We, at Housing4.com ( Studio 7 Online Realty ) and our affiliated companies worldwide, are committed to respecting your online privacy and recognize your need for appropriate protection and management of any personally identifiable information you share with us.
This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) governs our website available at housing4.com and our other domains (collectively, the “Platform”). The Policy describes how Housing4.com (hereinafter referred to as the “Company”) collects, uses, discloses and transfers personal data of users while browsing the Platform or availing specific services therein (the “Services”).
This Policy describes how we process personal data of all users of our Platform or Services, including buyers, renters, owners, dealers, brokers, and website visitors.
“Personal Data” means any data about an individual who is identifiable by or in relation to such data.
By providing your consent to this Policy, either on the Platform or through other means, or accessing the Platform and Services, you consent to the Company’s processing of your Personal Data in accordance with this Policy. Where required, for processing your Personal Data for distinct purposes, we seek your consent separately on the Platform or through other means. This Privacy Policy is divided into the following sections:
1. Personal Data we collect 2. How we use your Personal Data 3. Who we share your Personal Data with 4. Data storage and retention 5. Your rights 6. Data protection practices 7. Third party websites, apps and services 8. Children 9. Changes to the privacy policy 10. How to contact us – Grievance office
1. Personal Data we collect:
We collect the following types of Personal Data about you when you access our Platform or Services: A. Information you give us:
We collect information you provide to us directly when you use our Platforms (like when you sign-up/ register an account, or post a property listings). We may also collect this information over calls, emails, messages, or other communications established with you to create, update or maintain your details on the Platform. Further, We may also collect this information when you provide it by filling out relevant forms to express your interest in availing our Services. This information includes:
Personal Details: This includes your name, contact information (like addresses, e-mail addresses, phone number), and login information (like username). Property Details: This includes the details of the property such as nature the of property (like commercial, residential, etc), location details, property profile (like area, dimensions, road connectivity), photographs of your property (if any), pricing details and details of the amenities. Identification Documents: This includes any information that helps us identify and verify you (such as Aadhaar, voter id, driver’s license, PAN, passport, etc) or your property (such as, utility bills, sales deed, property registration documents, property tax documents, etc). Payment Information: We use third-party payment service providers to process your payments. You will be re-directed to a third-party interface which will collect the required information from you to process the payment transaction. The payment transaction will also be governed by the policies of such third-party service provider, including their privacy policy. We may receive certain transaction details from third-party payment service providers. However, we do not store and do not have access to your financial information such as your bank account numbers, credit/ debit card numbers, or UPI handle. Communications Details: This includes records of your calls, emails, messages or your communications in other forms related to any feedback, comments, queries, issue reports, customer support, or other communications that you send to us, among other things. Any other information that you provide to us with your permissions, consents or preferences.
B. Information we collect when you use our Platforms:
When you use our Platforms, we collect certain types of Information about how you use or access our Platforms. This includes:
Usage data: Data collected and processed about you when you access the Platform, such as your search queries, intent capture, your account settings, times at which you access the Platforms, time spent on certain pages, inferences of your interests and preferences based on your usage. Technical data: Technical data may include data about the devices, software and technology you use such as hardware model, operating system, IP address, preferred languages, unique device identifiers, advertising identifiers, serial numbers, device motion data, network data and web browser details. General or approximate location data:General location data, such as your city, region, or country. This may be understood from technical data such as your IP address. Communication data: When you communicate with the Platform or use the Platform to communicate with other members (such as other users, advertisers, dealers and builders etc.), the Company collects and stores information about your communication and any other information you provide. Cookies data: We use cookies or other similar technologies (like web beacons, log files, etc) to recognise your device, remember you and support the continuity of your experience.Cookies are files which are downloaded to your device when you access our website or web apps. Purchase or transactional data: Transactional details, such as details about your purchase orders and the payments to and from your accounts with us. However, we do not store and do not have access to your financial information such as your bank account numbers, credit/ debit card numbers, or UPI handle. App-specific permissions: This includes permissions for Notifications, Camera, Location, Phone (Dialer), Photos and videos on mobile devices. Most app-specific permissions require manual approval by you. If you have given the Platform access to non-essential permissions, but wish to turn them off, you can do so through your phone’s settings. The app may not function in case you revoke certain essential app permissions. Since app permissions can change from time to time, we may provide additional information about specific app permissions within the app, or on the Platform-specific app store, such as on the App Store or Play Store. Insight data: We may use your data to derive insights into your usage of our Platform.
C. Information we receive from other sources:
We may receive information about you from third parties, such as, advertising and marketing partners. We may collect your information through property campaigns and publicly available sources. We may also receive information from third parties, when you use a third-party account, like GCRA ,Reconnect , Studio7 providers , to log in or upload information to the Platform. This information may include name, email, phone number, location.
2. How we use your Personal Data:
The Platform may process your Personal Data for the following purposes: A. Provision of the Platform and Services:
We use your Personal Data to provide the Services and access to Platform, and to enable you to use the various features of the Platforms. For instance, we may use your data
for account creation, onboarding and registration purposes. for listing your properties or for properties which you are authorised to advertise or extending the listing of your properties or for properties which you are authorised to advertise are on the Platform or for recording your interest in a particular property or type of properties. for establishing connectivity with other members of the Platform (such as other users, advertisers, dealers and builders, banks, NBFCs, banking agents, etc.) or for enabling other members of the Platform to contact you for a period of a reasonable period from the last activity on the Platform. for giving visibility into your profile and property listing to other users of the Platform; or for providing you with relevant details of a particular property or types of properties or for providing you customised search results or for recommending users or properties or advertisers or for purchase by advertiser that might be relevant to you or your interest.
B. Our marketing activities: We may use Personal Data to provide you marketing and promotional material and notify you of discounts and offers, about our Platform and Services or about third-party services, if you’ve consented to receive such communication from us.
C. Third-party marketing activities: Based on your expression of interest, that we receive from you, we may share your Personal Data with third-parties (like banks, NBFCs, banking agents, etc.) – so that they can contact you for their own promotional/marketing purposes.
D. For Platform and Service improvement: We may use Personal Data to improve our Platform and its content, to ideate, develop and provide new or better Platform features or Services. For this purpose, we may use data collected through the information you provide us through your feedbacks, through our marketing research and surveys or through the use of the Platform. We may also use Personal Data for providing a better user experience on the Platform and to personalise the Platform for improving your usability of the Platform. The Platform uses YouTube API services. In order to check the performance of a video we may track the video play, pause, mute/unmute action performed by the user on the Platform.
E. For fraud prevention: We may use Personal Data for identifying suspicious users or property listings on the Platform, for verifying users and property listing on Platform, for ensuring network security; and to prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute crimes (including but not limited to fraud and other financial crimes) on the Platform. We may also undertake other due diligence checks on suspicious users or property listings, including government sanctions screening and we may seek additional information from you, for such purpose.
F. For troubleshooting and recover: We may use your Personal Data to troubleshoot issues or problems with the Platform or Services and for maintain adequate backs-ups to ensure high availability, and aid in disaster recovery.
G. Analytics Operations: We may collect and use analytics information together with your Personal Data to build a broader profile of our users so that the Company can serve you better and provide custom, personalized content, and information.
H. Legal Obligation: In some cases, the Company will need to collect Personal Data to comply with any legal obligation and to establish, exercise or defending legal rights in connection with legal proceedings (including any prospective legal proceedings) and seeking professional or legal advice in relation to such legal proceedings, and to protect the safety and integrity of our Platforms.
I. For communicating with you: We use your personal data to respond to your queries, comments, or feedback, resolve issues faced by you on a Platform or related to a product or service, and to implement your suggestions. We may also be contacting you in relation to providing you access to the Platform or for helping you use the Platform or the Services.
J. For grievance redressa: We may use your Personal Data to address your grievances and to respond to your complaints. 3. Cookies:
Some of our web pages utilize “Cookies” and other tracking technologies. A Cookie is a small text file that may be used, for example, to collect information about web-site activity. Some cookies and other technologies may serve to recall Personal Data previously indicated by a user.
Most browsers allow you to control cookies, including whether or not to accept them and how to remove them. You may set most browsers to notify you if you receive a cookie, or you may choose to block cookies with your browser, but please note that if you choose to erase or block your cookies, your experience on our platform might be affect.
Tracking technologies may record information such as Internet domain and host names; Internet protocol (IP) addresses; browser software and operating system types; clickstream patterns; and dates and times that our site is accessed. Our use of cookies and other tracking technologies allows us to improve our Platform and the overall website experience. We may also analyse information that does not contain Personal Information for trends and statistics. 4. Who we share your personal data with: A. Information you give us:
The Company may disclose Personal Data only for the purposes explained in this Privacy Policy, with the following third parties:
Service Providers: The Company may disclose Personal Data (overriding NDNC registration) with service providers, vendors, consultants, agents, field verifiers, or others who assist the Company in operating the Platform or providing the Services. This may include entities engaged in delivering programs, products, information, and Services, maintenance of the Platform and mailing lists, verifying properties. Other Platform users: The Company may, share your information with other users of the Platform, such as owners, renters, brokers, dealers, etc. to establish connectivity with such other users of the Platform. The other users of the Platform may be able to access your contact details to communicate with you, regarding your property listing or your interest in a particular property or type of properties. Banking Partners: The Company may share your Personal Data with participating banks,NBFCs, their employees or their agents (banking agents), based on your expression of interest regarding home loans. The banking partners may contact you to offer their products or services. Legal Purpose: The Company shares personal data when required by law, such as responding to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, or to establish or exercise legal rights or defending against legal claims. Corporate Restructuring:The Company may share personal data with an another Company pursuant to any corporate re-organisation, amalgamation or restructuring. In this event, the Company will notify you before information about you is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy. Other Third Parties:The Company may share your Personal Data with other third parties, on a need-to-know basis, such as accountants, lawyers, auditors, etc.
Please note that the Platform sometimes displays advertisements or contains links to third party websites that may collect personal data, and those are not governed by this Policy. The Company will not be responsible for the privacy practices of such websites. The Company recommends that you review the privacy policy of each third-party site linked from the Platform to determine their use of your Personal Data. 5. User Rights:
if you wish to access, verify, correct, complete, update or erase any of your Personal Data collected through the Platforms or Services, you may write to us at feedback@Housing4.com. You may withdraw your consent for any or all processing of your Personal Data by [services@Housing4.com]. Do note however, that the Company reserves the right to refuse to provide you access to the Platform and Services in circumstances where such Personal Data is essential to the provision of the Platform and Services. We (or our service providers or partners) may communicate with you through voice calls, text messages, emails, Platform notifications, or other means. The communication may relate to (a) your purchases, payments, or other messages related to your use of the Platform, or (b) offers or promotions about our Platform, new features or Services. You may opt out of receiving information about promotional offers by writing to our grievance officer. We may still need to send you non-promotional communication (information about the Platforms and Services).
Please note that the Platform sometimes displays advertisements or contains links to third party websites that may collect personal data, and those are not governed by this Policy. The Company will not be responsible for the privacy practices of such websites. The Company recommends that you review the privacy policy of each third-party site linked from the Platform to determine their use of your Personal Data. 6. Storage and Protection of personal data:
Our Company is located in India. We store and process your personal data in India. However, we may transfer your personal data to our service providers or partners in other parts of the world. The security and confidentiality of your personal data is important to us and Company has invested significant resources to protect the safekeeping and confidentiality of your Personal Data . When using external service providers acting as processors, the Company requires that they adhere to the same standards as the Platform. Regardless of where your Personal Data is transferred or stored, the Company take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that personal data is kept secure. The Company has physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with the laws prevalent in India to protect Personal Data and take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data.
7. Retention of personal data:
Your personal data is processed and retained to enable your access or use of the Platform and Services. We will keep your Personal Data as long as it is necessary to provide you Services on the Platform or for the purposes for which the data was obtained. To ensure compliance with applicable laws or other legal obligations, or to exercise our legal rights, we may need to retain information even after you have requested us to erase your personal data, terminated your account with us, or stopped using the Platform. We may also keep your contact information and other details for fraud prevention, for the exercise/defense of a legal claim, or for providing evidence in legal proceedings, maintaining accurate accounting, financial, and other operational records, resolving disputes, and enforcing the Company’s agreements. Post termination, we may continue to store, use, and share aggregated anonymised data for any purpose, including purposes not listed above. Anonymised data cannot be used to identify you.
8. Third party websites, apps, and services:
The Platform may contain links to third party websites, apps, or services, such as websites of our partners, or third-party websites that contain informational or other content. This Privacy Policy does not apply to collection, use, storage, sharing, etc. by third parties when you visit or interact with their websites or services, even if they are our partners and display our branding on their website or service. Data collected by third parties is subject to their own privacy policies and privacy practices such as the Privacy Policy of Google. You may control the display of your content by using settings available at Google’s security settings page. We (and any other affiliate; or any of our Company directors, officers, agents, contractors, sub-contractors or workers) have no responsibility or liability for the content, activities and services relating to those linked websites, and for data collection, use, storage, sharing, etc. by third parties.
9. Children:
The Platform is not intended for use by children under 18 years of age. Any use of Platform by a child under the age of 18 years must be under parental supervision. We do not knowingly collect any information about, or market to, children, minors or anyone under the age of 18. If you are less than 18 years old, we request that you do not visit or use the Platforms, and that you do not submit any Personal Data to us. 10. Changes to this Privacy Policy:
The Platform reserves the right to update, change or modify this Policy at any time. The Policy shall come to effect from the date of such update, change or modification. 11. Grievance Redressal:
Questions, concerns or complaints related to the processing of your Personal Data may be made to the Grievance Officer appointed by the Company. In case of any grievances please contact:
