Flatland Residential Introduction Services (Flatland) Privacy Policy

Last Updated: May 25, 2018

We are Flatland Residential Introduction Services, FLATLAND is a registered business name under the 'Registration of Business Names Act 1916' and was registered on the 1st October 1971 (Registration Number 1610758). Our address is 125 Gloucester Road London, England, SW7 4TE (referred to as "we" or "us" or "our"). We are the providers of the websites flatland1971.com, flatland-london.com and flatland.co.uk (referred to as the "Site" or "Sites").

This privacy policy governs the way we collect and use your information. By using our services you agree to this policy a priori.

Introduction

We are committed to protecting your privacy. This privacy policy (referred to as the "Policy") explains how and for what purposes we use the information collected about you. Please read this Policy carefully.

If you have a query about information relating to your property on our Sites, please contact your estate agent or lettings agent directly. Alternatively you can contact us directly via

Contacting Us

If you would like to stop receiving marketing and communications from us please click the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of each email or contact us directly via . You can also write us at Flatland, co: Customer Services Team, 125 Gloucester Road London, England, SW7 4TE.

If you have any questions about this Policy, our use of your personal information, would like to submit a subject access request or exercise your other data subject rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer at . You can also write us at Flatland, co: Data Protection Officer, 125 Gloucester Road London, England, SW7 4TE.

125 Gloucester Road
London, England, SW7 4TE ( Google Map )


020-7112-9393

Here is a short list of the privacy acts and ledgisation which we follow:

  • The General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR )
  • The California Online Privacy Protection Act ( CalOPPA )
  • The Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act ( COPPA )
  • The CAN SPAM Act ( CANSPAM )

The General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR )

Passed by European lawmakers to help create a harmonized data privacy law across all the EU member states, the GDPR went into effect on May 25, 2018. Because visitors to our website and users of our services may be members of the EU, we comply with GDPR requirements in the following ways:

  • support privacy as a fundamental human right;
  • are accountable for managing that data appropriately; and
  • give individuals rights over how their personal data is processed or otherwise used.

The California Online Privacy Protection Act ( CalOPPA )

CalOPPA is the first state law in the nation to require commercial websites and online services to post a privacy policy. The law's reach stretches well beyond California to require a person or company in the United States (and conceivably the world) that operates websites collecting personally identifiable information from California consumers to post a conspicuous privacy policy on its website stating exactly the information being collected and those individuals with whom it is being shared, and to comply with this policy.

According to CalOPPA we agree to the following:

Users can visit our site anonymously. Once this privacy policy is created, we will add a link to it on our homepage or as a minimum on the first significant page after entering our website. Our Privacy Policy link includes the word 'Privacy' and can be easily be found on the page specified above.

The Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act ( COPPA )

When it comes to the collection of personal information from children under 13, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) puts parents in control. The Federal Trade Commission, the nation's consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule, which spells out what operators of websites and online services must do to protect children's privacy and safety online.

We do not specifically market to children under 13.

The CAN SPAM Act ( CANSPAM )

The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

We collect your email address in order to:

  • Send information, respond to inquiries, and/or other requests or questions.

To be in accordance with CANSPAM we agree to the following:

  • NOT use false or misleading subjects or email addresses.
  • Identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way.
  • Include the physical address of our business or site headquarters.
  • Monitor third-party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used.
  • Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly.
  • Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email.

What Personal Data do we Collect

Historical Property Data

  • What we collect and where it comes from
    • If a property has previously been actively marketed on the Sites, we will continue to display it on the Sites as historical property information. If you have any concerns about any historical property information available on the Sites, please see the section of this Policy entitled "Removing Property Data from the Sites" (below).
    • We also have data about historical property listings on the Sites which we collect from other third parties.
  • Why we collect it
    • We will use this information:
      • to assist potential purchasers and tenants when forming a view about historical market trends and potential property values;
      • to assist vendors when researching the approximate value of their property;
      • to enable users to see detailed property descriptions and images of properties in areas that they may be interested in;
      • to allow users to see property trends that they may be interested in, such as the previous sale and sold prices of houses in their local area; and
      • for our other commercial purposes, such as to identify trends in the property market and automated survey and valuation tools, and to build property databases.
  • Our lawful basis for processing this personal data
    • We have a legitimate interest to process this information. These legitimate interests are:
      • to enhance the service that we provide on the Sites and providing a service that benefits our members, Site users, vendors, landlords, potential purchasers and tenants;
      • to provide a service to our members by assisting them to more accurately value other properties;
      • to provide a service to vendors and landlords to form a view about the value of their properties;
      • providing a service to potential purchasers and tenants in understanding what properties have been on the market and the prices of those properties; and
      • to provide data services to third parties such as banks, building societies, insurance companies and other financial institutions so that they can process this historic property data for their purposes, including using the data in services such as property valuation models or surveyor comparison software.
  • How long we will keep it for
    • To the extent that property data is also personal data, it is generally the case that it ceases to be personal data over time. The historic property data is retained by us in accordance with our property database and remains necessary in order for us to provide the services summarised in the "why we collect it" box. If you have concerns about historical property information featured on our Sites and you can prove to us that you have a valid association to the property you are concerned about, please contact us at

Properties Advertised on Sites

  • What we collect and where it comes from
    • In the course of providing our services, we collect property data such as images of properties, property asking prices, sales history and sold prices, property addresses, property locations and property descriptions.
    • The property data is provided to us by our members or other third parties on behalf of those members.
  • Why we collect it
    • We will use this information for a number of reasons including:
      • to provide for the Flatland Sites;
      • to enable our members to advertise their properties to the largest online audience available;
      • to enable potential purchasers or tenants to see detailed descriptions and images of properties that they may be interested in;
      • to allow users to see current property trends such as the prices of houses for sale in their local area; and
      • for our own commercial purposes such as to identify trends in the property market, automated survey and valuation tools, and to build property databases.
  • Our lawful basis for processing this personal data
    • We have a legitimate interest to process this information. These legitimate interests are:
      • providing a service to our members by helping them to market properties;
      • providing a service to our members by advertising properties to potential purchasers or tenants;
      • providing a service to potential purchasers and tenants so that they know what properties are currently on the market and the price of those properties; and
      • to provide data services to third parties such as banks, building societies, insurance companies and other financial institutions so that they can process this property data for their purposes, including using the data in services such as property valuation models or surveyor comparison software.
  • How long we will keep it for
    • We will stop advertising a property when we are instructed to do so by our members.
    • However, the property information will remain available on the Site as historical property information to allow users to benefit from services such as identifying previous for sale or sold prices (please see the historical property data section below for further information).

Information You Give to Us

  • What we collect and where it comes from
    • We will collect the information that you give to us when using our Site:
        Enquiries to our members:
      • if you choose to access a particular search feature or to fill in a form on the Site you may be asked to provide information about yourself, such as your name and contact details. We may also collect other information about you at the same time, such as details of the sort of property you are interested in, the cost and location of the property, and your current address;
      • if you choose to contact us using the member telephone number on Site, calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes.
        • Registered Users and Property Alerts:
      • information that you provide to us when you register as a Flatland user and/or request property email updates such as Property Alerts about when a property is placed on the market in your chosen postcode and meeting your search parameters;
        • General Site Use:
      • information that you provide when participating in discussion boards or other social media functions on our Site and enter into competitions, promotions or surveys available on the Site;
        • Communications:
      • information that you provide to us by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise; and
  • Why we collect it
    • We will use this information:
        Enquiries to our members:
      • to make sure that you receive the benefit of the Flatland service. This may include transferring your property enquiry to our member advertising that property so that they can respond to your enquiry;
      • for training and monitoring purposes where calls are recorded;
        • Registered Users and Property Alerts:
      • to provide you with the benefit of services for registered users only;
      • to provide Property Alerts to you of new properties marketed on our Site that meet your search criteria;
        • General Site Use:
      • to provide the Site to you;
      • to enhance the services that you select on our Site;
      • to process any queries that you have about Flatland or its members;
      • to customise and enrich your experience on our Site;
      • to contact you for your views on our services and to notify you occasionally about important changes to our Terms of Use or this Policy or developments to this Site or our services;
      • to deliver relevant advertising to you whilst you are on the Site;
        • Communications:
      • to process and resolve any queries that you may have; and
        • Investor Relations:
      • to allow you to subscribe for relevant Flatland regulatory alerts;
      • to process and respond to any queries that you might have.
  • Our lawful basis for processing this personal data
    • We have a legitimate interest to process this information. These legitimate interests are:
        Enquiries to our members:
      • to provide a service to our members and to you;
        • Registered User and Property Alerts:
      • to provide you with our services;
        • General Site Use:
      • to gain information about the use of our Sites and any improvements that can be made as well as providing advertising space to our members and third parties;
        • Communications:
      • to ensure that your queries are addressed; and
        • Investor Relations:
      • to allow you to access Flatlands regulatory alerts and to ensure that your queries are addressed.
  • How long we will keep it for
    • We will store the information summarised above for the following periods:
        Enquiries to our members:
      • all enquiry data will be kept for two years from the date on which the enquiry is sent at which point it will be erased or anonymised so that the data no longer identifies you. This does not apply to call recordings which are stored for a shorter period of the three months from the date of the recording, at which point they are deleted.
        • Registered Users and Property Alerts:
      • information that you provide to us when you register as a Flatland user will be kept for as long as you have an account setup on Flatland. The personal data relating to your account will be deleted when you delete your account.
        • General Site Use:
      • information that you provide when participating in discussion boards, enter into competitions, promotions or surveys will be retained for two years.
      • information that is provided when you interact with us through social media functions will only be retained on the social media platforms which you use to contact us - we will not copy or store it separately. This data will be retained for as long as you keep it on your social media accounts.
        • Communications:
      • information that you provide to us by corresponding with us by phone, email or otherwise will be retained for the later of 18 months from the date of communication or until your query is resolved.

Information we Receive From Third Parties (Other Than our Members)

  • What we collect and where it comes from
    • We may receive information about you if you use any of the other websites we operate or the other services we provide. In this case we will have informed you, when we collected the data, that it may be shared internally and combined with data collected on our Sites.
  • Why we collect it
    • We will use your information:
      • to allow you to participate in the interactive services available on our Sites or to participate in competitions or promotions via our Sites;
      • to pass your searches and messages on to our members to help them communicate with you directly and to provide a more personalised service to you. This may include contacting you about other relevant properties, adding you to their enquiry database for future contact and offering you their additional services;
      • to provide services and information to our members, which they can use to benchmark their performance;
      • to customise and enrich your experience on our Sites; and
      • to contact you for your views on our services and to notify you occasionally about important changes to our Terms of Use or this Policy or developments to our Sites or services.
  • Our lawful basis for processing this personal data
    • We have a legitimate business interest to process this information. These legitimate interests are:
      • enhancing the service that you receive on our Sites;
      • to provide a service to our members so they can respond to enquiries; and
      • providing information necessary to enable us to provide a competitive, cost effective services.
  • How long we will keep it for
    • We will store this personal data for two years from the date of collection at which point it will be erased or anonymised so that the data no longer identifies you.

Information we Collect About You

  • What we collect and where it comes from
    • This is different to "information you give us" because it relates to technical data that we collect. We may:
      • collect technical information that has the potential to identify you, such as the internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
      • collect information about your visit, including the full uniform resource locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our Site (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks and mouse-overs) and methods used to browse away from the page; and
      • we may combine technical information with other information that we have about you to help us with our processing of your information as set out in this Policy.
  • Why we collect it
    • We will use the information summarised above:
      • to provide our Sites to you;
      • to conduct reviews that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our Sites;
      • to ensure that content from our Sites are presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device;
      • to administer our Sites and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
      • as part of our efforts to keep our Sites safe and secure; and
      • to customise and enrich your experience on our Sites.
  • Our lawful basis for processing this personal data
    • We have a legitimate interest to process this information. These legitimate interests are:
      • to help ensure the on-going security of our Sites;
      • enhancing the service that you receive on our Sites; and
      • providing information necessary to enable us to provide a competitive, cost effective services.
  • How long we will keep it for
    • We will store this personal data for two years in order to allow us to review and monitor normal traffic patterns and trends on our Sites.

Who Has Access to Your Personal Data?

We retain access to all personal information that we have collected from you or about you. Once your information has been passed to one of our members in the course of providing our services (most typically when you communicate with an estate agent through our Site) then that Flatland member will have a copy of the information that you have provided within your enquiry and your contact details which they will use to get in touch with you. In relation to property data, it is provided to us by our members (or third parties that act on their behalf). Our members (or any third party that acts on their behalf) will be responsible for information in their possession and that information will be subject to any privacy terms or policies that the member has in place; we are not responsible for use (or misuse) of your information by any of our members.

When our service is available via the websites of our partners, those partners may have access to your information. We may also have links to other websites from our Sites. We are not responsible for the content, security, privacy policies and practices of any other websites, even if you access them using links from our Sites or if you can access our Sites or use our services from them. We recommend that you check the policy of each website that you visit and make sure that you are comfortable with the terms of such policies before providing any personal information.

If our business is sold or merged, or if we sell or buy any business or assets, we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets. We will make sure that any such transfer is done in a secure way.

If we offer or supply a service to you that is provided on our behalf by a third party we may have to pass your information to them in order to deliver the service. The categories of third parties (who are acting as a data processors) include: telephone call recording and our support ticketing systems. We may also use third parties to provide services on our behalf which may include processing (but not using themselves) your information e.g. to complete partial addresses or to augment the information we hold about you. In either case, we will not pass your information to anyone who is not also subject to adequate privacy commitments in our contract with them.

We will not otherwise disclose, sell or distribute your information to any third party without your permission unless we are required to do so by law or to obtain professional advice.

Where do we Store Your Personal Data?

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers or contractors. Territories outside of the EEA may not have equivalent legal protections to those that apply within the EEA but we are under a duty to make sure that our suppliers and contractors located outside of the EEA continue to take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Policy. By submitting your personal data to us, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our Sites; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

We follow strict security procedures to ensure that your personal information is not damaged, destroyed or disclosed to a third party without your permission and to prevent unauthorised access to it. The computers that store the information are kept in a secure facility with restricted physical access and we use secure firewalls and other measures to restrict electronic access. If we are working with third parties, we will require them to have in place similar measures to protect your information.

Only employees who need access to your information to perform a specific job are granted access to personally identifiable information. We may require you to co-operate with our security checks before we disclose information to you. If you are a registered user, you can update the personal information that you give us at any time by viewing your My Flatland page.

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our Sites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Your Rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data at any time.

You have the right to use our Sites without consenting to marketing and communication services that we provide. We will inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. We always use the most recently submitted form to be your current consent status. If you are a registered user, but not signed in when you submit a form, we will not be able to use your saved settings so will deem your consent choice to be as per the form you submit at the time. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by selecting the specific options in the fields or forms when you become a registered user.

You have a right to request access to or rectification of your personal data which we hold about you. You also have a right to erase your personal data, to restrict the processing of your personal data and the right to receive your personal data that you have provided to us, the right to object to our processing of your personal data and a right to request that we transmit your personal data to another data controller.

Where we process your personal data because you have given us your consent to do so, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer whose contact details are provided earlier in this policy.

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office if you feel unhappy with the way we process your data. Please visit ico.org.uk for more information.

Cookies And Tracking

Like many websites, we use "cookies" to enable us to personalise your visits to our Site, simplify the signing-in procedure, keep track of your preferences and to track the usage of our Sites. For full details about what cookies we set and why we use them, please see our Cookie Policy available here.

Changes to This Policy

Any changes we may make to this Policy in the future will be posted on this page. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to this Policy.

Other Clauses

You may download material from this Site for the sole purpose of using this Site. However, you must not copy, transmit, modify, republish, store (in whole or in part), frame, pass-off or link to any material or information on or downloaded from this Site without our prior written consent.

We are not an estate agency. The details of the properties available on this Site are provided to us by Landlords, third party estate agents and letting agents for your information only. We do not verify the property details provided to us and therefore make no warranties or representations as to their accuracy or completeness. If you rely on these details, you do so at your own risk. We recommend that you check all property details with the Landlord, estate agent or letting agent before making any decisions or taking any action in regards to a property posted on our Sites.

We make no warranties or representations that the property information on this Site is correct, accurate or up-to-date.

This Site may contain links to websites operated by third parties. We have no control over their individual content. We therefore make no warranties or representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any of the information appearing in relation to any linked websites. The links are for your convenience only. We do not recommend any products or services advertised on those websites. If you decide to access any third party website linked from this Site, you do so at your own risk.

You must not misuse our system or this Site. In particular, you must not hack into, circumvent security or otherwise disrupt the operation of our system and this Site, or attempt to carry out any of the foregoing. This includes introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is or could be malicious or technologically harmful.

You must not upload or use inappropriate or offensive language or content or solicit any commercial services in any communication, form or email you send or submit, from or to the Site. All content that you upload to our Site will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary and we have the right to use, copy, distribute and disclose to third parties any such content for any purpose. We also have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who claims or alleges that content posted or uploaded by you to our Site breaches that third parties legal rights.

The views expressed by users on our Site do not represent our views or values. Be accurate (where you state facts); Be genuinely held (where you state opinions); and Comply with the applicable law of the country from which they were posted.

Your content must not: Contain any material which is defamatory of any person; Contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful, discriminatory, unethical, immoral or inflammatory; or Contain any material which does or could potentially infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party. We will determine in our discretion whether there has been a breach of this clause. Where a breach of this policy has occurred we may take such action as we deem appropriate. This action may include the following: immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our Site; immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to our Site;

In addition to all of our rights set out above, we reserve the right to take down any content that you upload to our Site at any time without notice and without having to give a reason.