WEBSITE PRIVACY POLICY

Boutique Property Agents Pty Ltd (A.C.N. 607 836 948 ) (we, us, our) is committed to complying with its obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act).

The Act allows personal information to be collected, used and disclosed for the purposes for which it was collected in accordance with the Act.

This Privacy Policy only applies to the extent we collect, use and disclose personal information in connection with this website.

This Privacy Policy may be revised, updated or replaced from time to time and we may subsequently notify users of any changes to it by posting the revised, updated or replaced Privacy Policy on this website.  Any changes to it take effect on the date on which the revised, updated or replaced Privacy Policy is posted to this website.

What information do we collect?

Personal information is any information about you, from which you can be identified. We may collect your name, address, postcode, email address, date of birth, gender, employment, telephone number, property details, payment details and proof of identity such as your driver licence or passport number. We may collect additional personal information from you from time to time.

Personal information we collect about you may also include credit-related personal information. Credit-related information is information used and disclosed to assess your creditworthiness, assess your application for finance and manage that finance. The types of credit-related personal information that we collect about you may include your credit liability information, repayment history information, the type and amount of finance you are applying for, court proceedings, insolvency actions and credit worthiness.

We generally do not collect sensitive information about you, unless you provide it to us voluntarily. For example, when you interact with one of our agents or brokers, you may provide sensitive information such as racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health information, religious or philosophical beliefs or political opinion and membership or affiliation information. You consent to us collecting sensitive information which you provide to us voluntarily. If we need to collect any sensitive information for a specific purpose, we will ask for your consent.

If you are an employee or prospective employee, we may need to collect sensitive information about you and you consent to us collecting this information. For example, personnel records may include sensitive information such as place of birth, racial or ethnic origin, criminal record, tax file number, disabilities and relationship information. Recruitment records may include employment history and experience, referees and other employment related information.

If you provide us sensitive information, we will treat it as personal information and handle it in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Why do we collect this information?

You don’t have to give us all the information we request. However, if you do not provide us with some or all of the personal information required, we may not be able to provide you with the products and services or information you request, to the requested standard or at all, and you may also miss out on receiving valuable information about us and our products and services.

Information disclosed

We will use and disclose personal information only for the purposes for which it is collected in accordance with the Act, including:

• providing services and customer support, including service updates;
• maintaining and updating our records;
• comparing information for accuracy, and verifying it with third parties; and
• providing information as authorised or required by law or a relevant government body or authority.

Overseas disclosure

We do not disclose personal information overseas.

We may use cloud storage and IT servers that may be located overseas to store the personal information we hold.  As electronic or networked storage can be accessed from various countries through an internet connection it is not always practical to know in which country information about an individual may be held.

To the extent that we can identify the countries to which we transfer information they are:

• The United States of America, Europe, Philippines and Japan

Please note that in some cases countries to which we transfer information may not have laws or binding schemes that have the effect of protecting your information in a way that overall is at least substantially similar to the way in which the Australian Privacy Principles protect your information, and there may not be any mechanism or binding scheme that you can access to take action to enforce legal protections.

Anonymity and pseudonyms

General users of the website do not need to disclose their identity to us in order to use this website.   This website does not, therefore, collect personal information about people who generally access it except in the circumstances described above.

Please note that we may not be able to provide you with some or all of our services if you are anonymous or use a pseudonym.

Cookies

A cookie is an electronic token that is passed to the user’s browser which passes it back to the server whenever a page is sent to the user.   Our servers may generate cookies which are used to keep track of the pages that users have accessed while using the website. The cookie also allows data to be inputted into a form or template and temporarily stored until the user chooses to save that form or template.  Cookies generally remain on the user’s computer even after an internet session is ended and the computer rebooted. The cookie can be read by the server that placed it there during a subsequent visit to that same server. Their exact behavior is server specific.

When users visit this website, our server may log certain information, including the type of browser and operating system the user is using, the top level domain name (for example .com, .net, .au, etc), the address of the referring site (for example, the previous site visited), the server's IP address, the date and time of visit and the address of the pages accessed and the documents downloaded.  This information is generally only for internal statistical analysis and system administration purposes.  

Any other information supplied to us (for example, if a user sends an email or enters any personal information into our website) is treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Information security

We take reasonable steps to protect all information which we hold (including personal information) from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

We may store information about you in cloud or other types of networked or electronic storage.  As electronic or networked storage can be accessed from various countries through an internet connection it is not always practical to know in which country personal information about you may be held. 

Where appropriate, we use secure transmission facilities.  However, no transmission of information over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure and we do not warrant the security of any information transmitted to us over the internet.

Links to other websites

This website may contain links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those websites.  This Privacy Policy does not extend to those linked websites.

Marketing and opt-out

We may also use the information, including personal information (excluding sensitive information), provided by users of this website for marketing and research purposes, to analyse and improve products, benefits and services and to inform users of products, services and benefits provided by us, our related entities, suppliers or sponsors which we consider may be of value or interest to users, unless the user tells us, or has previously told us, not to.  If a user does not wish to receive any information about such products, services and benefits they can contact the Privacy Officer (details specified below).  We will not use your sensitive information for these purposes without your consent.

Accessing your Personal Information

Users of the website whose information we either collect, use or disclose have the right to request access to any personal information held by us which relates to them, unless we are permitted to withhold that information. We may charge a reasonable fee where access to personal information is provided.  Any requests for access to a user’s personal information should be made in writing to the Privacy Officer (details specified below).  The user also has the right to request the correction of any personal information which relates to them that is inaccurate, incomplete, irrelevant, misleading or out-of-date.

If the user requires any further information about our management of personal information or has any queries or complaints, they should contact:

The Privacy Officer

Shop 1, 251 Elizabeth Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Tel: (02) 8815 8195

Email: [email protected]

The Office of the Information Commissioner can be contacted as follows:

Acceptance of this Privacy Policy

By using this website, accessing any of our products, services or features, the user acknowledges that it has read, understands and accepts this Privacy Policy and the permissions to collect, use and disclose personal information, and the user authorises us to collect, use and disclose, in accordance with the Act, their personal information for the purposes specified in this Privacy Policy.