HouseCheck Privacy Policy

(Version Date: October 2019)

HouseCheck Privacy Policy

(Version Date: October 2019)

Privacy Policy

National HouseCheck Corporation, on behalf of itself and its subsidiaries (collectively, “HouseCheck,” “us,” “we,” or “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy and the privacy of its customers. This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) is intended to help you make an informed decision about whether to use, or continue to use, the products and services provided by HouseCheck and/or accessed through either (i) the website located at https://housefax.com and other websites owned and operated by HouseCheck and any successor website (collectively, our “Sites”) and any interactive properties, including but not limited to any HouseCheck mobile applications (the Sites and other HouseCheck interactive properties are collectively referred to herein as the “Applications”), or (ii) offline (whether accessed through the Applications or offline, the “Products and Services”).

This Policy applies to your use of (1) the Applications (however accessed and/or used, whether via personal computers, mobile devices or otherwise); (2) our Products and Services; (3) email or electronic catalogs and newsletters; (4) offline means such as direct mail, telephone and postal mail; and (5) any other means or applications in which you connect with HouseCheck.

HouseCheck encourages you to contact us with any concerns about our collection, use or sharing of your information. If you have questions or concerns regarding this Policy, you should contact HouseCheck through the Applications, by e-mail at legal@housecheck.com or by writing us at National HouseCheck Corporation, 950 West Bannock Street, Suite 950, Boise, ID, 83702, Attention: Legal Department.

If we need, or are required, to contact you concerning any event that involves your information we may do so by email, telephone or mail.

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY
This Policy is intended to inform you and other individuals accessing our Applications or using our Products and Services (collectively, “Users”) of the use and sharing practices for the information we receive, collect and obtain about you. Although we encourage you to read the entire Policy, the following provides a summary of some of the important aspects of our privacy practices:

  • We allow you to “opt out” of certain uses of your information; however, selecting to opt-out will limit your interactions with our Applications and potentially with respect to the Products and Services.
  • We have carefully selected third-party service providers that offer valuable services (“Brand Partners”) that may be useful to our users. We use your information to provide you with products, services and information and connect you with our Brand Partners.
  • We may combine the information we collect about you with information collected from other sources.
  • We may share your information with third parties in some situations, such as in processing registration, administering our Applications, selling you our products, providing services, and for direct marketing via our Brand Partners.
  • We are committed to protecting and securing your personal information and will take reasonable and appropriate measures to secure your information, but we cannot promise that your information will remain secure in all circumstances.

By accessing or using our APPLICATIONS OR OUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES, you consent to the collection, use and sharing of your information as described in this Policy.

INFORMATION RECEIVED, COLLECTED AND OBTAINED BY HOUSECHECK

We may collect different types of information (collectively, “Information”), including, but not limited to, personal information, financial information, demographic information, log, Device (hereinafter defined) and aggregate data. Sometimes we collect combinations of all these types of information. In each case, when using our Applications, it is indicated on the Application whether any personal or demographic data must be provided for you to access and use the Application and/or purchase the requested Product or Service.

“Personal” information refers to information that may be reasonably associated with, linked to, or used to identify an individual, allowing that individual to be personally identified or contacted. “Non-Personal” information refers to information that may not by itself be reasonably associated with, linked to or used to identify an individual.   We may use and share the Personal Information and Non-Personal Information we receive, collect and obtain regarding you and other Users as described in this Policy.

We receive, collect, and obtain Information in the following ways:

When You Register or Otherwise Contact Us.  When you provide us with information with a particular activity or otherwise sign up for or order our Products and Services or provide your contact information, including an email address or telephone number in connection with that activity, product or service, you agree that this action constitutes a purchase or inquiry establishing a business relationship with us.  You expressly consent to our communicating with you about HouseCheck using the information you provided to us. You also attest that you have the legal authority over any telephone number you provide to us and can provide us with the authorization to contact you. This means we may contact you, in person or by recorded message, by e-mail, telephone and/or mobile telephone number (including use of automated dialing equipment), text (SMS) message, or any other means of communication that your wireless or other telecommunications device may be capable of receiving.

Registration Information.  We will collect Personal Information from you when you use or interact with the Applications and/or place and order for our Products and Services.  For certain services, HouseCheck may require you to create an account and provide an email address and password. If you submit a request for information through our Applications, we will collect any information you submit in connection with your request, including but not limited to, name, email address, telephone number, and any personalized message included in your request. In addition, we may collect other information that you may submit in the course of searching for properties or creating an account such as zip code and/or property viewed. If you call a toll-free telephone number provided on an Application, we may record the call, as well as the date, time and length of your call and the phone number from which the call originated, along with other information that may be captured, and all such captured information may be used as described in this Policy.

We may also collect Personal Information from you voluntarily through our Applications, including through the information you voluntarily provide through your interactions on the Applications. These sources may include, for example, the registrations, responses, reviews, comments, purchases, confirmations, surveys, messages, posts, notes, phone calls and other communications you send through the Applications.

Financial Information.  Financial information is information that you provide to us, including your debit or credit card number and related billing information (collectively, the “Billing Information”). We may require such financial information in order to process payment for the purchase of a Product or Service that you have requested. By submitting your financial information, you consent to our providing it to those Authorized Third Party Service Providers (as later defined) as necessary to support and process your transactions as well as your credit card issuer/banking institution for their purposes.

We ask that you do not enter financial information into your profile, except in the fields provided for that information. 

Facebook. You may be given the option to link your Facebook account so that you can comment on our Applications and/or our Products and Services or take advantage of other features of our Applications. When you comment on our Applications using your Facebook username and password and clicking “allow” on the Facebook permission authorization screen, we will automatically import whatever information that you allow to be imported from your Facebook profile based upon your privacy settings at Facebook, such as your location, your interests, etc. (collectively, “Permitted Facebook Profile Content”) and you give us permission to capture, store, use and display your Permitted Facebook Profile Content, including syncing access to such Permitted Facebook Profile Content when you are not using our Applications and we may share that information with other users. The authentication of your Facebook login credentials are conducted solely through Facebook.

User Generated Content. The Applications may contain review or chat areas and/or other message, communication or other mechanisms designed to enable you to communicate with others or to post content on the Applications (the “Communication Services”). Please remember that any information you disclose while participating with the Communication Services becomes public information, and becomes the property of, and is subject to redistribution by, HouseCheck. You should exercise caution and discretion when deciding to disclose your personal information in a submission or posting. There is no expectation of privacy when posting or otherwise participating on the Communication Services. If you post content, such as messages, reviews or photos, please be aware that any personally identifiable information contained in such content is accessible to registered users or visitors to that Application or Communication Services and we have no control over how those users may use your personally identifiable information. We have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor any activity and content associated with the Communication Services. We reserve the right to take action in connection with any content we deem to be inappropriate. Please review our Terms and Conditions for more information regarding your appropriate use of these Communication Services.

Information Obtained from Third Parties. HouseCheck may obtain Information from other third parties regarding our Users. This may either be Personal Information to which you have consented to their sharing with us, or Non-Personal Information such as demographic information from the geographic region associated with your IP address.  We use this information to help us maintain the accuracy of the information we collect, to target our communications so that we can inform you of products, our Products and Services and offers that may be of interest, and for internal business analysis or other business purposes.

USE, AND SHARING OF INFORMATION BY HOUSECHECK
We may use any Personal and Non-Personal Information about our Users obtained from third parties in accordance with this Policy.

PERSONAL INFORMATION
We use your Information, subject to applicable laws, in the following ways:

  • to allow you to use the Applications;
  • to share your information with our affiliates and subsidiaries, where we consider appropriate, within the HouseCheck family of brands;
  • to deliver, provide or process payment for a Product or Service you have requested; to enable you to provide us with feedback, to contact us and for us to contact you;
  • to administer promotions you enter, such as our contests or sweepstakes;
  • to allow your participation in our Communications Services (where available on our Applications);
  • to allow your participation in any surveys; to send you maintenance communications to alert you to changes and updates in our Applications’ policies, Products and/or Services that may affect you;
  • to send you communications of interest that you have requested, such as emails or text messages about our Products and Services, targeted marketing, and promotional offers; to customize, measure and improve our Products and Services, content, and advertising, including generating internal reports about the use of our Applications;
  • to personalize your overall experience with HouseCheck;
  • to enforce our Terms and Conditions
  • for purposes disclosed at the time you provide your Information; and
  • as otherwise set forth in this Policy.

We may send you notices from time to time relating to your account or your orders. These may include order confirmations, invoices, renewals or customer service notifications. We may also send you service-related announcements when it is necessary to do so; for instance, if our Service(s) is/are temporarily suspended for maintenance, or the delivery of a Product is delayed or there is some service issue with something you may have ordered. You may not opt-out of receiving these communications, which are not promotional in nature.

In addition to the other uses of Personal Information described in this Policy, we may share the Personal Information we collect and obtain in the following ways:

Authorized Service Providers. We may use third party service providers (“Authorized Third Party Service Providers”) to help us operate our business and our Applications or administer activities on our behalf.  We may share information with these Authorized Third Party Service Providers.  We require that these Authorized Third Party Service Providers agree to use the Information we share with them only to perform their obligations to us and to treat all Information they receive from us in compliance with this Policy.

Brand Partners. We may share your name, address, company, job title and phone number with Brand Partners so that they may develop and offer products and services to you that we believe will be of interest.

For instructions on how to “opt-out” of disclosure of your Personal Information to these third parties, including how to opt-out of the disclosure of your Personal Information for direct marketing purposes, please see the “Choice and Opt-out” section below.

Electronic Promotional Offers. We may send you promotional emails regarding special offers about our Products and Services or on behalf of third party marketing partners who we think can offer services and products of interest to you. If you do not want to receive emails from us regarding special promotions or offers, or from any third party, you may opt-out as provided in the “Choice and Opt-out” section below.

Telemarketing. If you have given us your telephone number, when making an inquiry or registering with us or when ordering Products or Services from us, we may use the telephone number you provided to reach out to you to follow up on your order, including follow-up regarding renewals and marketing. If you would prefer not to receive marketing phone calls from us, you may opt-out as provided in the “Choice and Opt-out” section below.

Feedback. All comments, feedback or materials submitted by you to us, including feedback, testimonials, images, reviews, questions, comments, suggestions or ideas (collectively, “Feedback”), shall be received and treated by us on a non-confidential and unrestricted basis. We will be free to use, display, perform, distribute, copy, adapt, and promote, in any medium now known or later developed, without compensation to you, the Feedback along with all ideas, concepts, know-how, techniques or methodologies contained in such Feedback, for any purpose whatsoever, including without limitation, developing, marketing and selling our Products and Services incorporating such Feedback. You agree that in submitting Feedback, it will not violate any right of any third party, including any confidentiality, copyright, trademark, privacy or other personal or intellectual property or proprietary rights, and will not cause injury to any person or entity. You further agree that no Feedback you submit will be or contain libelous or otherwise unlawful, threatening, abusive or obscene material, or contain viruses, commercial solicitations, or any form of “spam”.

Sweepstakes, Contests and Promotions. We may offer sweepstakes, contests, and other promotions (any, a “Promotion”) that may require registration. By participating in a Promotion, you are agreeing to official rules that govern that Promotion. If you choose to enter a Promotion, Personal Information may be disclosed to third parties or the public in connection with the administration of such Promotion and as required by law or permitted by the Promotion’s official rules. In addition, if you choose to enter a Promotion, the Personal Information you provide to us will be used by us in accordance with the terms of this Policy.

NON-PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may also generate Non-Personal Information from the Personal Information we receive, collect and obtain under this Policy. When we do so, we will take reasonable measures to ensure that the Non-Personal Information is no longer personally identifiable and may not later be reasonably associated with, linked to, or used to identify you. Once we generate any Non-Personal Information from any Personal Information, we will not later attempt to again make that information personally identifiable. However, we may combine and enhance that Non-Personal Information with other Non-Personal Information received or obtained from third parties.

Provided that this Information remains in non-personally identifiable form and may not be reasonably associated with or linked to you or used to identify you, we may use or share any Non-Personal Information we receive, collect, obtain or generate for any lawful purpose without a further duty or obligation to you. This will include, by way of example, generating product and service offerings based on the Non-Personal Information and providing those offerings to third parties.

SENSITIVE INFORMATION
You are not required to provide HouseCheck with any Information regarding your medical or health condition, race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or other sensitive Information in order to use our Applications.

CHILDREN
Our Applications are not directed at children under 16 and we will not knowingly allow anyone under 16 to provide any personally identifiable information. If you are under 16, please do not provide any information about yourself. If you are at least 16 years old, but not 18 years old, you may only provide information with the consent of your parent or guardian.

THIRD PARTIES
Our Applications and emails may include links to third party web sites and/or the opportunity to share on social media (such as the “Share” or “Like” features on Facebook). Your access to such third party websites or use of social media features is subject to the privacy policies and practices of those third party websites and/or social media providers. HouseCheck does not control the collection, use or disclosure of any information on such third party links. You may access HouseCheck web sites through links on third party web sites. By entering HouseCheck web sites through a third party web site you may be allowing such third party’s web site to view any information you provide to HouseCheck. If you are concerned about entering through a third party web site, you can access HouseCheck web sites directly at HouseCheck.com or by downloading the HOUSECHECK mobile device application intended for use by consumers. HOUSECHECK IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE POLICIES OR PRACTICES OF ANY THIRD PARTIES, INCLUDING OUR BRAND PARTNERS. YOU SHOULD REVIEW THE APPLICABLE PRIVACY POLICIES OF THIRD PARTIES BEFORE PROVIDING THEM WITH ANY INFORMATION.

DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION AS REQUIRED BY LAW
Though we make reasonable and appropriate efforts to preserve User privacy as stated in this Policy, we may need to disclose Personal Information of certain Users when we have a reasonable and good-faith belief that the disclosure is necessary to enforce the terms of use for a Site or Application, to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order or other legal process, to avoid injury to a third party, or to otherwise enforce or protect our rights under applicable law, including, without limitation, our intellectual property rights. In these situations, we will use reasonable efforts to provide notice of our disclosure to all affected Users, to the extent reasonably possible under the circumstances.

YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
California law provides that California residents have a right to request that certain businesses tell them how their Personal Information is collected and used and whether and to whom it is being disclosed or sold.  Such businesses must also offer California residents the ability to opt-out of having their Personal Information sold to a third party.  We have adopted a policy of allowing you to opt-out of the disclosure of your Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Instructions for opting out can be found in the section below entitled “Choice and Opt-Out.”

CHOICE AND OPT-OUT
We provide you with a choice whether to receive certain emails, phone calls, text messages, surveys or other messages through our Applications and the opportunity to ‘opt-out’ of having your Personal Information shared with third parties for certain purposes. If you no longer wish to receive messages from HouseCheck through our Applications, or to have your Personal Information shared with third parties as permitted by this Policy, you may opt-out of receiving those messages from us or having your Personal Information shared with third parties.

In many cases, opting out of receiving messages or having your Personal Information shared with a third party will not affect your ability to use or access our Applications or receive our Products and Services. However, some messages (e.g., account notifications and service announcements) are considered necessary to our operation of the Applications. Likewise, some of the third parties with which we share your Personal Information are used by us to provide necessary functionality for the Applications or to provide you with the Products and/or Services you order. If you wish to opt-out of receiving these messages or of sharing your Personal Information with those third parties, we may be required to limit or cancel your access to and use of some or all of our Applications or such Products and/or Services. Note also that while you may opt-out of receiving messages from HouseCheck, you may be required to contact other third parties directly to also opt-out of receiving emails or other messages from those third parties.

Opt-out requests can be made as follows:

  • Click the unsubscribe link in an email, if applicable
  • Opt-out in an Application where provided
  • Contact us at legal@housecheck.com

Note that it may take up to 10 days to remove your contact information from our lists, so you may receive messages from us for a time after your request.

If you receive marketing communications from HouseCheck or one of its subsidiaries or brands (e.g, HouseFax) you must opt-out individually from each of the brands from which you are receiving brand-specific marketing communications.

AUTOMATED TRACKING (COOKIES)
We and our third party service providers use “cookies” and other automated tracking technology to monitor and collect Information regarding your interaction with our Applications. “Cookies” include commonly used pieces of information in the form of small files that are placed on an individual’s computer or mobile device to allow us to recognize your computer or mobile device.

We may use Cookies and other tracking technology that expire once you close your web browser or that persist and stay on your computer until you delete them. Most browsers will allow you to erase cookies from your computer or mobile device, block acceptance of cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. Please refer to your browser or email software instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions. Our third party service providers may also use cookies or other tracking technologies on sites linked through our Applications or emails sent on our behalf. We do not have access to information that would confirm the use of cookies or other tracking technology by our third party service providers.

ACCESS, REVIEW AND UPDATE OF INFORMATION
While HouseCheck takes reasonable steps to ensure that the Personal Information we collect is reliable for its intended use, accurate, complete and current, we rely on you to update and correct your Personal Information. You may use the Applications or contact us as described above to review, delete, update or change contact, financial and account information received, collected or obtained by HouseCheck.

SECURITY
HouseCheck is committed to protect and secure your Personal Information. Despite our commitment, no security system can be 100 percent effective and we cannot guarantee that your Information will be secure in all situations. We will nonetheless take all reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure the safety and security of your Personal Information. This includes using at least industry standard security measures to protect the loss, misuse and unintended alteration of the Personal Information under our control. Likewise, all employees and contractors are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Finally, the servers that we store personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure environment.

TRANSFER OF INFORMATION
If HouseCheck elects, in its reasonable discretion, to transfer ownership or control of a Site or Application to a third party, whether or not in the context of an acquisition, merger or reorganization, you consent to the transfer of your Information (both Personal and Non-Personal) by HouseCheck to that third party, provided that all use and sharing of your Information by that third party remains subject to the terms of this Policy and any applicable changes.

UPDATES
We reserve the right to modify this Policy at any time. Any changes to the Policy will be posted here.