1. Collecting personal information

The types of personal information we collect include contact details such as name, email, phone numbers, mailing or street address, age or birth date, family details, credit card and banking details. We may also collect:

  • details concerning the value of your property;
  • details of the services you have purchased from us or which you have enquired about, together with any additional information necessary to deliver the services and to respond to your enquiries;
  • any additional information relating to you that you provide to us directly through our websites, applications or indirectly through use of our website, applications or online presence through our representatives or otherwise;
  • information you provide to us through our service centre or customer surveys; or
  • any other personal information relevant to the service we are providing to you.

If it is reasonable and practical to do so, we will collect personal information directly from you. This will include contact details and other information relevant to providing services to you. This may take place in a number of ways, such as:

  • when joining to use our websites or applications or parts of them;
  • logging in to use the websites or applications via a social networking site;
  • when registering to bid on a property;
  • when listing a property to sell;
  • subscribing to receive newsletters, alerts, e-brochures and filing in forms or applications;
  • completing surveys or research;
  • participating in promotions and competitions on our websites and our applications, including those of our service providers;
  • contacting us or our service providers for any reason including, but not limited to, reporting a problem with the websites or applications, requesting further services or seeking our assistance;
  • posting or contributing material on our websites or applications;
  • using our services;
  • if you are a seller, via your agent when they list your property; or
  • through your access and use of our websites, applications and by other electronic communication channels generally.

We may also collect personal information from third parties such as, but not limited to:

  • our Related Bodies Corporate (as defined in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth));
  • third party companies such as credit reporting agencies, real estate agencies or brokers;
  • advertisers or mailing lists;
  • law enforcement agencies and other government representatives;
  • contractors or business partners;
  • your representatives (e.g. solicitor, accountant or financial advisor);
  • information when sent to us by email or other communication from third parties; or
  • publically available sources of information including social media.

We may also collect personal information where we are required to do so by law.

All personal information that we or our Related Bodies Corporate collect, is reasonably necessary for the purposes relating to providing our online platform for the buying and selling of real estate. Those purposes include:

  • checking your eligibility for our services;
  • to communicate with you including by email, mail or telephone;
  • to manage and enhance our services;
  • to personalise and customise your experience;
  • to provide you with access to protected areas of our websites and applications;
  • to verify your identity;
  • to provide as part of business data to third parties if you have authorised us to do so;
  • to conduct business processing functions for operation of our websites, applications or our business;
  • for our administrative, marketing (including direct marketing), promotional, planning, product/service development, quality control and research purposes, or those of our contractors or external service providers;
  • to provide your updated personal information to us, our contractors or external service providers;
  • 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 required or permitted by any law (including the Privacy Act)

If you supply personal information to us about another person, we accept it on the basis that you represent and warrant that you are authorised to do so and that the relevant person has consented to the disclosure to us for our business purposes.

If we receive personal information about you that we did not ask for, from someone other than you, and we determine that we could have collected this information from you had we asked for it, we will notify you, as soon as practicable, that we have collected your personal information. If we could not have collected this personal information, we will lawfully de identify or destroy that personal information.

We will not collect any sensitive information from you, revealing your: race, ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union memberships or details of health or disability. Exceptions to this include:

  • where you have given express consent to us to do so and the information is reasonably necessary for us to carry out our functions or activities;
  • the use of this information is required or authorised under Australian law or a court or tribunal order; or
  • when the information is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim.

We will not collect personal information unless the information is reasonably necessary for or directly related to one, or more of our functions or activities. If we are unable to collect personal information we reasonably require, we may not be able to do business with you or the organisation with which you are connected, or we may not be able to provide you with the services you requested, either to the same standard, or at all (for example, if you do not register to use our website or our applications, you will not be able to access features or services that are reserved for registered users only).

2. Cookies

When you visit our websites or use our applications the server may attach a "cookie" to your computer's memory. A “cookie” assists us to store information on how visitors to our websites and our applications use them, to identify you between multiple visits, and identify the pages that may be of most interest. This information may be used to make assumptions about who uses your computer and to provide users of your computer with information that we think may interest the users of your computer. We may link this information to personal information we hold about you. If we do, that information will become personal information, and will be treated in the same manner as the personal information to which it was linked. You should be able to configure your computer so that it disables “cookies” or does not accept them.

3. Use and disclosure of information

We may use personal information about you for the primary purpose of enabling us to perform our business activities and functions and to provide best possible quality of customer service. This may entail using the information:

  • to ensure that content from our websites and applications is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer or mobile device;
  • to provide a better or more relevant service or product to you, for instance by automatically populating forms on the websites or applications when you make enquiries of selected real estate agents;
  • to verify your identity when you register or log into our websites or applications via your account and remind you of your password and username;
  • to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
  • to help carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;
  • to assess your application for credit as a business in connection with our services;
  • to disclose information to debt collection agencies to recover any amounts you owe us;
  • to notify you about changes to our products and services;
  • to provide you with our services; and
  • for purposes you would reasonably expect us to use that information for, which may include sending you information about new developments, products, services and special offers by post, telephone or any form of electronic communication. We may also use any email address or other personal information you provide to us at any time for this purpose as well.

We will not disclose your personal information to any third party other than as set out in this Privacy Policy. In order to deliver the services that we provide to you, we may disclose your personal information to other organisations, only in relation to providing our services to you. We take reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information. Accordingly, we may disclose your personal information to:

  • related bodies corporate, contractors or external service providers for the operation of our websites, applications or our business, fulfilling requests by you, and otherwise provide services to you, including without limitation, web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, mailing houses, newsagents, couriers, payment processors, photographic analysers, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators, debt collectors, and professional advisers such as accountants, solicitors, business advisors and consultants;
  • our existing or potential agents, business partners or joint venture entities or 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 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 any of our terms and conditions, or have otherwise been engaged in any unlawful activity, and we reasonably believe that disclosure is necessary; and
  • as required or permitted by any law (including the Privacy Act).

4. Direct Marketing

In accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Spam Act 2004 (Cth), we may use personal information about you for the primary purpose of providing you with our services, offers, or promotions and for which you would reasonably expect us to use that information for, including sending you information about new developments, products, services and special offers by post, telephone or any form of electronic communication. We may use any email address or other personal information you provide to us at any time for this purpose. If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so.

You can, at any time, opt out of receiving marketing material by contacting us. You agree and acknowledge that even if you opt out of receiving marketing material, we will still send you essential information that we are legally required to send you relating to the services we provide. Once you opt out of receiving marketing material from us, you agree and acknowledge that this removal from our distribution lists may take several business days after the date of you request to be removed.

If you receive communications from us that you believe have been sent to you other than in accordance with this policy, or in breach of any law, please contact us on the details listed at ‘Contact us’ on our website, www.openn.com.au.

5. Accuracy of your information

All reasonable steps are taken by us to ensure that your personal information held by us is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant and not misleading. If you believe that any of your personal information is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant and not misleading, please contact us (see below) and we will take all reasonable steps to correct it within a reasonable time.

6. Third parties and your information

We will only collect, store, use or disclose your personal information as set out in this Privacy Policy unless we are required to do so in order to protect our rights or property, or to avoid injury to any person, or by law.

Although our websites may link directly to websites operated by third parties (Linked Sites), you acknowledge that Linked Sites are not operated by us. We encourage you to always read the applicable Privacy Policy of any Linked Site on entering the Linked Site. We are not responsible for the content or practices of the Linked Sites nor their privacy policies regarding the collection, storage, use and dissemination of your personal information.

7. Disclosure of Information Overseas

We may transfer to people in foreign countries any of your personal information to fulfil the primary purposes set out in this Privacy Policy and secondary purposes for which you have provided your consent. By providing us with your personal information you consent to this transfer. In addition, if we disclose your personal information to people in foreign countries, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that they comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

By your use of our websites or applications you consent to the collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and as otherwise permitted under the Privacy Act.

9. Collection and use of certain de-personalised, aggregated data

From time to time, we may collect data relating to your use of, and activity on, our websites and applications (De-personalised Data). This includes data about which properties are attracting the most bids and in what suburbs, the nature of the properties bidders are interested in and bidding metrics (e.g. how many bids are made on a property and in what time period).

De-personalised Data we collect is not associated with your personal information and is aggregated together with other De-personalised Data.

We may use De-personalised Data and disclose it to third parties for our administrative, marketing (including direct marketing), promotional, planning, product/service development, quality control and research purposes, or those of our contractors or external service providers.

10. Storage and security

We will use all reasonable endeavours to keep your personal information in a secure environment, however, this security cannot be guaranteed. Much of the personal information we hold will be stored electronically in secure data centres located in Australia. We use a range of security measures to protect the personal information we hold. These measures are designed to assist in your personal information not being accessed by unauthorised personnel, lost or misused. If you reasonably believe that there has been unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal information please contact us.

If we no longer need your personal information, unless we are required under Australian law or a court or tribunal order to retain it, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify your personal information.

We may at any time vary the terms of this Privacy Policy. You should check this Privacy Policy regularly so that you are aware of any variations made to this Privacy Policy. You will be deemed to have consented to such variations by your continued use of our websites or applications (as the case may be) following such changes being made.

12. Access to information we hold about you

If you request access to the personal information we hold about you, we will respond to your request within a reasonable period of time and, where reasonable and practicable, give access to the information in the manner you request. You can also request for corrections to be made. To do so, please contact us on the details listed at ‘Contact us’ on our website at www.openn.com.au. However, any such request will be subject to any exemptions allowed under the Privacy Act. You may request this information by writing to:

13. Complaints

If you wish to make a complaint about a breach of this Privacy Policy, or the Australian Privacy Principles (if applicable), you can contact us using the details listed at ‘Contact us’ on our website at www.openn.com.au. You will need to provide sufficient details regarding your complaint, as well as any supporting evidence and information.

Your complaint will be reviewed by our Privacy Officer, who will investigate the issue and determine the steps that we will take to resolve your complaint. We will contact you if we require any further information from you and will notify you in writing of the outcome of the investigation.

If you are not satisfied with our determination, you can contact us to discuss your concerns.

Directors, PPValley Pty Ltd