01About this policy
Real Estate Hive (“we”, “us”, “our”) runs realestatehive.com.au, a directory and guide that helps Australians compare property professionals such as real estate agents, buyers agents, mortgage brokers, builders, tax experts and bushfire consultants.
We respect your privacy and handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with and how you can access or correct it. By using our website you agree to the practices described here.
02Information we collect
We only collect the personal information we need. Depending on how you use the site, this may include:
- Contact details you give us, such as your name, email address and phone number, when you send an enquiry or ask about a listing.
- The content of your message, including details about the property service you’re looking for or your business.
- Business information if you are a professional listed, or applying to be listed, on our site, such as your business name, website, service areas and a description of your services.
- Technical information collected automatically when you visit, such as your IP address, browser type, device, the pages you view and the date and time of your visit. This is used in standard server and security logs.
You can browse the site without telling us who you are. If you don’t give us the information we ask for in a form, we may not be able to respond to your enquiry.
03How we collect it
We collect personal information directly from you, for example when you complete our contact form or email us. Technical information is collected automatically by our hosting provider when your browser loads our pages. We may also collect publicly available business information about listed professionals from their own websites and public registers.
04How we use it
We use personal information to:
- respond to your enquiries and provide the information or help you ask for
- connect you with a listed professional when you ask us to
- create, manage and update business listings
- run, secure and improve our website, including diagnosing technical problems and preventing spam
- meet our legal obligations
We won’t use your details to send you marketing unless you have agreed to it, and we never sell your personal information.
06Overseas disclosure
Some of our service providers store or process information outside Australia, including in the United States. When we use overseas providers, we take reasonable steps to make sure they handle personal information in a way that is consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.
08How we protect and keep it
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Our website is served over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection. We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy or as required by law, and then delete or de-identify it. No method of sending information over the internet is completely secure, so we can’t guarantee the security of information you send us.
09Accessing and correcting your information
You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct or delete it, by contacting us. We’ll respond within a reasonable time, usually within 30 days. We may need to confirm your identity before we act on a request. If we refuse a request, we’ll tell you why where we can.
10Making a complaint
If you think we have mishandled your personal information, please contact us with the details and we’ll look into it and reply within 30 days.
If you’re not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.
11Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time, for example when our services or the law change. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated shown at the top.