Privacy Policy

Domain Group Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy (Policy) explains how the Domain Group manages your personal information. It also sets out additional information about our companies. By accessing our websites, apps or using our products or services, you consent to the terms of this Policy, including consenting to us collecting, using and disclosing your personal information as set out in this Policy. Whether you are new to Domain Group or a long-time user, please take the time to get to know our privacy practices.

Who we are

The Domain Group is comprised of: (1) Domain Holdings Australia Limited (ABN 43 094 154 364) (DHG), a company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX: DHG); (2) DHG’s subsidiaries; and (3) joint venture entities (together, Domain Group or we, our, us). DHG’s majority shareholder is Nine Entertainment Co. Pty Ltd and their Privacy Policy can be accessed here: https://login.nine.com.au/privacy.

We offer a range of data-driven products and services (which include our websites and apps) and are one of several participants in a property marketplace where data about property transactions is collected, shared and used by participants in that marketplace. Other participants include consumers, real estate agents, financial institutions, government entities and other organisations with an interest in the Australian and New Zealand property markets.

Application of Privacy Policy

The Domain Group operates in multiple jurisdictions, currently including Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. Domain Group members operating in those jurisdictions are bound by the respective privacy and personal data protection legislation in those jurisdictions. For example, in Australia, this includes the Australian Privacy Principles and the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Australian Privacy Laws) (subject to exemptions that apply to us under that Act); in New Zealand, this includes the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 (NZ) (New Zealand Privacy Laws); and in the Philippines the Republic Act 10173 Data Privacy Act of 2012 applies.  References in this Policy to the Privacy Act shall be taken to mean the Australian Privacy Laws unless otherwise stated.

To the extent any personal information we collect relates to an EU resident or a California resident, each of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) respectively apply.

Due to the nature of some of our business activities, from time to time, we will handle personal information relying on the media exemption in the Australian Privacy Laws  and New Zealand Privacy Laws where appropriate. Where we do so, we will ensure that we comply with the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s Code of Ethics. If you require more information on the collection and use of personal information in the course of journalism, you can view the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s Code of Ethics at https://www.meaa.org/meaa-media/code-of-ethics/.

We may also rely on other exemptions in the Australian Privacy Laws including for example, for related bodies corporate and employee records.

The following Domain Group entities have their own Privacy Policies:

You should refer to the above Privacy Policies for information on how these entities manage the personal information they hold.

How to contact us

You can contact our Privacy Officer at:

Privacy Officer
Domain Holdings Australia Limited
Level 5, 100 Harris Street
Pyrmont NSW 2009

Email: privacy@domain.com.au

What information we collect

What is personal information

In this Policy, the term ‘personal information’ has the meaning given to it in the Privacy Act (and, where applicable, as per New Zealand Privacy Laws). In general terms, it is any information that can be used to identify an individual. This may include their name, age, gender, postcode contact details (including phone numbers and email addresses) and insights that we generate about identifiable individuals. If the information we collect personally identifies an individual, or an individual is reasonably identifiable from it, then the information will likely be considered personal information.

Contact details
When you use our products or services, we may collect your contact details which may include your name, business and/or residential address, email address, telephone number, age and/or birth date, profession, occupation or job title, and gender. The type of information we collect will depend on what kind of product or service you are using.

Transaction information
Transaction information includes information about your interactions with us, the products and services you have purchased from us or which you have enquired about and your use of these products and services, together with any additional information necessary to deliver those products and services to you or to respond to your enquiries.

Financial information
Financial information includes information about your assets, financial situation (e.g. home loan details) and may also include payment details, such as direct debit or credit card information, used to pay for our products and services.

Location information
We collect information about your location when you use our products and services, such as location information provided by a mobile or other device interacting with one of our websites or apps, or associated with your IP address or other device identifier. We may also collect your location by asking for your postcode or address.

Property information
We collect information about properties in Australia and New Zealand, which may include property attributes (e.g. number of bedrooms, bathrooms and car spaces), property type (e.g. house or unit), the estimated property value, sale and rent history and owner details. Property images and videos may also be collected.

Identification information
In some cases, we may collect identification documentation from you (e.g. a drivers licence or passport) for verification purposes only.

Activity and cookies
When you visit our websites or use our apps, we or our business partners may also collect information about your use of those websites or apps (usage data). We may do this by using cookies and other tracking software. This usage data enables us to provide you with an improved and more effective and personalised service, keep track of the products and services you use, analyse trends, measure transaction and search patterns, administer our website, diagnose problems, test and improve the quality of our products and services, gather broad demographic information and enable us to conduct targeted online advertising.

You can manage the use of cookies on your computer or mobile device. If you do not wish to receive cookies you can set your browser so that your computer or device does not accept them. You can also clear stored cookies from that browser or device at any time. Please note however that blocking cookies may affect your browsing experience and result in our services not operating as efficiently or effectively as they could.

The usage data we collect and use in cookies is generally not of itself personally identifiable information but if it is linked to personal information about an individual, it may become personally identifiable usage data. In those circumstances we will treat that usage data as personal information and only use it in accordance with our Privacy Policy, the Privacy Act and any other applicable data protection legislation.

Further information about how we collect and use usage and other behavioural data is set out in our Tracking and Targeting Policy.

Profile information and insights
We collect profile information which includes:

  • information relating to you that you provide to us directly through your use of our products or services;
  • information you provide to us through our service centre, customer surveys or visits by our representatives from time to time; and
  • information or insights that we generate about you based on the use of our products or services (e.g. whether you are a renter or buyer).

Metadata
You may use our website without providing any personal information. In this case, we will collect metadata that results from your usage of our website including browser type and version, operating system and interface, website from which you are visiting us (referrer URL), webpage(s) you are visiting on our website, date and time of accessing our website and internet protocol (IP) address. We use this data to improve the quality and services of our website and services by analysing the usage behaviour of our users in anonymised form and to prevent fraud, misuse of our IT systems, as well as to ensure physical, IT and network security.

We also use the metadata we collect for other purposes, including to personalise online advertising or other marketing that you receive from us. See our Tracking and Targeting Policy for further details.

How we collect your information

Directly from you

We collect your personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impractical to do so. We do this in ways including:

  • when you use, contact or request information from us including via our websites, apps, online forms, surveys and emails;
  • through your conversations with our staff and our representatives;
  • when you complete an application or make a listing enquiry; and/or
  • when you write to us including via hard copy forms.

Indirectly from others

We may also collect personal information about you from third parties including:

  • from our related bodies corporate;
  • from any joint applicants, co-applicants or guarantors as part of acquiring any of our products or services;
  • from your representatives, e.g. solicitors, conveyancers, builders, agents;
  • our service providers;
  • our referral partners (for example, those who refer your business to us or who we refer your business to);
  • our existing or potential customers or clients, which may include real estate agents, financial institutions (such as banks) and/or other business partners;
  • credit reporting bodies;
  • law enforcement agencies and other government entities;
  • from the organisations and entities identified under the “Who we share your information with and why” section below, including our related entities;
  • from publicly available sources of information;
  • advertisers;
  • recruitment agencies;
  • contractors and business partners;
  • through someone else who has provided us with your information (e.g. a real estate agent or a bank); and/or
  • when we are legally required to do so.

You may need to provide personal information about other individuals to us, for example, personal information about joint applicants, co-applicants or guarantors, your authorised representatives, or your accountant or solicitor’s contact details. If so, we rely on you to inform those individuals that you are providing their personal information to us, to ensure they agree to their information being provided to us, and to advise them of this Privacy Policy and that we can be contacted for further information (see “How to contact us”).

From your use of our products and services

We collect information about you when you use our products and services.  For example, we may collect usage analytics about when and how you use our products and services.

We may also generate and collect insights about you based on your use of our products and services.

What happens if we can’t collect your personal information

The provision of your personal information may be necessary to use our products and services. If you choose not to provide personal information as described in this Privacy Policy, some or all of the following may happen:

  • we may not be able to provide you with the products or services you requested, either to the same standard, or at all
  • we may not be able to continue our sales or other business relationship with you;
  • we may not be able to provide you with information about products and services that you may want, including information about discounts, sales or special promotions; or
  • we may be unable to tailor the content of our network to your preferences and your experience of our network may not be as enjoyable or useful.

How we use your information

To provide our products and services

Your information is collected and used by us:

  • to provide products and services to you and deliver the best possible quality of customer experience (such as by gaining an understanding of your needs);
  • to provide you with news, information or advice about our existing and new products and services, including for marketing and targeting online advertising (see the “For marketing” section below);
  • to communicate with you, including but not limited to, by email, mail, SMS, telephone or app notifications;
  • to manage and enhance our products and services (such as for research and development);
  • to personalise and customise your experience;
  • to provide you with access to protected areas of our websites;
  • to conduct competitions or promotions, including for or on behalf of third parties;
  • to verify your identity;
  • to assist you to gain approval or provision of a product or service, including to assess applications for your suitability of our products and services;
  • to conduct business processing functions for operation of our websites, our apps or our business;
  • to manage our sales or other business relationships with you;
  • for our administrative, promotional, planning, product/service development, quality control and research purposes, or those of our contractors, external service providers or business partners;
  • to provide your updated personal information to us, our contractors, external service providers or business partners;
  • to administer and manage services relating to payment, including to recover any amounts you may owe to us;
  • to investigate any complaints about or made by you, or if we have reason to suspect that you are in breach of any of our terms and conditions or that you are or have been otherwise engaged in any unlawful activity; and/or
  • as otherwise required or permitted by law (including the Australian Privacy Laws and New Zealand Privacy Laws).

For marketing

We may collect, use and disclose your personal information for marketing purposes, including to send you marketing communications about our product and services and the products and services of our business partners that you may be interested in. We may do this through mail, phone, SMS, social media, email, app notifications and advertising through our apps, websites or third-party websites.

You can contact us at any time to opt-out from receiving direct marketing communications by contacting us directly (see “How to contact us”), by following the unsubscribe instructions in the relevant communication, by updating your personal details on your account profile or changing the notification settings on your device.

If you receive communications from us that you believe have been sent to you other than in accordance with this Privacy Policy, or in breach of any law, please contact us (see the “How to contact us” section).

Your personal information will not be shared or disclosed other than as described in this Privacy Policy or permitted by law.

To develop insights

We use your information to develop insights about individuals, which we may provide to third parties or to use internally in our business.  We also aggregate your information with the information of other people to create statistical or other business data and insights.

Who we share your information with and why

We may disclose your personal information to third parties in the course of operating our business and for one or more of the above purposes or related purposes. These parties include:

  • joint applicants, co-applicants or guarantors as part of acquiring any of our products or services;
  • your representatives, e.g. solicitors, conveyancers, builders, agents;
  • our employees, related bodies corporate, business partnerships and joint venture entities;
  • our external service providers including without limitation web hosting providers, third party marketing platforms (including social media platforms), advertisers, IT systems administrators, mailing houses, couriers, payment processors, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators, debt collectors, and professional advisers such as accountants, solicitors, business advisors and consultants;
  • our existing or potential customers or clients, which may include real estate agents, financial institutions (such as banks), government entities and/or other business partners;
  • our sponsors, or promoters of any competition that we conduct or promote via our services;
  • specific third parties authorised by you to receive information held by us;
  • the police, any relevant government authority or enforcement body, or your Internet Service Provider or network administrator, for example, if we have reason to suspect that you have committed a breach of our Conditions of Use, or have otherwise been engaged in any unlawful activity, and we reasonably believe that disclosure is necessary; and
  • as otherwise required or permitted by law (including the Privacy Act or as required by the applicable laws of a country in which we operate).

Your rights in relation to your information

Accessing your personal information

You may request access to personal information we hold about you by contacting us (see “How to contact us”). We will respond to your request within a reasonable period. We will give access in the manner you have requested if it is reasonable to do so. We will not charge for simply making a request and will not charge to correct or update your personal information. However, depending on the nature and scope of the personal information you have requested, and to the extent permitted by law, we may charge you a reasonable fee to provide access to this information. If you make an access request, we may ask you to verify your identity. There may be instances where, for legal reasons, we cannot grant you access to the personal information we hold. For example, we may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others, or if it would result in a breach of confidentiality. If that happens, we will give you written reasons for any refusal.

Correcting your personal information

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect, hold, use and disclose is correct, complete and up-to-date. However, the accuracy of that information largely depends on the information provided to us. If you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request us to amend it. We will consider if the information requires amendment. If we do not agree that there are grounds for amendment, then we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it. We will also give you written reasons for any refusal.

Members of our websites may be able to access and update their details online. We request that you keep your information current so that we may continue to improve our service to you.

Deleting your personal information

You may contact us to request that we delete information that we hold about you or that we delete your account by contacting support@domain.com.au. We will respond to your request within a reasonable period.

Complaints

If you believe your privacy has been breached by us or have any feedback, questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy or privacy practices, please contact us (see “How to contact us”) and provide details of the incident so that we can investigate it.

We have a process for investigating and dealing with privacy breaches. Once the Privacy Officer receives a complaint, the Privacy Officer will commence an investigation with the relevant business unit from which the alleged breach stemmed. The investigation will endeavour to determine the nature of the breach and how it occurred. We may contact you during the process to seek further clarification if necessary. If a breach is found, the Privacy Officer will work with senior management so that the process can be rectified to prevent any further breaches from taking place. We will also contact you to inform you of the outcome of the investigation. We will endeavour to resolve all investigations within a reasonable time.

We will treat your requests or complaints confidentially. Our representatives may contact you after receipt of your complaint to discuss your concerns and outline options regarding how they may be resolved. We will aim to ensure that your complaint is resolved in a timely and appropriate manner.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint or if you feel your privacy has been breached, you may contact: 

  1. in Australia: the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at either www.oaic.gov.au or by calling 1300 363 992; or
  2. in New Zealand: the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner at either www.privacy.org.nz or by calling 0800 803 909.

Information transfers outside Australia and New Zealand

We may disclose your personal information to entities located overseas for some or all of the purposes listed above. This may include disclosure to the following entities:

  • members of the Domain Group which operate overseas, our related bodies corporate, partnerships and joint venture entities;
  • our data hosting and Cloud-based IT service providers; and
  • other external service providers including those located in Denmark, India, Ireland, Philippines, Singapore, Sweden, the UK and US.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipients of your personal information do not breach the privacy obligations relating to your personal information, and require (if you are a New Zealand customer) that overseas recipients will protect the information in a way that, overall, provides comparable safeguards to those which apply in New Zealand). These overseas recipients may be required to disclose information we disclose to them under a foreign law. In those instances, we will not be responsible for that disclosure.

EU residents

If the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies in respect of any of the personal information we collect, then the GDPR Addendum applies to that personal information.

For the purposes of the GDPR (as applicable), we are the ‘controller’.

California residents

If the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) applies in respect of any personal information we collect, our CCPA Notice and Policy applies to that personal information.

Other important details

Our Privacy Collection Statement

Under the Privacy Act, we are required to make you aware of certain matters. This Privacy Policy is our Privacy Collection Statement, as it addresses:

  • our identity and contact details;
  • the facts and circumstances, and the purposes, of collection of personal information;
  • the consequences for you if personal information is not collected;
  • other entities, bodies or persons to which personal information is usually disclosed;
  • information about access and correction of, and how you may complain about the way we handle, your personal information; and
  • likely cross-border disclosures of personal information.

In some cases, we may display a Privacy Collection Statement at the point of collection. In that case, the Privacy Collection Statement that appears at the point of collection should be read together with this Privacy Policy.

Links

Our website may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party website. Third party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices.

How we manage updates

We may, from time to time, review and update this Privacy Policy, including taking account of new or amended laws, new technology and/or changes to our operations. All personal information held by us will be governed by the most recent updated Privacy Policy. Any updated versions of this Privacy Policy will be posted on our website. This Privacy Policy was last updated in May 2023.