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Privacy Policy

Hotspotting.com.au Privacy Policy

Protecting your privacy and personal information is important to the team at Hotspotting.com.au and its related bodies corporate, including Ryder Research Resources Pty Ltd ACN 055 730 339 (“we“, “us“, “our” or “Hotspotting“)

Hotspotting respects and upholds the rights to privacy protection under the Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs“) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) as amended.

This policy details how we will maintain your privacy and handle your personal information in accordance with the APPs.  This policy applies to all personal information collected by us via our website or smartphone applications, from you, or from third parties.

1. What is personal information?

1.1             Personal information means information or an opinion that identifies you, or could reasonably identify you as an individual, whether the information or opinion is true or not.

2. Collecting and holding personal information

2.1             Hotspotting will only collect personal information which is reasonably necessary to provide our services to you and to carry out our core business activities.  The personal information that we collect about may include your name, postal and streetaddress, email address, telephone number, gender, age, date of birth, profession/role, place of work, information relating to the complaints you have made to us, information to assist with our customer relationship management and market research functions such as various personal interests, experiences and preferences and additional information you provide to us from time to time.

2.2             For more specific finance or buyer agency purposes that you seek our assistance with, we may collect financial and banking information, or loan / credit application information.

2.3             We typically hold the personal information that we collect either on electronic databases or as hard copy documents.

2.4             Generally it is impracticable for us to deal with you if you have not identified yourself or you have used a pseudonym when dealing with us.  However, if you request that we use a pseudonym or not identify yourself, where possible and practicable, we will use reasonable endeavours to accommodate this request.

3. Methods of collecting personal information

3.1             We will only collect personal information by lawful and fair means.  This may include information that you provide to us through:

3.1.1       communications with you in person, by telephone or email;

3.1.2       correspondence, agreements and other documents provided to us (for example subscription forms, competition entry forms, enquiry forms or market surveys);

3.1.3       our website, social media page/s and smartphone applications.

3.2             We may also collect personal information from you if you provide products and / or services to Hotspotting, and this information is generally collected to assist obtaining the relevant products and / or services.

3.3             If we require particular information about you which has not been supplied in the general course of information collection, you will be contacted directly and requested to supply that personal information.

4. Sensitive information

4.1             In certain circumstances we may collect sensitive information about you.  This information is reasonably necessary for us to provide our services to you and carry out our core business activities.

4.2             We will only collect sensitive information (as that term is defined under the Privacy Act) if you voluntarily provide it to us or if you otherwise consent to us collecting it.  We will only collect sensitive information about you from you.  If you provide us with sensitive information, this will constitute your consent.

5. Consequences if personal information is not collected

5.1             If some or all of the personal information that Hotspotting requires from you is not collected by us, the main consequence for you is that we may be unable to do business with you and provide our services to you.

6. Use and disclosure of your personal information

6.1             We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information to:

6.1.1       provide products or services that have been requested;

6.1.2       communicate with you;

6.1.3       administer our relationship with you;

6.1.4       inform you of other Hotspotting products and general property industry news;

6.1.5       address any query, feedback or complaints you may have and to record your marketing and communication preferences;

6.1.6       fulfil any legal and regulatory obligations;

6.1.7       contact you or deal with you for any other reason; and / or

6.1.8       fulfil any other purpose that was made clear at the time of collecting the personal information.

6.2             You consent and agree that Hotspotting may from time to time use personal information collected by it for marketing purposes related to new property related products and services that Hotspotting is offering. This may include sending direct marketing messages and materials, updates and offers related to our business and activities, or related to potential investment and business transactions with other third parties.

6.3             If you do not want us to use your personal information for direct marketing, you can let us know at any time through one of the following channels:

6.3.1       to opt out of email marketing, click the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of any of our marketing communications.

6.3.2       to opt out of all other marketing communications, write to our office at admin@hotspotting.com.au with the subject line “Opt Out.”

6.4             You may also request that we do not disclose your personal information to other third parties for direct marketing communication purposes.

6.5             There may be numerous circumstances in which Hotspotting will need to contact you with information that is necessary to provide our services to you and to carry out our business activities involving you.  Such information is not classified as direct marketing and therefore there is no requirement for an “opt out” option.

6.6             If we hold personal information about you that was collected for a particular purpose (as agreed by you and Hotspotting at the time of collection), then Hotspotting will not use or disclose the information for another purpose without your consent, unless you would reasonably expect us to use or disclose the information for the secondary purpose.

7. Disclosure to third parties

7.1             We may disclose your personal information to:

7.1.1       your authorised representative (for example, your finance broker or appointed buyer’s agent) or another person who is acting on your behalf;

7.1.2       unrelated third parties to enable outsourcing of relevant functions to our panel of partners in the event you have requested other services from us (such as mortgage brokers, financiers, buyer’s agents etc.);

7.1.3       Courts, government and regulatory authorities as required or authorised by law.

7.2             Some of your personal information may be disclosed to third parties overseas, namely Mailchimp which is located in the United States of America.  This information shared with this entity is only used for the express purpose of email communication by Hotspotting to you. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that Mailchimp (or any other recipient) complies with the APPs in protection of your personal information.

8. Personal Information collected from website

8.1             We may from time to time, collect personal information from you in the course of you using our website or our smartphone application, particularly if you input any personal information into the website or app.

8.2             We may use cookies from time to time to track your usage of our website or our smartphone application, to improve your experience on the website (or app) or to provide you with better service when you visit the website (or app).  In addition, we may also collect other information from your computer (such as your computer’s IP address).

8.3             The information collected from your computer is generally not personal information.  If however personal information is collected, it may be stored in international locations by entities such as Google or Yahoo.  In such circumstances, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipient complies with the APPs.

8.4             You can adjust your internet browser to disable or warn you when cookies are used. However, disabling cookies may prevent you from being able to properly access parts of Hotspotting’s website or smartphone application, or stop the website (or app) from functioning fully.

9. External links

9.1             Hotspotting’s website may from time to time contain links to other websites, and those third party websites may collect personal information about you.

9.2             Hotspotting takes no responsibility for the content or privacy practices of other websites that are linked to our website.

10. Security of personal information

10.1           We are committed to the protection of your personal information from unauthorised access.  Hotspotting will take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to protect the information from misuse, interference and loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, and will otherwise comply with the APPs.  However, there may be risks associated when transferring your personal information to us from internet facilities or by email.

10.2           We have a range of security measures in place to protect the personal information that we hold.  For example:

10.2.1    Hard copies of personal information that are stored on site are filed securely, and kept under lock and key; and

10.2.2    Electronic records of personal information are password protected.  Passwords are only provided to those staff who require access to the records in the course of their duties.

10.3           Hotspotting will also ensure its employees receive training in the proper handling of personal information. Access to information held by us will be limited to authorised people on a strict need-to-know basis, relevant to a person’s roles and responsibilities.

11. Destruction of personal information

11.1           Where Hotspotting holds personal information about you and the information is no longer needed (or required to be retained by us), we will take reasonable steps in the circumstances to destroy the information or to ensure that the information is de-identified. Any files that are destroyed are done so through secure document destruction contractors.

12. Dealing with unsolicited information

12.1           If we receive personal information that we did not collect from you as set out in this Privacy Policy, and we determine that we could not have collected that particular personal information in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy, we will, as soon as practicable (and provided it is lawful and reasonable to do so), destroy that information, or ensure that the information is de-identified.

12.2           If however we determine that we could have collected the particular personal information in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy, then we may keep the information in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy.

13. Information access and correction

13.1           You have the right under the Privacy Act to seek access to your personal information held by Hotspotting.  If you wish to exercise this right, or if you believe the information we hold is incorrect, incomplete or out-of-date, you should advise us in writing of the alleged error.

13.2           We will respond to any such request within a reasonable period and we will grant access to the information provided the request does fall under one of the exceptions to access stated in the APPs.  Access may be denied where:

13.2.1    to provide access would create a serious threat to the life, health or safety of an individual, or to public health or public safety;

13.2.2    the access would unreasonably impact on the privacy of another;

13.2.3    the request is frivolous or vexatious;

13.2.4    the information relates to anticipated or actual legal proceedings and the individual would not be entitled to access the information in those proceedings; or

13.2.5    giving access would be unlawful.

13.3           In some cases we may ask you to pay an administrative fee to cover our costs in responding to your request.

14. Questions, concerns and complaints

14.1           Information about the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles is available from the Federal Privacy Commissioner.

14.2           If you want to make a complaint about Hotspotting’s management of your personal information, or wish to correct information held by us or are seeking further information, please contact our office using the contact details set out below.  You   will be contacted about your complaint as soon as reasonably practicable and Hotspotting will attempt to resolve it with you.

14.3           If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you may refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by contacting 1300 363 992 or by visiting the website www.oaic.gov.au.

15. Changes to this Privacy Policy

15.1           We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time to take account of changes to relevant laws and technology, changes to our business operations and practices and general changes to the external business environment.

15.2           You can obtain a copy of the current Hotspotting Privacy Policy by contacting our office using the contact details set out below.

16. Contact details

16.1           If you wish to contact Hotspotting in relation to any privacy related matter please use any of the following methods of contact:

Emailadmin@hotspotting.com.au

Telephone: (07) 5494 2575

Post:  PO BOX 57, Maleny, Qld 4552

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