Internet Privacy Policy

Introduction

The www.realestate.com.au web site ("the web site") is operated by realestate.com.au Pty Ltd ("REA"). REA is a subsidiary of REA Group Ltd and operates the web site on behalf of REA Group Ltd and its related companies ("we", "our" and "us" in this Privacy Policy). Click here to view our contact details.

The Privacy Policy set out below outlines the manner in which we manage personal information obtained through or displayed on the web site or otherwise provided by real estate agents or visitors to the website. (Personal information obtained through the www.home-loans.com.au web site of realestate.com.au Home Loans will be managed in accordance with the Privacy and Legal statement contained on that web site.) By using the web site, or entering into an agreement with us in relation to the web site or any of our other web sites (eg to list a property or advertise on the web site) you are taken to have read, and agreed to the collection, use, disclosure and handling of your personal information in accordance with, this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is in addition to any other terms and conditions applicable to the web site. Specific privacy terms contained in any documents made available by us should be read together with this Privacy Policy.

We reserve the right, at our discretion, to modify or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at any time. You should review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you are updated on any changes. We welcome your comments and feedback.

We do not make any representations about third party web sites that may be linked to the web site.

Respecting information privacy

We recognise the importance of protecting the privacy of information we collect that is capable of identifying an individual ("personal information").
In collecting and handling personal information, we are bound by the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988, including the National Privacy Principles, and any other applicable privacy laws in Australia. This Privacy Policy governs the manner in which personal information will be dealt with.

There may be circumstances in which we need to transfer personal information outside Australia. If we do so, we strive to ensure that any organisation to which the information is transferred will be subject to binding privacy obligations.

Problems or Questions

If we become aware of any ongoing concerns or problems with the web site, we will take these issues seriously and work to address these concerns. If you have any further queries relating to this Privacy Policy, or you have a problem or complaint, please contact us.

Further Data Protection Information

For more information about privacy issues in Australia and protecting your privacy, visit the Australian Federal Privacy Commissioner's website.

What personal information do we collect and why?

In order to provide you with services, answer your enquiries, deal with your requests or improve the services we offer you, we may collect and process the following personal information about you:

• Information, such as your name, email and other contact details (including information that you provide by filling in forms on the web site). This includes information provided at the time of registering to use the web site, subscribing to our service, posting material, requesting further services or applying for credit. We may also ask you for personal information if you report a problem with the web site.
• If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
• We may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
• Details of transactions you carry out through the web site.
• Details of your visits to the web site including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data and the resources that you access.
• If you are a real estate agent, your contact details and a profile picture.

If we do not collect this personal information from you, we may not be able to provide you with the services or assistance you have requested.

How do we use your personal information?

We may use personal information in the following ways:

• To ensure that content from the web site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
• To provide a better service to you, for instance by automatically populating forms on the web site by which you make enquiries of selected estate agents.
• To provide you with service information, products or services that you request from us.
• We may (1) use personal information held about you to provide you with information about offers, promotions, goods or services, which we believe may be of interest to you and (2) share your information with our service providers and other third parties so that they can contact you directly about their offers, promotions, goods or services. If we do use your personal information in these ways, we will always give you the opportunity to request that your information not be used for further direct marketing in the future.
• To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so.
• To notify you about changes to our service and remind you of your password and username.

Estate agents
You should be aware that submitting an enquiry regarding a property or an estate agent through the web site will result in the information being passed to the estate agent. What they then do with your information will be their responsibility. You will need to see the estate agent's privacy policy to find out how that estate agent handles your personal information. We are not responsible for the way estate agents collect, use, disclose or handle personal information.

Who do we disclose your information to?

We may disclose information held about you to the following types of organisations:

• Estate agents and estate agencies.
• Third party suppliers who we have engaged to provide you with goods or services on our behalf, so that they can meet your request for those goods or services.
• Third party suppliers of goods and services so that they can contact you directly about their offers, promotions, goods or services. If we do disclose your personal information for this purpose, we will always give you the opportunity to request that your information not be disclosed for this purpose in future.
• Relevant public authorities, our legal representatives or other concerned parties, in special situations where, either:
• we have reason to believe that disclosing your personal information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against anyone damaging, injuring, or interfering (intentionally or unintentionally) with our rights or property, users or anyone else who could be harmed by such activities; or
• we believe, in good faith, that the law requires disclosure.

We also disclose real estate agent contact details (which may include a profile photo) in association with listings or advertisements on the web site.

Storage, Security and Processing

We strive to ensure the security, integrity and privacy of personal information submitted to the web site, and we review and update our security measures in light of current technologies. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure.
However, we will endeavour to take reasonable steps to protect the personal information you may transmit to us or from our online products and services. Once we do receive your transmission, we will also use reasonable endeavours to ensure its security on our systems.
In addition, our employees and the contractors who provide services related to our information systems are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us. However, we are not responsible for events arising from unauthorised access to your personal information.
Data (including personal data) submitted by REA’s customers and visitors to the web sites may be held on servers located in Australia or in the data centres of REA’s outsourced data processors with data centres in Australia, the United States of America, Europe and Asia. The purposes of transfer of data outside of Australia are the secure storage, back-up and retrieval of data. REA has implemented policies and procedures to safeguard the secure storage and processing of data intra-group, has verified the security arrangements of its outsourced data processors and has implemented contractual arrangements intra-group and with its outsourced data processors in accordance with Privacy Act 1988 . You give consent to the transfer of personal data on these terms and for the purposes described above.

Correction and access

We will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to keep accurate and up to date any information which we hold about you. If, at any time, you discover that information held about you is incorrect, you contact us to have the information corrected.
You can also gain access to the personal information we hold about you, subject to certain exceptions provided for by law. To request access to your personal information, please contact us.

Cookies

Cookies are data that a web site transfers to an individual's hard drive for record-keeping purposes. Cookies, which are industry standard and are used by most web sites, including the web site, can facilitate a user's ongoing access to and use of a site. They allow us to customise the web site to your needs and serve targeted advertising.
All pages on the web site are coded with measurement software which is transparent to the user. The software makes use of an invisible image at the bottom of the web page. This software stores a "cookie" in the browser, which contains a unique string. This enables them to count the number of unique browsers to the web site. This information is collected and aggregated, and in no way does this unique identifier identify a user personally. We do not and will not marry any data collected with any personal information collected on our web sites. We use the independent companies, including Neilsen/NetRatings and Omniture to measure and analyse the internet usage across our web sites. We also use an auditing system on our website in relation to internet usage measurement and/or analytics.
If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to deny or accept the cookie feature. However, you should note that cookies may be necessary to provide you with some features of our online services.

Links to Other Sites

We provide links to web sites outside of the web site, as well as to third party web sites. These linked sites are not under our control, and we cannot accept responsibility for the conduct of companies linked to the web site. Before disclosing your personal information on any other web site, we advise you to examine the terms and conditions of using that web site and its privacy statement.

Credit applications by real estate agents

If you apply to us for credit, we will ask you to authorise us to obtain personal information about you from credit reporting agencies, other credit providers, existing or previous suppliers of goods or services, your bank and certain other businesses for the purposes of assessing your application.
We will also require you to authorise us to disclose your personal information to:

• credit reporting agencies (for the purpose of obtaining a credit report); and
• other credit providers, existing or previous suppliers of goods or services, your bank and certain other businesses (for the purposes of assessing your application).

In addition to the ways in which we may use personal information set out above, if you are a customer of REA, we may also use your personal information:

• to help carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;
• to assess your application, where you have applied to us for credit; and
• by disclosing the information to debt collection agencies to recover any amounts you owe us.