1. About this Privacy Policy
(a) The Real Estate Institute of New South Wales Limited (ABN 51 000 012 457) (REINSW) is the peak industry body for real estate agents and property professionals in New South Wales. REINSW is committed to complying with its obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
(b) REINSW operates various websites and provides a range of products and services including, for example, REI Compliance Check, REI Forms Live, REI Quicontract, REI FastTrack RealtyProtect and other services or systems either directly or through its contractors.
(c) This Privacy Policy only applies to the extent REINSW collects, uses, holds, and discloses your personal information. In this Privacy Policy, a reference to "personal information" includes, where the context permits, "sensitive information".
(c) References in this Privacy Policy to "REINSW", "we", "us" and "our" are references to The Real Estate Institute of New South Wales Limited.
2. Consent
By providing your personal information to us, you consent to our collection, holding, use, and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and any other arrangements that may apply between us.
3. Changes to this Privacy Policy
REINSW may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time either by posting the revised Privacy Policy on our websites or by other written notification to you. Any changes to this Privacy Policy takes effect upon the earlier of the revised Privacy Policy being posted on our websites or notification to you.
4. Information collected and held
4.1 In the process of conducting its operations and its business, including the provision of our services, REINSW will likely collect and hold a range of personal information. The type of information we may collect and hold includes:
(a) your name;
(b) your email address;
(c) your mobile number;
(d) your telephone number;
(e) your company name;
(f) our address;
(g) the address of the property you are intending to sell or purchase;
(h) information about property you are intending to lease, sell, or purchase such as:
(i) the registered title particulars;
(ii) title search;
(iii) title reference;
(iv) registered dealings (eg, mortgages, leases, any other items registered on title);
(v) list of inclusions;
(vi) other information included in the standard pages of the contract for sale;
(vii) community title search;
(viii) council zoning certificate;
(ix) council order;
(x) sewer diagram;
(xi) required dealings;
(xii) if the property has a swimming pool, the swimming pool register entry and compliance certificate or certificate of non-compliance;
(xiii) any document relating to, in on connection with, the property you are intending to lease, sell, or purchase;
(i) licensee name and number;
(j) your membership number;
(k) details of your real estate agent, legal adviser, or conveyancer including their name, address, mobile and telephone numbers and, as applicable, their licence number;
(l) details of the products and services we provide to you or that you have enquired about, including any additional information necessary to deliver those products and services and respond to your enquiries;
(m) any additional information that you provide to us directly through our websites or indirectly through your use of our websites, our services or through websites or accounts from which you permit us to collect your personal information;
(n) information you provide to us through customer surveys;
(o) information concerning or necessary for a request to appoint an industry expert or perform our obligations; and
(p) any other information that may be required in order to facilitate your dealings with us.
4.2 For some of our services, we may require other information. We will advise you of those requirements on the relevant service page.
4.3 You have the option of not identifying yourself or using a pseudonym when dealing with us in relation to a particular matter. However, if you do this or if you do not provide, or if we do not collect, your personal information then you may not be able to use the full functionality of our websites or our services and we may not be able to provide you with our products and services.
5. Method of collecting information
REINSW may collect personal information either directly from you or from third parties (including the third parties listed in paragraph 6.1(f) below). We may also collect personal information when you:
(a) submit a query via our websites;
(b) register for an account on our websites or on our services;
(c) provide personal information when using our services;
(d) communicate with us through correspondence, chats, email, or when you share information with us over the telephone or in person; or
(e) share information from social media platforms, services, and other permission based marketing sites.
6. Information used and disclosed
6.1 REINSW will collect, hold, use, and disclose your personal information (including personal information collected via REI Forms Live) for the following purposes:
(a) answering your queries, fulfilling your request for, or processing your applications for registration to, use or access our services;
(b) providing you with our services;
(c) maintaining and updating registration details for you and users of our services;
(d) providing information on products, services, and benefits available to you and users of our services;
(e) providing information to subsidiaries, related parties, and suppliers of REINSW;
(f) providing information to third parties (including in return for a fee or payment) such as:
(i) Equifax Australia Information Services and Solutions Pty Limited (Equifax) or a related body corporate of Equifax for the purpose of Equifax or its related bodies corporate:
(A) providing that information to other parties;
(B) processing and providing information relating to residential tenancy applications completed online;
(C) procuring a national tenancy database search for the participating real estate agent for a rental property listing;
(D) arranging the connection of utilities to the relevant tenancy property by third party utilities service providers if requested by the successful applicant for a tenancy;
(E) generating the standard form contract for sale;
(F) conducting title and other searches, including the searches referred to in, or required to be conducted as part of, a contract for sale;
(G) obtaining documents related to the sale of the property such as registered dealings (other than mortgages), sewer diagrams, council orders and other related documents; and
(H) for any other purpose specified in Equifax’s or a related body corporate of Equifax's privacy policy (please refer to Equifax’s or the related body corporate of Equifax's privacy policy for further information about how and the purposes for which it collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information);
(ii) Quicontract Pty Ltd (ABN 73 609 909 935) (Quicontract) or a related body corporate of Quicontract for the purpose of Quicontract or its related bodies corporate:
(A) providing that information to other parties;
(B) collating a marketing contract of sale; and
(C) for any other purpose specified in Quicontract’s or a related body corporate of Quicontract's privacy policy (please refer to Quicontract’s or the related body corporate of Quicontract 's privacy policy for further information about how and the purposes for which it collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information);
(iii) insurers (including Chubb Insurance Australia Limited ABN 23 001 642 020);
(iv) Jardine Lloyd Thompson Pty Ltd;
(v) a participating real estate agent in relation to a residential tenancy application or other form completed online;
(vi) organisations with whom REINSW has integration arrangements to enable the automatic pre-population of information and details on its forms;
(vii) DocuSign, Inc of 221 Main Street, Suite 1000, San Francisco, CA 94105, a Delaware corporation (“DocuSign”) or an affiliate, subsidiary or related body corporate of DocuSign for the purpose of DocuSign, an affiliate, subsidiary or a related body corporate of DocuSign:
(A) converting online forms and agreements (that include information populated by you and other registered users) completed using our Online Services into electronic documents that are capable of being signed and completed electronically (esign forms) by third parties;
(B) forwarding and serving the esign forms electronically to third parties;
(viii) any legal representative you or a person you are representing advises is retained by you or a person you are representing; and
(ix) the legal advisers, conveyancers, or technology providers of, or in connection with, any of the third parties listed in paragraphs 6.1(f)(i) to 6.1(f)(vii) above;
(g) facilitating you and other registered users (including any users authorised by you or the registered user) to use and input information (including personal information) into the forms and agreement templates made available from or in our services;
(h) facilitating you and other registered users (including any users authorised by you or the registered user) to access, either directly or indirectly via an integrated interface that we or our contractors make available to you, the services supplied by DocuSign or a related body corporate of DocuSign for the purposes of preparing and distributing any esign forms (refer to paragraph 6.1(f)(vi), above);
(i) facilitating you and other registered users (including any users authorised by you or the registered user) to access, either directly or indirectly via an integrated interface that we or third parties engaged by us make available to you, various third-party apps including but not limited to:
(i) DocuSign, RESO, Best Connect, Compare Connect, Foxie, Direct Connect, Home Now, MovingHub, Move Me In, PRD Connect, MyConnect, Your Porter
(j) fulfilling or processing an order for a product or service offered by us;
(k) if a payment is made via our websites for any product or service, receiving and processing that payment including exchanging personal information with the relevant bank or payment provider;
(l) providing services and customer support, including software and service updates;
(m) comparing information for accuracy, and verifying it with third parties;
(n) improving our offers, products, or services including by examining and keeping track of patterns of use through our interactions with you;
(o) optimising our websites and our users' experience such as to perform analytics, conduct research, and for advertising and marketing purposes;
(p) in the event there is a change of contractor providing services to or on behalf of REINSW, transferring your personal information to the new contractor;
(q) resolving any disputes that we may have with you or any user of our services or our websites, and enforcing our agreements with third parties;
(r) providing information as authorised or required by law or a relevant government body or authority; and
(s) using and disclosing de-identified personal information to third parties including for the purposes of carrying out statistical analysis and research, to analyse and improve REINSW’s products, services and benefits to users and other members, and for the benefit of REINSW’s commercial gain. REINSW may in connection with these matters supply the de-identified personal information to relevant third parties.
6.2 REINSW may also use and disclose your personal information:
(a) to market our products and services;
(b) for research purposes;
(c) to analyse and improve products, benefits, and services; and
(d) to inform you and other users of products, services, and benefits provided by REINSW, its related entities, or preferred suppliers which REINSW considers may be of value or interest to you unless you tell REINSW or have previously told REINSW not to.
6.3 If you do not wish to receive any information about REINSW products, services or benefits then please opt-out of receiving that information, either by:
(a) e-mailing us at [email protected]; or
(b) contacting the Membership Team on (02) 9264 2343.
Please allow 10 business days before any opt-out becomes effective.
7. To whom personal information is disclosed
7.1 REINSW may disclose personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy to:
(a) REINSW's employees, officers, directors, agents, contractors, and related bodies corporate;
(b) third party suppliers or service providers such as:
(i) contractors who assist us in providing products or services to you;
(ii) mailing and distribution providers which organise delivery of products;
(iii) providers of help services, maintenance, and repair services;
(iv) market research providers;
(v) marketing providers who conduct specialised activities such as mailouts and the dispatch of messages on social media platforms;
(c) our professional advisers (including our accountants, legal advisers and auditors);
(d) our insurers;
(e) payment systems operators (e.g. banks or merchants receiving card payments);
(f) anyone to whom our assets or businesses (or any part of them) are transferred;
(g) specific third parties authorised by you to receive information held by us (including, without limitation, any legal representative you or a person you are representing advises is retained by you or a person you are representing);
(h) the third parties listed in paragraph 6.1(f) above; or
(i) other persons, including government agencies, courts, regulatory bodies, and law enforcement agencies, or as required, authorised, or permitted by law.
7.2 REINSW will generally not disclose your personal information to anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy unless you consent to a particular disclosure or if the identifying information can be removed.
8. Cookies
(a) A cookie is small text file stored on your browser's software when you access our websites or when you access our services.
(b) REINSW servers may generate cookies which collects and stores information about your use of our websites and services. This information is used to do the following:
(i) log certain information including the type of browser and operating system you are using, the top level domain name (for example ".com", ".net", and ".au"), the address of the referring site (for example, the previous site visited), the server's IP address, the date and time of visit, and the address of the pages accessed and the documents downloaded; and
(ii) keep track of the pages you have accessed while using our websites or our services as well as any information you input into any form or agreement template.
(c) This information is generally only used for internal statistical analysis and system administration purposes. It is also used to improve your or other users experience of our services, tailor placement of online content, or improve the overall quality of our products and services.
(d) The cookie allows you to page backwards and forwards through our websites and return to pages you have already visited. The cookie also allows data to be inputted into a form or template and temporarily stored until you choose to save that form or agreement template.
(e) Cookies generally remain on your computer even after an internet session is ended and the computer rebooted. The cookie can be read by the server that placed it there during a subsequent visit to that same server. The exact behavior is server specific.
(f) Our services may use third party analytical and advertising tools such as Google Analytics and Facebook Business Manager which are owned and operated by Google and Facebook respectively (Third Party Tools).
(g) The Third Party Tools may use cookies to help analyse how you use and interact with our services . The Third Party Tools may be used to manage marketing activities of REINSW, including the creation, publishing, monitoring, and organization of advertisements. The Third Party Tools may also anonymously track how you interact with our services, including where you came from, what you did on our services, and whether you completed any transactions on our services.
(h) The information generated by the cookies about your use of our services (including your IP address) may be transmitted to and stored by the Third Party Tools on servers outside of Australia. This information may also be:
(i) used for the purpose of compiling reports on our websites activity, Online Services activity, and providing other services relating to our websites, Online Services, and internet usage; and
(ii) transferred to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on behalf of the Third Party Tool.
(i) You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of our services. By using our services, you consent to the processing of data about you by REINSW and the Third Party Tools in the manner and for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.
9. Ratings and reviews
If you provide a review or rating for a product or service provided by, or available through, us, we reserve the right to publish part or all of your review or rating together with your first name and suburb on our websites.
10. Information security
REINSW takes reasonable steps to protect all personal information which it holds from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access, modification, interference, or disclosure. Where appropriate, REINSW uses secure transmission facilities. However, you are advised that there are inherent risks in transmitting information across the internet, including the risk that information sent to or from a website or one of our services may be intercepted, corrupted, or modified by third parties. No transmission of information over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. As a result, we do not warrant the security of any information transmitted to us over the internet.
11. Disclosure of personal information outside of Australia
When you provide your personal information to us, you consent to the disclosure of your personal information outside of Australia and acknowledge that, in doing so, we will not be accountable under the Act for the treatment of that personal information by the overseas recipients. Any party to whom we disclose information may not be subject to regulation which has the effect of protecting the information in a way that, overall, is at least substantially similar to the way in which the Australian Privacy Principles protect the information and you may have no or no similar privacy protection in the country where the overseas entity is located.
However, we will take steps that are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that any overseas recipient will deal with such personal information in a way that is substantially similar to or consistent with the way in which the relevant Australian Privacy Principles in the Act protects such personal information.
Your information may be disclosed to third-party providers located in Canada to provide users of our training systems with technical support when using those systems. Your information may also be provided to our third-party technology providers, including Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (Zoom) who may store your data overseas (please click HERE to view Zoom’s privacy policy).
12. Links to other websites
The Website and our services may contain links to other websites. We recommend that you review the privacy policies of those websites so that you can understand their privacy practices. REINSW is not responsible for the privacy practices of, or the content on, those websites. This Privacy Policy does not extend to those websites.
13. Accessing your Personal Information
You may request access to any personal information held by REINSW which relates to you. If REINSW holds personal information of any other individual, that individual has the same right to request access to personal information that REINSW may hold, unless REINSW is permitted by law (including the Act) to withhold that information. REINSW may charge a reasonable fee where access to personal information is provided (no fee will be charged for making an application to access personal information).
Any requests for access to your personal information should be made in writing to the Privacy Officer (contact details in paragraph 15 below). You also have the right to request the correction of any personal information which relates to you that is inaccurate, incomplete, irrelevant, misleading or out-of- date.
14. Complaints
If you wish to make a complaint about the way we have handled your personal information, or that we may have breached this Privacy Policy please contact the Privacy Officer (contact details in paragraph 15 below). Please include your name, email address, and telephone number. Please also clearly describe your complaint. We will acknowledge your complaint and respond to you regarding your complaint within a reasonable period of time. If you think that we have failed to resolve the complaint satisfactorily, we will provide you with information about further steps you can take.
You are also entitled to make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). You can obtain further general information about your privacy rights and privacy law from the OAIC by:
(i) calling their Privacy Hotline on 1300 363 992
(ii) visiting their web site at http://www.oaic.gov.au
(iii) writing to:
The Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 1042
15. Contact details
The Privacy Officer
The Real Estate Institute of NSW
30-32 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney NSW 2000
[email protected]
December 2022