TheSimplyHomes’s Privacy Policy

This service is operated by Paratechnolabs Webtechnology Private Limited. If you visit our website, use our apps or contact us, this policy is for you. It's about how we protect your data and respect your privacy.

We last updated this policy in November 2019. We update it from time to time as we make improvements or when laws change. Please check it regularly to make sure you know exactly how we use your data.

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Our responsibility
Paratechnolabs Webtechnology Private Limited is the ‘controller’ of your personal data. This means we decide how and why your data is processed any time you use our products or services. We go into this in more detail below.
You
Your responsibility
Please read this policy and make sure you’re happy with it before using our services.

Your property information on TheSimplyHomes

This policy applies to the personal information you share with us, not the information about properties we show on our website or apps. This information is about the property itself, not about the occupants or owners of that property.

If you have any questions about the property information we display, please contact our customer care team. If you’re selling or letting a property that’s being advertised on our website or apps, please direct any questions to your estate agent.

Data we collect about you

When you use our online services, we collect data about your visit, including which webpages you visited. Sometimes you might give us data, such as your email address.

In this section, we outline what information we collect about you when you use our services, why we collect it and the legal basis on which we use it.

Information about you

Your contact details

E.g. Your address, email address or phone number.

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Why we collect this data
We use this information to distinguish you from other users, and to contact you if we need to. If you sign up to receive property alerts or marketing emails, we’ll send them to your given email address. If you send a message to an agent or new homes developer through TheSimplyHomes, we’ll share your contact details with them so they can contact you.
You
How it benefits you
You can contact us about our services and get the property alerts and marketing emails that you want. You’ll hear directly from agents or developers you’re contacted via TheSimplyHomes.
Legal basis under data protection law:
Legitimate interests, and consent (where you have opted-in to email marketing)

We’re allowed to use your data if it’s necessary for our (or someone else’s) legitimate interests, provided those interests are not outweighed by your rights nor have any negative impact on you.

Our legitimate interests are:

  • Providing and improving our services
  • Enabling you to save property searches, claim your home and carry out other tasks using your TheSimplyHomes account
  • Personalising your experience of our services
  • Learning from the way you use our services
  • Making sure our services are secure

‘Consent’ is when you give us your permission to use your data for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time. Simply contact us, or amend your email preference settings in your TheSimplyHomes account.

Marketing preferences

E.g. Your marketing email subscription preferences.

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Why we collect this data
We use this information so we can remind you of all the ways we can help and hopefully encourage you to use TheSimplyHomes more often. We also get paid by some trusted businesses, such as new homes developers, to send you marketing emails on their behalf. We do not share your contact details with anyone, except with those third parties who provide services to us, and subject to our contract terms which require them to keep your data safe and not to use it for any other purpose.
You
How it benefits you
You get information about the latest properties that match your search criteria, we can also send you marketing emails which are relevant to you. You’ll only hear from us about products and services we think will interest you.
Legal basis under data protection law:
Consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time. Simply update your marketing preferences in your account, select ‘Unsubscribe’ in any email we send you, or contact us at contact@thesimplyhomes.com. Or use our Help Centre.

‘Consent’ is when you give us your permission to use your data for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time. Simply contact us, or amend your email preference settings in your TheSimplyHomes account.

Information about how you use our products and services

Online behaviour

E.g. Information about how you got to, and use, our websites and apps.

We use Google Analytics and Segment Cookies, with your permission in accordance with our cookie policy, to collect browsing and ‘clickthrough’ data, including session, lead and site interaction data via cookies or IP addresses.

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Why we collect this data
Understanding how you use our websites and apps helps us to improve our service. It helps us determine which trusted businesses can advertise with us, so we can keep providing a free service for you. We use this understanding to better target our advertising efforts. We use Google Adwords, which also measures how effective these targeted ads are. We also use cookies and other action tags to do this.
You
How it benefits you
It means TheSimplyHomes is free to use. Plus, you’ll see the most relevant information and adverts to you.
Legal basis under data protection law:
Consent. You can withdraw your consent to cookies by updating your cookie settings.

‘Consent’ is when you give us your permission to use your data for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time. Simply contact us, or amend your email preference settings in your TheSimplyHomes account.

Ad platform remarketing and cookies

With your consent, and in accordance with our cookie policy, we use cookies to save and retrieve information about your visit to our websites.

We also allow some third parties, such as Facebook and Pinterest, to use cookies to collect information from our websites and apps. They use this to help us advertise TheSimplyHomes on other websites and social media, and also to help us find others who might be interested in TheSimplyHomes’s services.

For example, Facebook uses a custom audience pixel, which is why you might see TheSimplyHomes ads on Facebook after you have been on our websites. We use the Facebook pixel to display our ads to Facebook users who’ve previously shown an interest in our website and the products and services advertised on it. We also display our ads to those who’ve shown an interest in certain locations or properties within a particular price range. Or those who’ve shown intent to purchase or rent a property.

Facebook ‘lookalike’ audiences allow us to show ads on Facebook to people who show similar characteristics to those who use our website. ‘Lookalike’ audiences are created using data collected by the Facebook pixel, or in some cases, email address matching, but only on an anonymised and aggregated basis. We do this to make sure we show ads to people who are likely to be interested in them.

By counting redirects to our websites, or estate agents’ and new home developers’ websites, we track how effective these ads are for statistical and market research purposes. You can change your cookie preferences at any time by visiting the cookie policy page.

Search information

E.g. Information about your property searches, clicks, likes and the pages you follow.

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Why we collect this data
We use this information to understand what you’re looking for and make informed suggestions. It also allows us to give TheSimplyHomes agents and developers a clearer idea of the kind of property we think would interest you. And it means we can show you ads or send you relevant, targeted emails based on your recent property searches and activity on our websites.
You
How it benefits you
Your property search results are more relevant and therefore more useful to you. You could discover properties you may not have otherwise seen because they’re just outside your search criteria. And you’ll get better service from TheSimplyHomes agents and developers.
Legal basis under data protection law:
Legitimate interests

We’re allowed to use your data if it’s necessary for our (or someone else’s) legitimate interests, provided those interests are not outweighed by your rights nor have any negative impact on you.

Our legitimate interests are:

  • Providing and improving our services
  • Enabling you to save property searches, claim your home and carry out other tasks using your TheSimplyHomes account
  • Personalising your experience of our services
  • Learning from the way you use our services
  • Making sure our services are secure

Audience building

We use data to create different audience categories for those who share interests relating to the property market. First-time buyer is one example of a category. We assign you an audience category based on your browsing behaviour on our site, and any data you give us during registration or when you send a lead to an agent. We include information about the areas and property features you’re interested in.

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Why we collect this data
It enables us to show you information online about properties we think you’ll like. And we can better tailor advertising to your interests. This means we get paid more for our advertising slots. We can also send emails on other businesses' behalf so that we do not need to share it with third parties. We can show the effectiveness and relevance of our advertising campaigns by taking anonymised and aggregated statistical and demographic data.
You
You have a more personalised online experience using our websites and apps.
Legal basis under data protection law:
Legitimate interests

We’re allowed to use your data if it’s necessary for our (or someone else’s) legitimate interests, provided those interests are not outweighed by your rights nor have any negative impact on you.

Our legitimate interests are:

  • Providing and improving our services
  • Enabling you to save property searches, claim your home and carry out other tasks using your TheSimplyHomes account
  • Personalising your experience of our services
  • Learning from the way you use our services
  • Making sure our services are secure

Our role in advertising technology (adtech)

Adtech is a complex set of technologies and practices which enables advertisers to compete for available digital advertising space in real time.

TheSimplyHomes’s websites feature ads from third parties. We sometimes select these ads through a bidding process, which enables us to automatically analyse and manage information. We can then instantly sell the advertising space to advertisers during the time it takes for a web page to load on your browser.

Advertisers bid for a specific space on our website if they think a particular user is someone they’d like to reach. We share our audience segments with advertisers so they can target their ads more effectively. For example, new homes developers may want to display their ads to someone we’ve defined as a first-time buyer. To ensure that we display relevant content in the ads we display, we only allow certain companies to bid for ad space on our websites.

Your communications

Enquiries to agents and developers

E.g. Your contact details and messages you send to agents and developers through our websites and apps.

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Why we collect this data
We use this information to send your messages to agents and developers via our portal. We analyse the enquiries sent, and also their outcomes on an anonymised basis, to help us improve our services, including those we provide to agents and developers. We may use your contact details to send you details of property listings we think you may like, unless you ask us not to.
You
How it benefits you
You’re quickly connected to agents and developers to discuss your enquiry.
Legal basis under data protection law:
Legitimate interests

We’re allowed to use your data if it’s necessary for our (or someone else’s) legitimate interests, provided those interests are not outweighed by your rights nor have any negative impact on you.

  • Providing and improving our services
  • Enabling you to save property searches, claim your home and carry out other tasks using your TheSimplyHomes account
  • Personalising your experience of our services
  • Learning from the way you use our services
  • Making sure our services are secure

Surveys and responses

E.g. Feedback tools on our websites, apps and emails.

TSH
Why we collect this data
We sometimes ask for your opinion about our services to measure how we’re doing and make improvements.
You
How it benefits you
You can directly influence what changes and improvements we make to our websites and apps.
Legal basis under data protection law:
Legitimate interests

We’re allowed to use your data if it’s necessary for our (or someone else’s) legitimate interests, provided those interests are not outweighed by your rights nor have any negative impact on you.

  • Providing and improving our services
  • Enabling you to save property searches, claim your home and carry out other tasks using your TheSimplyHomes account
  • Personalising your experience of our services
  • Learning from the way you use our services
  • Making sure our services are secure

Telephone calls

E.g. Recordings of phone calls with you, agents and developers.

TSH
Why we collect this data
We listen back to call recordings to help train our team members improve and investigate when something’s gone wrong. We can share your call recordings with the agent or developer you contacted to help them improve their service as well. We also use anonymised and aggregated data from transcripts of calls for research purposes.
You
How it benefits you
You get quality service from TheSimplyHomes and our members that’s always getting better. And any complaints you may have can be resolved more quickly.
Legal basis under data protection law:
Legitimate interests

We’re allowed to use your data if it’s necessary for our (or someone else’s) legitimate interests, provided those interests are not outweighed by your rights nor have any negative impact on you.

  • Providing and improving our services
  • Enabling you to save property searches, claim your home and carry out other tasks using your TheSimplyHomes account
  • Personalising your experience of our services
  • Learning from the way you use our services
  • Making sure our services are secure

Legal basis: Consent

‘Consent’ is when you give us your permission to use your data for a specific purpose.

You can withdraw your consent at any time. Simply contact us, or amend your email preference settings in your TheSimplyHomes account.

Legal basis: Legitimate interests

We’re allowed to use your data if it’s necessary for our (or someone else’s) legitimate interests, provided those interests are not outweighed by your rights nor have any negative impact on you.

Our legitimate interests are:

  • Providing and improving our services
  • Enabling you to save property searches, claim your home and carry out other tasks using your TheSimplyHomes account
  • Personalising your experience of our services
  • Learning from the way you use our services
  • Making sure our services are secure

Your rights

The law grants you rights with regards to your personal data. They fall into six categories:

  • Erasure
    Erasure
    You can ask us to delete your information in some circumstances. Find out more about erasure
  • Rectification
    Rectification
    You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information. Find out more about rectification
  • Access
    Access
    You can ask us for a copy of your information. This right always applies but there are some exceptions, so you might not get everything we process. Please note that we do not accept any access requests made through third party service providers. This is because we’re unable to adequately check the identity of the person making the request, which could be phishing attempts.
  • Restrict processing
    Restrict processing
    You can ask us to restrict processing your information in some circumstances. Find out more about restriction
  • Data portability
    Data portability
    This applies to information you give us. You can ask us to transfer this information to another organisation or give it to you. This only applies to automated processing based on your consent or in relation to a contract.
  • Object to processing
    Object to processing
    You can object to how we process your personal data even if we believe it’s in our or someone else’s legitimate interests.

Your data choices

  1. 1.

    You can choose not to give us your data. If you do this, you can still browse our websites and use our apps, but you will not be able to send enquiries, sign up to our emails or register with us.

  2. 2.

    You can turn off cookies. If you’ve previously consented to advertising and personalisation cookies, you can change your settings via our cookie policy. You can also block all cookies by adjusting your browser settings or visiting our websites in “incognito” or “private” mode. You can delete cookies in your browser settings. If you do this, you might not be able to use all our services Find out more about cookies.

  3. 3.

    You can tell us not to use your data for marketing. You can say no to us using your data for direct marketing, or withdraw your consent at any time. Simply update your marketing preferences in your account, select ‘Unsubscribe’ in any email we send you, or contact us via contact@thesimplyhomes.com

How we store your data

Where do we store your data?

The personal data we collect is processed at our UK offices and in third party data processing facilities.

Some of these third parties are located outside the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA). If we ever transfer your personal data outside the UK and the EEA, we take steps to protect your privacy and make sure that the transfers comply with the law. These steps usually include ‘Standard Contractual Clauses’ to ensure the recipient protects the personal data fully and appropriately. Please contact us for more information about our data transfer safeguards.

How long do we store your data?

We only keep your data long enough to carry out the task we collected it for. After that time, we safely delete it. The exact amount of time varies depending on the type of data and how we use it.

Do any third parties process your data?

Yes. Like many technology businesses, we use trusted suppliers to host our services (including our websites and apps) and power our business systems. We only choose partners who have appropriate security measures in place to keep your data safe.

We only share your personal data with these suppliers when we absolutely need to. If these suppliers are located outside the UK and the EEA, we take further steps to protect your privacy and make sure that those transfers comply with the law.

Cookies

Our websites and apps use cookies and other similar technologies. A cookie is a piece of information we automatically place on your device so we can remember something about it or you. When you first visit our website, we’ll ask for your consent to set non-essential cookies for advertising and personalisation.

Cookies help us monitor and improve our services, and to personalise your experience.You can find out more in our cookie policy.

How to contact us

We hope all of the above makes sense and you’re happy with how we use your personal information. If not, please contact us at contact@thesimplyhomes.com

Or you can contact us at contact@thesimplyhomes.com.

Due to current government restrictions, we cannot accept any postal queries or requests.

If we’re unable to deal with your request in a satisfactory way, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.

We share IT infrastructure with other websites that we may run within our group, and so we may share your personal information with those websites to help store your data efficiently and securely. Other websites within the group may use your personal information to help provide you with services that you request and to provide you with relevant recommendations of other services and products. These recommendations may use inferences about your interests based on your activity on our websites and apps and on other websites and apps operated by Paratechnolabs Webtechnology Private Limited.