Introduction
MindMyHouse protects your privacy and respects your concerns about the security of the information you submit to the site. In order to create the best possible service for members, MindMyHouse needs to collect, store, use and display different elements of the information members provide. MindMyHouse will only use the information collected for the purposes outlined in this privacy policy. By submitting the information required to become a member of MindMyHouse, you consent to having that information used in the ways set out in this Privacy Policy.
MindMyHouse, being based in New Zealand (prior to 2008 MindMyHouse was based in the UK), complies with New Zealands' Privacy Act 1993 and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This Privacy Policy should be read in partnership with the Terms and Conditions document.
Contents
Q. What information does MindMyHouse require from members?
Q. How does MindMyHouse use members’ information?
Q. Who sees home owner members’ personal information?
Q. Who sees house sitters members’ personal information?
Q. Will MindMyHouse be sending members any unsolicited material?
Q. What are cookies? Are they required?
Q. How secure are members’ account areas?
Q. How can members help safeguard the assurances provided in this Privacy Policy?
Q. How secure is members’ financial information when they are paying for their MindMyHouse membership by credit or debit card?
Q. How can members access, update or delete their information?
Q. Can someone else link to members’ personal information on MindMyHouse from another website?
Q. What is the policy regarding links to third party sites?
Q. When does this Privacy Policy not apply?
Q. What happens to members’ information after their membership expires?
Q. What happens to the information members provide when communicating with MindMyHouse?
Q. What happens to the material members provide when using MindMyHouse's internal contact form system?
Q. How is members information protected?
Q. What are the contact details for MindMyHouse?
Q. What information does MindMyHouse require from members?
Different types of personal information are required to complete home owner memberships and house sitter memberships.
Home owner members must provide the following information: an email address, a password, a first and last name, country of residence, the country that the house sitting assignment is located, a listing which describes the house sitting assignment in sufficient detail, the beginning and end date of the house sitting assignment.
House sitter members must provide the following information: an email address, a password, a first and last name, a list of the countries members would like to be considered for house sitting assignments in, the beginning and end dates of the period that the member is available for house sitting, a listing describing the house sitting services on offer, a credit or debit card number (if this is the payment option chosen), a home address, a billing address which matches that attached to the card used for payment.
Q. How does MindMyHouse use members’ information?
Information provided to the site in the course of becoming a member of MindMyHouse will only be used to facilitate members’ full and effective use of the site.
MindMyHouse will not disclose any of its members’ private information to any third party under normal circumstances. Home owner members’ private information includes: email address and password. House sitter members’ private information includes: home address, credit and debit card numbers, billing address and password.
Neither will MindMyHouse individually identify any member to a third party except when required to do so under the law; either in an emergency or to protect the health and safety of its members or the general public.
MindMyHouse reserves the right to collate statistical data from members in order to track site usage patterns . This process will not identify any individual member and will only be used in efforts to improve the site and services to members.
Q. Who sees home owners members’ personal information?
Only those people working for MindMyHouse will be able to see members' personal information as it is supplied by members and stored in the site's database.
MindMyHouse recognizes that home owner members may like to preserve their anonymity until they are interviewing house sitting candidates directly. For this reason, home owner members' email addresses are hidden from view online, until as such time as contact has been made. Home owner members can only be contacted via a blank email contact form on the site. Only registered house sitter members will be able to contact home owner members in this way. However please note that MindMyHouse cannot safeguard your privacy if you choose to include personal details such as your email address or street address in any listings you create and publish on the site.
If home owners publish a sitter wanted listing, a map will accompany the listing that will show the city/town/location of the house sitting assignment. Please note that this map is limited in detail - the zoom function has been limited so that users can only see the city/town or area of the assignment. Details such as the street or postcode (zipcode) remain hidden.
Q. Who sees house sitters members’ personal information?
Only those people working for MindMyHouse will be able to see members' personal information as it is supplied by members and stored in the site's database. However, many elements of house sitter members' personal information are viewable online by registered MindMyHouse home owner members.
House sitter members' contact details including first and last names, country of residence, phone numbers (optional) and an email address are only visible online when house sitters create a sitter available listing. This information can then be seen by any person who joins MindMyHouse as a home owner member. House sitter members' home addresses are never displayed online nor given to any third party except when requested by the police in the interest of public safety.
House sitter members who create and publish their own sitter available listing have the option of being included in MindMyHouse's Local Sitter Search. Registered home owner members will then be able to search for and see house sitters' city/town/area of residence (based on the address they used to register with the service) displayed on a map.
Please note that this map is limited in detail – the zoom function has been limited so that home owners can only see very generally where in the town/city or area of residence the house sitter is located. Details such as the street or postcode (zipcode) remain hidden.
Q. Will MindMyHouse be sending members any unsolicited material?
MindMyHouse will not send members any spam or unrelated junkmail. However, from time to time MindMyHouse may send out updates on its service. Members will also receive automated emails from MindMyHouse (eg. successful registration, email alerts etc.). In addition, members may choose to subscribe to a general members’ mailing list containing relevant material to its members. Members will be able to unsubscribe from this mailing list by following the ‘unsubscribe’ directions contained within each such email.
Q. What are cookies? Are they required?
A cookie is a small amount of data that MindMyHouse generates for each member every time they log in to the site. MindMyHouse uses a temporary cookie which contains only a single session identification number to allow a user to remain logged in to MindMyHouse . Once the user closes their browser window, quits or logs out of MindMyHouse, this cookie is automatically destroyed. This cookie does not contain any personal or private information. This technology allows MindMyHouse to streamline members’ use of the site. Members need to make sure that their browser is ‘cookies enabled’ for the customisable elements of MindMyHouse to work properly. By using this technology, MindMyHouse can effectively reduce the time that it takes members to log in, customize their home pages and submit any requests to the site. Cookies will not be used by MindMyHouse to retrieve any information about members. No other company has access to cookies placed on members’ computers by MindMyHouse.
Q. How secure are members’ account areas?
MindMyHouse takes the security and privacy of its members’ information seriously. In order to give members confidence in the privacy of their personal account area on the site, each individual member account area is protected by a combination of email address and secret password access.
Please note that MindMyHouse does not hold any credit or debit card information online.
Please also note that MindMyHouse will not ask for members’ passwords at any time. If you are asked for your password by a third party or someone posing as a representative of MindMyHouse do not give up this information! Requests of this nature could be an attempt to obtain access to your account area illegally.
MindMyHouse endeavours to ensure that the servers used to host the website and data are secure. However, MindMyHouse cannot guarantee that unauthorised access by third parties will not occur.
Q. How can members help safeguard the assurances provided in this Privacy Policy?
Members need to ensure that they observe the following general protocol:
- Always log out of MindMyHouse at the end of a session!
- Memorise your password and keep it secret
- Don’t let anyone log into MindMyHouse on your behalf if you don’t trust them with your personal information
Q. How secure is members’ financial information when they are paying for their MindMyHouse membership by credit or debit card?
MindMyHouse uses the industry leader, Stripe for all online transactions. Stripe transactions are secure – be assured that all financial information members supply when paying for annual house sitter memberships is encrypted while in transit and is safe from theft. Please note that when conducting a payment with Stripe, their privacy policy will also apply in addition to the MindMyHouse privacy policy.
Q. How can members access, update or delete their information?
Members are able to access, update and delete their information at any time, by logging into their own account area on the site with their own customisable password and following the relevant instructions. Any changes, additions or deletions to members’ information will be effective immediately. However, MindMyHouse reserves the right to view and return any inappropriate material to members for re-submission. Members are required to keep their information as current and accurate as possible under the terms of the Terms and Conditions of Use document.
Q. Can someone else link to members’ personal information on MindMyHouse from another website?
Some attempts at making shortcut links to particular pages on Mindmyhouse.com may fail. This is because some of the pages in members’ account areas are password protected. In order to access any of their own password-protected information individual members must login to the site through the MindMyHouse homepage.
Q. What is the policy regarding links to third party sites?
Members may link to third party websites from within their personal sitter available listings although MindMyHouse reserves the right to remove the link if it is deemed inappropriate. MindMyHouse’s Privacy Policy does not apply once the user has left the site for another website.
The onus is on members to check the privacy policy of the site they have linked to for information on the security of any information they may submit to that site.
Q. When does this Privacy Policy not apply?
MindMyHouse may also contain links to other web sites and advertising. MindMyHouse’s Privacy Policy does not apply once the user has left the site for another website. The onus is on members to check the privacy policy of the site they have linked to for information on the security of any information they may submit to that site.
Q. What happens to members’ information after their membership expires?
MindMyHouse stores house sitter members’ information in the database for a calendar year after membership expiry. If membership is resumed using the original email address within that period all of the information can be retrieved for use by the house sitter member. If, however, membership is not resumed within one year of the membership expiring, all the expired house sitter members’ information is deleted permanently. MindMyHouse abides by the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law in this regard.
Some MindMyHouse’s home owner memberships (lifetime accounts) do not expire in the same way as house sitters memberships do as home owner members have free access to the site. If home owner members wish to cancel their account on MindMyHouse they can email help@mindmyhouse.com to arrange the removal of their membership account from the site.
Q. What happens to the information members provide when communicating with MindMyHouse?
MindMyHouse values all of the feedback provided by members. Information submitted in this way will not be used in any way to compromise MindMyHouse’s obligations to members under the Privacy Policy. Feedback and other correspondence will be used in the constant effort to improve the site and the service provided to members.
However, MindMyHouse would very much like to publish, in part or in whole, selected members’ testimonials about the usefulness of the site and members’ tales of house sitting experiences in general. Before any such material is published on the site, MindMyHouse will expressly seek permission to do so from its author.
Q. What happens to the material members provide when using MindMyHouse's internal contact form system?
MindMyHouse monitors the communication made between members through its internal contact form system. This material remains confidential and is not passed on to any third party for any reason except when required by the police in the interests of public safety. This material is securely stored as per the requirements of the UK's Data Protection Act 1998.
How is members information protected?
MindMyHouse complies with the following guiding principles:
- process personal data fairly and lawfully
- obtain personal data only for one or more specified and lawful purposes and to ensure that such data is not processed in a manner which is incompatible with the purpose or purposes for which it was obtained
- ensure that personal data is adequate, relevant and not excessive for the purpose or purposes for which it is held
- ensure that personal data is accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
- ensure that personal data is not kept for any longer than is necessary for the purpose for which it was obtained
- process personal data in accordance with the rights of the individuals to whom the information relates
- ensure that personal data is kept secure
- ensure that personal data is not transferred to a third party
Q. What are the contact details for MindMyHouse?
If you have any comments, complaints or queries about your use of MindMyHouse please don’t hesitate to contact us. We value your feedback!
Please address your correspondence to:
Susan Holtham
MindMyHouse
85 Trig Hill Rd
Waiheke Island, Auckland
1081
New Zealand
email: help@mindmyhouse.com
Thank you!
