2. Your privacy is important to us

At Home-in, We understand how important it is to keep any personal information We have, including visitors browsing Our website (https://www.home-in.com.au/) (Site) and using Our App (App), private, protected and safe. You can be confident that We comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles for the protection and use of personal information.

This Home-in Privacy Policy (Policy) outlines how We can collect and handle your personal information.

Please read through this Policy carefully prior to accessing or using Our service, or engaging with Us about services we offer. We update this Policy when things change. You can always find the most up-to-date version on our Website or App.

3. What information do we collect?

We collect information about you when you use Our service, or deal with us. We may also collect information about you from other people and organisations (i.e. your home loan provider and your conveyancer).

The information we collect is dependent on what services you decide to use;

Account activation and set up

The information we collect from you or other organisations may include:

Personal information such as your name, email address, phone number; and
Home loan information from your financial institution such as, home loan number and lender details.

Consumption of Our services

The information we collect from you may include:

Information about your identity – including date of birth, address;
Information about your home purchase – including purchasing partners identity and related information such as full name, date of birth, email address;
Information which is provided through documentation – for example identity documents needed as part of identity verification which may include passport, birth certificates;
Information to assist with your property conveyancing such as Tax residency status;
Any other information you may provide to Us in your communications with Us; and
When you visit our websites or use our mobile apps — your location information, IP address, mobile device and network information, and any third-party sites you access. The recording of such information enables Us to optimise the Service for users.

4. How do we use your information?

We’re careful about how We use your information. We use it to deliver Our service, and any other services provided by organisations We work with. We also use your information for other reasons, such as to better understand you and your needs and improve the experience We deliver to you.

We collect and use your information to:

Confirm your identity;
Improve the products and service which We provide;
Handle your inquiries and communicate with you on your inquiries;
Research and analytics, which may include directly contacting you;
Comply with relevant laws;
Support Our administrative purposes and any other purposes permitted by law; and
Any other reason which We specifically notify you of and seek your consent to prior to using your personal information.

We may also collect and use your information in other ways where permitted by law.

If you do not provide Us with the information in whole or in part We may not be able to deliver the services you request such as conveyancing for your property.

Sending data overseas

We may hold or process your information on servers located overseas (US, Germany and Ireland), for filtering, hosting, mailing list providers, or storage purposes, reporting and analytical purposes and for system development testing purposes. If this happens, We require such organisations to have the appropriate data handling and security arrangements in place to ensure compliance with this Policy and the law.

Using data

We may combine collected user information with information available from a wide variety of external sources (for example census or Australian Bureau of Statistics data) to analyse the data in order to gain useful insights which can be used to form a more integrated view of users and provide better products and services.

In addition, We may provide data insights or related reports to others, for example to help them understand their customers better. These are based on aggregated information and do not contain any information that identifies you.

Do We use information for direct marketing?

We may use personal information We collect from you to provide direct marketing offers for products and services, which We think, may be of interest to you. To do this we might contact you by:

Email
Phone
SMS

If you don’t want to receive direct marketing you can opt-out at any time using the details provided in the Contact Us section.

5. Cookies and analytics

What are cookies?

Cookies are small data files that are downloaded from Our web servers and stored on your hard drive. A cookie is a string of letters and numbers that uniquely identifies the computer you are using.

How We use cookies on Our Site and Our App

Cookies are used on Our Site and Our App to track your journey. The type of cookie We use contains no personal information at all. This simply allows Us to see at a glance which pages and information is of most interest to visitors and customers. Most browsers can be configured to refuse to accept cookies. You can also delete cookies from your hard drive. However, doing so may hinder your access to valuable areas of information within Our service.

We may use 3rd Party Analytics tools such as Google Analytics which may use cookies in accordance with their privacy policy.

6. Who do We share your information with?

We may share your information with other organisations that are part of Home-in, x15 or the Group, including those subsidiaries located outside Australia.

Generally, We also disclose personal information to organisations that help Us with the operation of Our business. These may include:

Our current service providers, including law firms for conveyancing;
Our current strategic partners;
Our suppliers, agents, associates, contractors and external service providers (including, for example, call centres, stationery printing houses, mail houses, information technology, marketing agencies, and marketing research companies);
Our financial advisers, legal advisers or auditors;
Regulatory bodies, government agencies and law enforcement bodies in any jurisdiction; and
External dispute resolution schemes.

We may also provide personal information about you to external organisations in circumstances where We are required or authorised by law, or with your express consent.

Sometimes We may send your information overseas. Where We do, We make sure there are arrangements in place to protect your information.

7. Keeping your information safe

We take great care with the information We hold about you. Our aim is to ensure that details are securely protected from misuse, interference, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We take reasonable care to make sure that We keep your information in an accurate, complete and up-to-date manner.

Our Site and Our App is professionally hosted and operates in a secure environment. Our Site and Our App uses encryption techniques to enhance your privacy and security when using Our services. You should however be aware that there is always an inherent risk in transmitting your personal information via the internet, including by email.

How long we keep your information

We may retain your information in accordance with our document management policies and practices, which generally require us to retain such information for at least 7 years after that information is no longer required for the purpose for which it was collected. After this time we may destroy such information.

9. Making a privacy complaint

We try to get things right the first time – but if We don’t We’ll do what We can to fix it. If you are concerned about your privacy, you can make a complaint (via the contact details below) and We’ll do Our best to sort it out.

Once the complaint has been received, We’ll look into the issue and try to resolve it as soon as possible. If We can’t We’ll write to you to let you know how We’ll manage the complaint.

If you aren’t satisfied with how We handle your complaint, you can also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on 1300 363 992 or at www.oaic.gov.au

Our Privacy Policy

1. About Us