Privacy Policy
This privacy policy was last updated on June 2, 2010.
NOTE: Throughout this page, the terms "we," "us," and "our" are meant to include PropertyGuys.com staff, franchisees and their team members.
We have the utmost respect for your privacy. We've prepared this document to make it easy to understand what we do, and do not do, with the information that we collect from you when you visit this site. Accurately informing our visitors of how we collect, protect, use and share information is incredibly important to us.
Information We Collect About You
Registration
When you register with our site you will be asked to provide an email address, your first and last name, and your postal or zip code. Optionally you may also provide a home and mobile phone number and choose to opt into our newsletter.
This information is used to create a unique profile for you on our site.
You will be sent a randomly generated password which you may change after logging into the site.
To minimize the information we collect about you, we do not collect your home address. A postal or zip code allows us to calculate your general location and still provide you with reasonably accurate location features.
Browsing the Site
When you visit our web site, we collect information about your visit (e.g. session length, pages visited, network location) based on the IP address of your computer, or your unique user identifier (if you are a registered user). Our web site uses cookies and access logs to facilitate this tracking.
This information is stored in log files. Log data is used in aggregate to analyze how people use our web site and is not used to identify the behaviour of individual visitors.
Sending a Message or Offer
In order to send a message to a seller, or submit an offer on this site we require that a person provide a home phone number. This is to help verify users of our messaging and offer systems in order to help our sellers identify, and avoid receiving messages from users with bad intentions. We also log the unique IP address of your computer.
Your message or offer is stored in an encrypted format on our server. Our staff may not review a message unless the recipient reports that it has violated our Terms of Use.
Sharing a News Item, Search Results or a Property Listing
In order to use our share features we collect your email address and the unique IP address of your computer - we also temporarily collect the email address of the people you are sending the information to. All email addresses are erased from the system shortly after we have successfully delivered the email.
We use the information we collect through our share feature exclusively to monitor for abuse of the system.
In the case of third party web sites like Facebook, Twitter and del.icio.us - we do not collect any information and simply forward you to their web sites. Please review their privacy policies.
Commenting
When you leave a comment on a news or blog article on our web site we log the unique IP address of your computer. Your comment will be stored in our database.
Using our Online Store
If you make a purchase using our online store we will log the history of the transaction, including authentication, order and transaction numbers and billing and shipping addresses. Our online store does NOT store your credit card number or expiry dates. Our store does not request your 3-digit security or CVV2 code from the back of your card.
When you make a purchase online using your credit card we will send you to our credit card processing partner, Moneris Solutions.
Listing a Property
When you list a property on our web site we collect information about its location, condition, features and your asking price. This information is used to help you attract potential buyers to your listing. During the listing process you will also be asked to provide contact information which will be publicly disclosed so that buyers may contact you.
Your property features are also used for compiling aggregate data reports, which can't be used to identify your individual property.
Selling a Property
When you sell a property listed on our web site we request that you provide us with the sale price. This information, by law, is public information and your lawyer will file the price with your provincial government office as part of the registration process. We appreciate you saving us the time of having to send a request to the government for it!
We use the sale price of your property as part of our non-identifiable aggregate data sets. We do not publicly post how much your house was sold for.
Participating in a Survey, Contest, or Special Offer
Occasionally we may offer a survey, contest or special offer on this site. When this happens we will clearly define what information is collected and who your information will be shared with if it is an exception to any part of this privacy policy.
How We Use Your Information
Aggregate Information
We love aggregate information because it gives us great data on how visitors to our site are using it. Aggregate information can not be used to identify an individual. We use aggregate information in every way we possibly can, including selling it to other companies or organizations.
Banning
If you violate our Terms of Use we will use your information in order to put in place appropriate measures to limit or disabled your access to our site.
Email Addresses and Phone Numbers
If you are a registered user of our site, your email address is your unique identifier, or user name, for this site. As a registered user you have access to many features on the web site unavailable to those using the site anonymously (eg. saving searches, bookmarking properties, sending messages).
If you have subscribed to a newsletter or for property updates we will use your email address to send you the information you have requested.
If you have subscribed to receive messages via SMS message we will use the mobile phone number you have provided to send you the information you have requested.
We do not disclose your address, email address, phone number or other contact details publicly or privately to any third parties without your explicit consent.
Disclosure of your phone number is required in order to use our online offer assistant applications and you must disclose your email address in order to use our Share by Email tools.
Personally Identifiable Information
When you are logged into the site your first name will appear on the top left of every page.
When you participate in any discussion on PropertyGuys.com, information you submit may be made publicly available and attributed to you. For example, when you provide a public comment on an article, both your comment and your name will be shown on the page for other visitors to see. This information may be copied or shared by other people, and unfortunately we have no control over who obtains the information or what they do with it.
If your participation in a contest, survey, or special offer entitles you to a prize or other gift of thanks, we will use information you provided to us to fulfill your prize. Some survey information may be maintained with your profile so we can tailor the presentation of our work to you.
How We Protect Your Information
Financial Information
All financial information is managed by our secure third party transaction processor, Moneris Solutions. Our site does not store credit card numbers or security codes. Anytime sensitive information is entered on this site it is encrypted using Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure.
Aggregate Data
If a data sample is so small that disclosure thereof might potentially allow for the identification of individual data points we do not make the data available for external use.
Personally Identifiable Information
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to protect the information we collect online.
Who May Access Your Information
Advertisers
We do not provide personally identifiable information to advertisers and we do not share your contact information with them without your permission. We do share aggregate information and anonymous demographic information and behaviour patterns which illustrate how our visitors use this site.
Third Party Providers
We will not share individual-identifying personal information about you with third parties without your permission, with the exception of service providers or other organizations we contract with to fulfill services on our behalf (e.g. delivering email or mail, executing credit card transactions), or under the circumstances described in Law Enforcement and Legal Compliance below.
Law Enforcement and Legal Compliance
We may disclose personally identifiable information if we are required to by law, or we believe that such action is necessary to (a) comply with the law or with legal process, (b) protect and defend our rights and property, (c) protect against misuse or unauthorized use of the PropertyGuys.com web site, or (d) protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public.
If you attempt to pose as someone else, we may disclose information about you or your actions as part of an investigation into any harm done by your actions.
Business Transitions
If PropertyGuys.com were to merge with or acquire another entity, or sell a portion of its assets, some information regarding registered web site users, and/or web site visitors may be transferred.
Managing Your Information
Editing Your Profile
You may, at anytime, modify the information that we have on file for you by logging into our site and editing your user and/or property profile.
Sending a Letter
If you would prefer you may alternatively send a letter outlining your requested changes to the address below:
Miscellaneous
PropertyGuys.com is not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of web sites to which it links.
From time to time, we may use web site visitor information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at some time in the future we will post the policy changes to our web site to notify you of these changes. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check this page periodically.
