, psychographics, computer and connection information, statistics on page views, traffic to and from our Websites, ad data, IP address and standard web log information.
6. You acknowledge that the personal information you provide us and which we collect from you, is your own information or information which you have been authorised to provide to us.
Children’s Privacy
1. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not use or provide any information on our Websites. website, browser, applications or services. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child we will take steps to delete that information as soon as possible.
Accessing, Reviewing and Changing Your Personal Information
1. We will take reasonable precautions to ensure that the personal information we collect, hold, use and disclose is correct and up to date.
2. Homes.com.au’ account holders will be able to access and update their details online and it is requested that account holders keep their personal information as current as possible.
3. You may request access to any personal information that we hold about you by contacting us.
Use of your personal information
1. Our primary purpose in collecting personal information is to provide you with access to our Websites products and services that you have requested, responding to your enquiries, creating and maintaining your account, ensuring you comply and adhere to our Terms of Use, and to assist us to meet our legal obligations. You agree that we may use your personal information to:
  1. customise, personalise, measure and improve our services and the content, layout, advertising and operation of our Websites;
  2. provide you with information about offers, promotions, or services, which we believe may be of interest to you;
  3. aggregate and/or make anonymous your personal information so that it cannot be used to identify you, whether in combination with other information or otherwise;
  4. contact you at telephone numbers we have collected, by placing a voice call or text (SMS) or email messaging;
  5. provide services and customer support to you, including service updates;
  6. provide other services requested by you when we collect information;
  7. resolve disputes, collect fees, and troubleshoot problems;
  8. notify you about changes to our products and services;
  9. prevent, detect, and investigate potentially prohibited or illegal activities, and enforce our Terms of Use;
  10. compare information for accuracy, and verify it with third parties; and
  11. combine your personal information with information we collect from other companies and use it for the purposes described above and within this Privacy Policy.
Our Disclosure of Your Information
1. Homes.com.au may disclose your personal information to:
  1. real estate agents, real estate agencies, property developers, and builders based on enquiries submitted by you,
  2. to our service providers or business partners so they can provide you with services requested by you,
  3. respond to legal requirements,
  4. enforce our Term of Use, or
  5. respond to claims that content breaches the rights of others,
2. Such information will be disclosed in accordance with this Privacy Policy and any other applicable laws and regulations.
3. Homes.com.au may also share your personal information with:
  1. Entities in the Homes.com.au group of companies to provide joint content and services like registration and user support, to help detect and prevent potentially illegal acts and violations of our Terms of Use, and to guide decisions about the services, products, sites, applications, tools and communications of those entities. Entities in the Homes.com.au group may use your personal information in compliance with their respective privacy policies and our privacy standards.
  2. Contracted service providers who help with our business operations (for example, bill collection, website operations, fraud investigations and affiliate and rewards programs).
  3. Third parties to whom you explicitly ask us to send your information.
  4. Third parties to whom you are explicitly notified and consent to when using a specific service.
  5. Entities that may be located overseas, such as our external services providers, including our data storage, hosting and cloud-based IT service providers
  6. Law enforcement or regulatory agencies, or authorised third-parties, in response to a verified request relating to a criminal investigation or alleged illegal activity or any other activity that may expose us, you, or any other user to legal liability.
4. We take reasonable steps to ensure that any overseas recipients of your personal information do not breach privacy obligations relating to your personal information. From Domain. The laws and regulations relating to privacy and personal information protection in other jurisdictions may not be the same as Australian privacy laws and regulations. The governments, courts, law enforcement or regulatory agencies in these other jurisdictions may be able to request disclosure of personal information through the laws of these countries
5. Homes.com.au will not disclose your personal information to law enforcement, other government officials, or other third parties without a subpoena, court order or substantially similar legal procedure, except when we believe in good faith that the disclosure of your personal information is reasonably likely to prevent imminent physical harm, financial loss, to report suspected illegal activity, or otherwise reduce bad behaviour in the community.
Information You Share on Homes.com.au
1. A user ID may be displayed across our Websites if you log in via your Homes.com.au account and are connected to all of your activity on our Websites. Other people may be able to see your user ID and other content and information you make public. If you associate your name with your user ID, the people to whom you have revealed your name may be able to personally identify your activities on our Websites.
2. If you access our websites from a shared computer or a computer in an internet café, certain information about you, such as your user ID, activity or reminders from Homes.com.au, may also be visible to other individuals who use the computer after you.
Cookies
1. When you access our websites or use our browsers, applications and services, Homes.com.au and companies we work with may place small data files on your computer or device. These data files may be cookies, pixel tags, “Flash cookies” or other local storage provided by your browser or associated applications (“Cookies”).
2. Homes.com.au uses Cookies to:
  1. recognise you as a user;
  2. customise services, content, and advertising;
  3. help ensure that your account security is not compromised;
  4. measure promotional effectiveness;
  5. mitigate risk and prevent fraud; and
  6. to promote trust and safety across our sites and services.
3. Things you should know about our use of Cookies are:
  1. Homes.com.au offers certain features that are available only through the use of Cookies;
  2. Homes.com.au uses Cookies to help identify you and maintain your signed-in status;
  3. Most Cookies are “session cookies”. These cookies are automatically deleted from your device at the end of a session;
  4. You are always free to decline Cookies if your browser permits, although doing so may interfere with your use of some of our sites, browsers, applications or services;
  5. You may encounter Cookies from third party service providers that we have allowed on our websites who assist us with various aspects of our website operations and services;
  6. You also may encounter Cookies on certain pages of third party websites that we do not control and have not authorised. For example, if you view a third party web page, there may be a Cookie placed by that web page.
  7. The usage data we collect and use in cookies is generally not of itself personally identifiable information but if it is linked to personal information about an individual, it may become personally identifiable usage data. In those circumstances we will treat that usage data as personal information and only use it in accordance with our Privacy Policy, the Privacy Act and any other applicable data protection legislation.
Information Sharing and Registration with Social Media Websites
1. We offer services that allow you to share information with third party social media websites such as Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, and others
2. You may choose to provide us with access to certain personal information stored by such third party websites. The personal information we have access to varies by website and is controlled by your privacy settings on that website and your consent. By associating an account managed by a third party with your Homes.com.au account and authorising us to have access to that information, you agree that we may collect, use and store information from these websites in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Marketing
1. You agree that we may use your personal information to:
  1. tell you about our Websites and products,
  2. deliver targeted marketing and promotional offers based on your communication preferences; and
  3. customise measure and improve our advertising (if any), based on your ad customisation preferences.
2. We will not provide, sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your consent.
3. We may combine your personal information with information we collect from other companies and use it to improve and personalise our advertising (if any) and marketing to you.
Opting Out of Personal Information Use
1. If you do not wish to receive marketing and promotional communications from us, you can indicate your communications preference in your settings or within the direct communication from us. If you do not wish to participate in our customisation programs, you can opt out by following the directions provided within the applicable service.
2. If you withdraw your consent for the use or disclosure of your personal information we may not be able to continue to allow you to have access to our Websites or to provide you with some or all of our products and services and customer support.
Protecting and Storing Your Personal Information
1. We take reasonable steps to ensure the security and privacy of personal information we collect. We protect your information using technical and administrative security measures to reduce the risks of loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure and alteration. Some of the safeguards we use are firewalls and data encryption, physical access controls to our data centres and third party data centres, and information access authorisation controls.
2. We provide you with the opportunity to update your information through your account settings to make sure that the personal information we collect is accurate and up to date.
Closing Your Account; Retention of Personal Information
1. Homes.com.au will close your account upon your request.
2. Homes.com.au may also close or deactivate inactive accounts, or accounts that are used in breach of our Terms of Use.
3. Personal information from closed or inactive accounts will be deleted or rendered anonymous as soon as reasonably possible after the account is closed or deactivated. We may retain personal information from closed or inactive accounts for longer periods to prevent fraud, collect fees, resolve disputes, enforce our Terms of Use, or to otherwise take actions permitted by law. Under such circumstances this information will be kept as long as it is necessary and relevant for our operations, and to comply with any applicable law.
Third Parties
1. Our Websites may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. We do not control the privacy policies of third parties, and you are subject to the privacy policies of those third parties where applicable. We encourage you to read and understand the privacy policies of others before you disclose your personal information.
2. Except as otherwise expressly included in this Privacy Policy, this document addresses only the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. If you disclose your information to others on our websites or other websites throughout the internet, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the information you provide to them.
European Economic Area Users and the GDPR
1. Users of our Websites from the European Economic Area (EEA) are afforded additional rights under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
2. If the GDPR applies in respect of any of the personal information we collect, then the following sections apply to that personal information:
  1. In respect of residents of the EEA, references to personal information in this Privacy Policy means any information that (either in isolation or in combination with other information) enables you to be identified directly or indirectly. For purposes of the GDPR, we are the ‘controller’.
  2. In some instances, we may combine other information with personal information. If other information is combined with personal information or is used to build a profile of an individual (in a way which could be reasonably used to identify that individual), the combined information will be treated by us as personal information for as long as it remains combined.
3. If you are a resident in the EEA, you have the following rights (subject to the applicable data protection laws) in relation to your personal information:
  1. You have the right to obtain from Homes.com.au confirmation as to whether or not personal information concerning you is being processed, and, where that is the case, to request access to the personal information. This is not an absolute right and the interests of other individuals may restrict your right of access. You may have the right to obtain a copy of the personal information undergoing processing free of charge. For further copies requested by you, Homes.com.au may charge a reasonable fee based on administrative costs.
  2. You have the right to have incomplete or inaccurate personal information that Homes.com.au processes about you rectified.
  3. You have the right to request that Homes.com.au deletes personal information that we process about you, except we are not obliged to do so if we need to retain such data in order to comply with a legal obligation or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims or if other statutory restrictions apply.
  4. You may have the right to restrict Homes.com.au’ processing of your personal information where you believe such data to be inaccurate; our processing is unlawful; or that we no longer need to process such data for a particular purpose or where other legal grounds to request restriction apply unless we are not able to delete the data due to a legal or other obligation or because you do not wish for us to delete it or because other statutory restrictions apply.
  5. You may have the right to obtain personal information Homes.com.au holds about you, in a structured, electronic format, and to transmit such data to you or another data controller, where this is personal information which you have provided to us, and if we are processing that data on the basis of your consent or to perform a contract with you.
  6. You may have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to the processing of your personal information by Homes.com.au and we are required to no longer process your personal information. Such right to object especially applies if we collect and process your personal information for profiling purposes in order to better understand your interests in our products and services or for certain types of direct marketing. If you have a right to object and if you exercise this right, your personal data will no longer be processed for such purposes by Homes.com.au. You may exercise this right by contacting the Homes.com.au Privacy Officer.
  7. If you have consented to our processing of your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, free of charge. Such a withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of the processing prior to your withdrawal of consent. You should note that the withdrawal of consent may not affect our right to use some or all of your personal information in circumstances where your consent was not required to use such data.
Further Information
1. If you have any questions or concerns about how we collect, hold, use or disclose your personal information please contact us. If you would like any further information about your rights to privacy please contact or visit the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at http://www.oaic.gov.au.
2. You may contact the Homes.com.au Privacy Officer at:
  Privacy Officer
  Homes.com.au
  10-20 Gwynne St, Cremorne, VIC 3121
  [email protected]

Last updated 7 March 2024