Australian Real Estate Privacy Policy

Privacy Collection Statement

The primary purpose for which we collect your personal information is to provide you with the services you have requested. You agree we may use and disclose your personal information and other data for this purpose and also for secondary purposes, including to personalise your user experience and to promote Australian Real Estate and third-party products and services to you. Our Privacy Policy (see directly below) explains how we collect, use, and disclose your personal information, the extent to which your personal information may be disclosed to overseas recipients, and how to access, correct or complain about the handling of your personal information.

What is a privacy policy and what is personal information?

This policy sets out how Australian Real Estate collects, uses, discloses, and manages your personal information. Other group companies of Australian have their own privacy policies which can be found on their websites.

Personal information is information or an opinion about an identiﬁed individual or an individual who is reasonably identiﬁable.

By accessing or using the network of websites, apps, and related services operated by Australian, you agree to the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information in the manner described in this Privacy Policy.

If, through using a Australian website, app, or our services, you disclose personal information to a third party (including via their website), this Privacy Policy will not apply as between you and the third party, and you will be subject to the privacy policy of that third party. To the extent permitted by law, Australian Real Estate is not responsible for third-party privacy policies and recommends that you review them carefully before submitting personal information.

How does Australian Real Estate protect my privacy?

Australian Real Estate respects the importance of your privacy and is bound by the Privacy Act (1988) (Cth) (“Privacy Act”) including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and applicable privacy regulations. Australian Real Estate is committed to protecting your privacy when managing your personal information and has policies and procedures to ensure that personal information is handled in accordance with the Privacy Act and the APPs.

What personal information about me is collected?

Personal information collected by Australian Real Estate will depend on the circumstances of collection and on the services that we are providing to you and may include (but is not limited to):

identiﬁcation details, which may include name, address, birth date, and gender;
account security questions and answers;
for certain services, images of, or information from, veriﬁcation documents such as your driver’s licence;
contact information which may include email address and phone number;
account proﬁle picture;
bank account and credit account details;
user IDs and passwords;
services provided to you, including saved items and searches;
business information, such as ABN and licence number;
information submitted in placing an advertisement, for example vehicle details, pricing, photos, and videos;
information submitted in applying for or requesting a quote for an advertised product such as a loan or insurance, which may include employment details, current living situation, current and previous addresses, and residency status;
your IP address, information about the devices on which you visit Australian Real Estate, and your activities on those devices or sites (including browser and operating system, time, date, referral information, location, carrier, and site interactions);
third party account details (for example, where you sign in through a social network, we will collect limited personal information from that social network site, including your username, site ID, and email address);
your public social proﬁle information (e.g., name, proﬁle picture);
records and content of communications with Australian Real Estate or any other person including records and content using communications services facilitated by Australian Real Estate (e.g., chat functions, enquiry forms, phone services, and online forums);
if you participate in any surveys we, or a third party service provider acting on our behalf, may conduct from time to time, personal information relating to your survey responses;
if you are applying for employment with us, personal information that is relevant to such employment including academic and employment history;
information obtained as a result of your use of our mobile websites or applications such as geo-locations and unique device identiﬁers;
if you are using an Android device, advertising-speciﬁc device identiﬁers; and
if you are using an Apple device, your Advertising Identiﬁer.

Australian Real Estate does not typically collect sensitive information as deﬁned in the Privacy Act, such as racial or ethnicity information, political opinions or associations, criminal records (except where provided by law enforcement authorities) or health information. However, subject to obtaining your prior consent, Australian Real Estate may collect sensitive information from you in the course of considering an application for employment.

How is my personal information collected?

Australian Real Estate collects personal information in a number of ways, including:

directly from you when you provide information to Australian Real Estate in person, by phone or in writing (whether electronic or otherwise), for example when you create an advertisement on one of our websites; when you enquire about an item on one of our websites; when you subscribe to a newsletter or any alerts; when you purchase goods or services from Australian Real Estate or a third party via the Australian Network; when you enter a competition or promotion conducted by Australian Real Estate; or in a contract with your business to provide you with our services;
directly from you when you communicate with Australian Real Estate or any other person using Australian Real Estate’s facilitated communications services;
from third parties such as dealers, resellers of Australian Real Estate’s services, retailers, and service providers to Australian Real Estate;
from operators of linked or served websites, applications, and advertising on Australian Real Estate;
from social networks where you choose to share that information when creating an account;
from third-party data providers and other entities where you have directed or otherwise consented to the collecting entity (or a service provider on its behalf) sending us data;
through the use of Australian Real Estate’s proprietary software in which personal information is stored;
from organisations identiﬁed or described under the heading ‘How is personal information disclosed,’ which include Australian Real Estate’s global group of companies, our service providers, and other third parties so that we may provide an enhanced and more relevant user experience, service, or product to you.

Australian Real Estate may also collect personal information about you if you are a Australian Real Estate shareholder. This information may be collected from you directly when you subscribe to receive email alerts via the Australian Real Estate website or from third parties such as Australian Real Estate’s share registry.

How is my personal information used?

Australian Real Estate will only use the personal information it collects for purposes authorised by law. This includes the purpose for which you provided it, the purposes disclosed in this privacy policy, any related secondary purposes which you would reasonably expect, and for any other purpose you have consented to. More speciﬁcally, your personal information may be used for purposes including:

to maintain appropriate business records or manage our relationship with you;
to research, develop, and provide Australian Real Estate’s products and services and by Australian Real Estate’s outsourced service providers to provide and improve their services;
to facilitate transactions between you and third-party sellers, including third-party retailers;
to respond to an enquiry or provide services, products, or assistance that you request from us;
to enhance the user experience, for example, to pre-populate, customise, and provide shortcuts on our websites;
to conduct surveys, such as to determine use and satisfaction with Australian Real Estate services or to gauge industry trends;
to generate statistics in relation to the Australian Network;
for the purposes of feedback, reviews, and ratings;
for purposes connected with the operation of Australian Real Estate;
for staff training and quality assurance;
to aggregate personal information with our third-party partners for the purpose of personalising the advertising you receive from us and them;
to conduct competitions and trade promotions, including contacting the winner(s) and publishing winner names.

How is my personal information shared?

Australian Real Estate may disclose personal information to individuals and organisations other than Australian Real Estate in accordance with the terms of this privacy policy and where such disclosure is authorised by law. The organisations to which we may disclose personal information include:

Australian Real Estate’s global group of companies and their personnel;
the public if you advertise with Australian Real Estate or use publicly available communications services facilitated by Australian Real Estate;
third-party sellers to facilitate transactions between you and these third-party sellers. Thirdparty sellers may, in turn, share your information with parties who provide services to them (such as courier or delivery service providers) in order to provide goods and services to you;
individuals and organisations that advertise with Australian Real Estate if you submit an enquiry or seek or acquire certain services through Australian Real Estate - or a third-party supplier working with that advertiser to provide those services.

Depending on your enquiry or the services being sought or acquired, these may include:

private advertisers;
licensed real estate agents;
original equipment manufacturers;
brokers;
operators of third-party websites, co-branded websites, applications, and advertising served to Australian Real Estate by third parties;
ﬁnancial service providers;
insurance service providers;
property inspection service providers;
transportation service providers;
payment service providers; and
outsourced service providers who assist any of the above persons to provide services;

If you do not want Australian Real Estate to disclose your personal information to these individuals and organisations, you should not submit an enquiry or acquire those services.

Outsourced service providers who assist Australian Real Estate to provide its services include:

information technology providers;
marketing and market research advisers and survey providers;
professional advisers;
data service providers, who may also disclose your personal information to our third-party partners for the purpose of personalising the advertising you receive from us and them;
competition and trade promotion providers, and the issuers of gifts; and
payment platforms.

Entities to whom you request we send your information:

resellers of Australian Real Estate services;
organisations involved in a sale/transfer of a Australian Real Estate company or any of its assets, business, or shares;
to assist government or regulatory authorities or police; and
as we are required by law, for example pursuant to a subpoena or in accordance with unclaimed money legislation.

Where Australian Real Estate provides information to a third party at your request (for example where you submit an enquiry), you acknowledge that your information will be handled by that third party in accordance with its privacy policy and not in accordance with this privacy policy.

Where Australian Real Estate discloses your personal information to a data service provider, Australian Real Estate will take all reasonable steps to ensure those data service providers comply at all times with the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), or equivalent laws.

How do I keep my personal information up to date?

Australian Real Estate strives to maintain accurate and up-to-date records. To facilitate this, please let us know if any of your details change. Australian Real Estate may verify the accuracy of personal information it holds against information about you held by a third party. You may update certain personal information via the Member Preferences Centre (if you have a Australian Real Estate account) or by contacting us directly.

Australian Real Estate may destroy or de-identify personal information once the information is no longer deemed required by the business.

How do I access my information?

You generally have a right to access your personal information, subject to a few exceptions provided by law. If you wish to access your personal information, please contact us. Generally, there will be no charge for this service; however, you may be required to verify your identity before any information is released to you. Depending on the volume, type, or method of access to the information you request, Australian Real Estate may charge you some fees; however, these will not be excessive, will be notiﬁed in advance, and will not apply to the making of the request. Please note that depending on the volume or nature of the information required, it may take a number of days to fulﬁl the request.

How is my information protected?

Australian Real Estate takes reasonable steps to protect personal information collected from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modiﬁcations, or disclosure. Your personal information may be stored in hard copy documents but is generally stored electronically on the Australian Real Estate systems.

Is my personal information shared outside of Australia?

Some of Australian Real Estate’s service providers are located outside Australia, including in the United States of America, Chile, Mexico, India, South Korea, and Singapore. It may be necessary to disclose your personal information to those service providers for some of the purposes listed above. Australian Real Estate uses reasonable endeavours to ensure that overseas service providers comply with the Privacy Act and APPs. By providing Australian Real Estate with your personal information, you consent to the disclosure and transfer of your personal information outside Australia as set out in this privacy policy.

Can I deal with Australian Real Estate anonymously?

You may deal with Australian Real Estate anonymously by using a pseudonym, unless Australian Real Estate is reasonably required or authorised by law to deal only with an identiﬁed person, or it is reasonably impracticable for us to respond to you if you have not identiﬁed yourself.

What if I choose not to provide my personal information?

If you choose not to provide personal information when requested, Australian Real Estate may not reasonably be able to provide you with the full range of Australian Real Estate services.

How can I opt-out?

You can opt out of the use of your personal information for personalised advertising through thirdparty partners by contacting us or adjusting your preferences in the settings provided.

You can also manage your preferences for location tracking on your mobile device. This may limit your ability to use certain features of our services. For more information, contact your device manufacturer.

Android: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6179507?hl=en
Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT207092
You can opt-out of device ad tracking or reset the advertising-speciﬁc device identiﬁers to disassociate the device from remarketing data that was collected and passed before the opt-out. For more information, please contact your device manufacturer.
Android: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6048248?hl=en
Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/iphone/iphf60a6a256/io

Is my location collected?

When accessing Australian Real Estate services from a mobile device, we may request permission to collect your location from your device via the permission system used by your mobile operating system. If you consent to the collection of this information, you can later disable it by changing the location settings on your mobile device. However, this may limit your ability to use certain features of our services. Australian Real Estate may utilise Google Maps features and content to collect location and other information. Your use of such Google Map features and content is subject to the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy.

How does Australian Real Estate record my activity and use it?

Please read our separate Cookie Policy for more details on how Australian Real Estate uses cookies and other similar technologies.

Australian Real Estate also uses analytics services, including Google Analytics, to analyse website activity and user interactions. Details of how Google collects and processes data can be found at How Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps.

How to contact Australian Real Estate about my personal information?

If you have a problem, complaint, want to change your personal information, or simply wish to enquire about privacy, please contact us:

Email: info@australianrealestate.com

You can also request deletion or de-identiﬁcation of your personal information. Please note that Australian Real Estate is permitted to retain certain personal information for the purposes notiﬁed to you under this policy, including maintaining appropriate business records.

Australian Real Estate takes privacy complaints seriously. If you submit a concern or complaint, we will endeavour to address it comprehensively and reach a resolution that satisﬁes all parties involved. If you are not satisﬁed with our response to your complaint (after providing us with a reasonable timeframe to respond) or would like further information about privacy in Australia, we recommend visiting the Ofﬁce of the Australian Information Commissioner’s website.

Does this policy change?

This policy may change over time. All changes will be published on this website and will only apply to personal information collected after the date you accept the new privacy policy. If the changes impact personal information collected prior to the date the changes are made, we will provide 30 days’ written notice to you of the relevant changes, where reasonably possible.

Version 1.0 (August 2024)