Privacy Policy

Marks Out Of Tenancy - Privacy Policy

Welcome visitors to marksoutoftenancy.com. Our site is hosted by us, Marks Out Of Tenancy Ltd. On our site, tenants and prospective tenants in the United Kingdom can write reviews of landlords and properties, read reviews by others, and view information submitted by landlords and agencies.

We are a limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 09535920, whose registered office is at B1 Vantage Park, Old Gloucester Road, Hambrook, Bristol, England, BS16 1GW.

This privacy policy aims to give you information on how we collect and process your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website. In this policy we describe what information we collect, who we may disclose it to, and what uses we put it to. This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other fair processing and acceptable use policies we provide when we are collecting of processing personal data about you, so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data.

Controller

Marks Out Of Tenancy Ltd (referred to in this policy as “we”, “us” or “our”) is the controller and responsible for your personal data. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us using the details set out further below.

Third-party links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

What Information We Collect and How We Collect It

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

Identity Data: this includes your first name, last name and email address. It may also include your phone number.

Reviews: When you make a review of a landlord, agency, property, or area we collect the information you state in the review, including what/who you are reviewing, details of your experience, and how you evaluate the reviewed agency, landlord, property, or area.

Usage Data: We collect personally identifiable information from our users at several different points on our site including registration, and any contact made by users in relation to any comments, questions or complaints they have. We will also collect data in relation to your use of these features (for example, how frequently you use it and the dates you used it on), as well as the data you submit in using the features. Apart from in reviews in relation to landlords and letting agents, if you wish to upload pictures or information about other individuals, this should be done with the individual's consent.

Log Information: When visiting our site, the IP address and the browser settings of your device are registered. These are recorded to enable us to address any misuse or unlawful actions in connection with the visit on or use of our site. Further, the IP address is used to determine from which city/town you are accessing our site.

Other Users’ Data: Personal data about you may also be comprised in material other users submit or upload to our site in order to post reviews or engage with features such as our storage, notice generator and tenancy management functions, and (for letting agencies and landlords) take control of their landlord or agency listing. Note that uploading information about other individuals may impinge upon their privacy and data protection rights.

Social Data: You can connect your profile on our site with your profile on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter ("Social Platforms"). Some information about you will automatically be collected from Social Networks when connecting your Marks Out Of Tenancy profile with your profile on Social Networks.

The information collected from Social Platforms depends on what information you have made available on the network and your privacy settings for sharing such information on the network. Depending on the settings, we may collect the following information about you: e.g. Name and/or username; E-mail address; Gender; Date of birth; Profile photo; Location.

When you request to have your Marks Out Of Tenancy profile connected to a profile on a Social Platform, you will be informed on which information we will collect from the platform in question before your request is executed.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.

You block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

We use the following cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.
Analytical or performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests.

The individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them, are as follows:

Google Analytics to allow us to track usage of users on our site. As a user navigates between web pages, Google Analytics provides us (and all website owners who uses it) JavaScript tags (libraries) to record information about the page a user has seen, for example the URL of the page. The Google Analytics JavaScript libraries use HTTP Cookies to "remember" what a user has done on previous pages / interactions with the website. Google Analytics supports three JavaScript libraries (tags) for measuring website usage: gtag.js, analytics.js, and ga.js. For further details, please see Google Analytics’ privacy policy by clicking on this link

Hotjar to better understand our users’ needs and to optimise this service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behaviour and their devices (in particular device's IP address (captured and stored only in anonymized form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), preferred language used to display our website). Hotjar stores this information in a pseudonymized user profile. Neither Hotjar nor us will ever use this information to identify individual users or to match it with further data on an individual user. For further details, please see Hotjar’s privacy policy by clicking on this link. You can opt-out to the creation of a user profile, Hotjar’s storing of data about your usage of our site and Hotjar’s use of tracking cookies on other websites by following this opt-out link.

How we Use the Information we Collect (GDPR)

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to in accordance with a lawful basis. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests, such as:
- to keep our records updated and to study how users use our website, products and services;
- to define types of customers for our products and services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy;
- to develop our products/services and grow our business;
- for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud.
Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

In addition, upon activation of an account, the information submitted will be used by us to allow a registered user to use our site.

If you connect using Facebook, we receive your name, email address and location showing only whether you are based in the UK or not.

Additionally, we may use the information for the following purposes:
To display to other users reviews, messages and other submissions made by a user;
To send you service messages, updates and newsletters about our site;
to help us identify users and any accounts held with us;
administration;
research, statistical analysis and behavioural analysis;
customer profiling and analysing user’s preferences in using our site;
marketing, if you have agreed to it;
(for landlords and agency staff) billing and order fulfilment;
customising this website and its content to user’s particular preferences;
notifying users of any changes to this website or to our services that may affect them;
investigating any complaints that another person has been defamed, or another person’s rights have been infringed, by any submission you make to the site; and improving our services.

Lawful basis glossary

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to.

Legitimate Interests Assessment

Nature of personal data processed	Landlord names, rental property addresses
Special category, criminal offence or children's data?	No
Process owner	Marks Out Of Tenancy Ltd
Assessment Owner	Ben Yarrow

1) Purpose test – is there a legitimate interest behind the processing?
Why do you want to process the data – what are you trying to achieve?	Our aim is to improve conditions in the private rental sector for renters and landlords alike, by creating a safe and balanced space for renters to share their experiences.
Who benefits from the processing? In what way?	Potential future customers benefit from reading previous customers' experiences renting from landlords. Potential future customers benefit from reading previous customers’ experiences living in specific rental properties. Landlords benefit from this processing by using previous customer feedback to make any adjustments to their operations or practises.
Are there any wider public benefits to the processing?	Yes, fundamentally, renters benefit by exercising their basic rights to Freedom of expression. Through the processing of landlord and property data, landlords are encouraged to provide a good level of service to future customers and to improve the quality of the properties they rent out. The processing of this data benefits landlords who are able to raise their profile when seeking to attract potential future customers. All of these benefits align with our purpose of improving conditions in the private rental sector.
How important are those benefits?	They’re vital benefits for future rental customers to find out who their future landlord is, and the condition of the rental property, directly from the landlord’s previous customer.
What would the impact be if you couldn’t go ahead?	If we couldn’t process landlord or property data, renters would know nothing of the previous tenants experience. This lack of information creates a gap which can be exploited by some landlords. Without displaying the names of landlords and rental properties some unscrupulous landlords rent out sub-standard, illegal and sometimes deadly properties.
Would your use of the data be unethical or unlawful in any way?	No.
Have you considered any Tribunal judgements/case law in identifying 'legitimate interests'?	No, but we have fully consulted the official guidance provided by the ICO (https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/lawful-basis-for-processing/legitimate-interests/).
2) Necessity test – is the processing necessary for that purpose?
Does this processing actually help to further that interest?	Yes as the landlord and property address are absolutely essential elements of the renting processes, it’s vital this key information is processed. As with any review website, the vendors, in this case landlords, are encouraged to provide a good level of service to future customers.
Is it a reasonable way to go about it?	Yes, stating who you rented from and which property you lived in is the most effective, reasonable and simplest way to go about this.
Is there another less intrusive way to achieve the same result?	No.
3) Balancing test – is the legitimate interest overridden by the individual’s interests, rights or freedoms?
What is the nature of your relationship with the individual? Is it pre-exisiting and have you used their data previously?	In general we do not have a relationship with the landlord or the landlord's previous customers.
How has the data been obtained? If supplied from a third party what did they tell the individual about reuse?	Landlord names and rental property addresses are uploaded by the landlord’s customer.
Do you have the means and processes to keep the information up to date.	Yes, although landlord names and property addresses rarely change, they are kept up-to-date with successive reviews.
Is any of the data particularly sensitive or private?	No. In general, only landlord names and property addresses are uploaded. We have processes in place to ensure no particularly sensitive or private data is made available. This could include date of birth, political stance, phone number or email address.
Would people expect you to use their data in this way?	Online reviews for products, services and the interactions between vendor and customer are commonplace. Landlords, like any business, would expect their customers to talk about their experiences and share these online. Often, landlords and their rental property addresses are publicly available through local authority HMO registers, national landlord registers such as Rent Smart Wales and the Scottish Landlord Register. Landlords are encouraged to provide new tenants with a copy of Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s ‘How To Rent’ guide which includes a link to Marks Out Of Tenancy.
Are you happy to explain it to them?	Yes.
Are some people likely to object or find it intrusive?	Yes. Generally landlords with negative reviews tend to object to this data processing.
What is the possible impact on the individual?	Landlords can use their reviews as a positive learning experience, taking customer feedback and developing their customer service skills and making improvements to their rental properties.
Are you processing children’s data?	No.
Are any of the individuals vulnerable in any other way?	No, but we have processes in place to deal with genuine requests from vulnerable individuals.
Can you offer an opt-out?	Yes, opt-out is available in certain circumstances.

Marketing and opting out

If users have given permission, we may contact them by email about products, services, promotions, or special offers that may be of interest to them. If users prefer not to receive any direct marketing communications from us, they can opt out at any time. If a user wishes to exercise this right, a user should click on the ‘Unsubscribe’ link contained at the end of the email.

You can ask third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you by them.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service experience or other transactions.

Disclosure of user’s personal data/third party marketing

We may share or disclose your personal data to the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the How we Use the Information we Collect section above:

other companies within our group of companies;

our agents and service providers;

law enforcement agencies in connection with any investigation to help prevent unlawful activity;

our business partners in accordance with the 'Marketing and opting out' section above; and

on request by a court, law enforcement body or governmental or regulatory organisation.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

We may disclose anonymous review data to third parties but this does not include any personal data and no individual can be identified from it.

Keeping user’s data secure

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

In particular, we will use technical and organisational measures to safeguard user’s personal data, for example:

access to a user’s account is controlled by a password and username that are unique to them; and

we store user’s personal data on secure servers, using encryption.

While we will use all reasonable efforts to safeguard user’s personal data, users acknowledge that the use of the internet is not entirely secure and for this reason we cannot guarantee the security or integrity of any personal data that are transferred from users or to users via the internet.

However, we have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Information about other individuals

If users give us information on behalf of someone else (e.g. a letting agency owner gives information in relation to an individual letting agent, or a tenant disclosing detail on behalf of another tenant), they in doing so confirm that the other person has appointed them to act on his/her behalf and has agreed that they can:

give consent on his/her behalf to the processing of his/her personal data; and

receive on his/her behalf any data protection notices.

How long will you use my personal data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

Your rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:

If you want us to establish the data's accuracy.
Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it.
Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

Prizedraw terms

Any prize draw or sweepstake is only open to residents of the UK

Any prize draw or sweepstake is not open to employees of the company running the prize draw or sweepstake

Any prize draw or sweepstake is only open to people over the age of 18

The winner(s) will be chosen at random from all eligible entries

The winner(s) will be notified by email within 7 days of the prize draw or sweepstake closing

The prize is non transferable and no cash alternative will be offered

Our contact details

We welcome user’s feedback and questions. If you have any queries about this privacy policy or wish to contact us, please send an email to voice@marksoutoftenancy.com or you can write to us at our registered office listed above.

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

Changes to the privacy policy and your duty to inform us of changes

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. We may change this privacy policy from time to time. You should check this policy occasionally to ensure you are aware of the most recent version that will apply each time you access this website.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.