PRIVACY POLICY

General information

HouseWow® and Smarter Property Sellers™ and HouseWow.info are trading names of HSC Design Ltd.  HouseWow provides information on property styling and home improvements for property sellers, landlords and property buyers. 

HouseWow® works with selected partners to provide information and advice to their customers who want to optimise the value and marketing potential of their property. 

Housewow.info website contains information, advice and downloads to enable property sellers, home buyers and landlords to improve their homes and investment property when selling or renting.

HSC Design Ltd publishes and hosts the housewow.info website domain and HSC Design Ltd uses secure encryption processes to keep information sent using online forms secure. 

Effective 25th May 2018:

1.0 OUR CORE BELIEFS REGARDING USER PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

• User privacy and data protection are human rights

• We have a duty of care to the people within our data protection policy

• Data should only be collected and processed when absolutely necessary

• We loathe spam as much as you do!

• We will never sell, rent or otherwise distribute or make public your personal information

2.0 RELEVANT LEGISLATION

Along with our business and internal computer systems, this website is designed to comply with the following legislation with regards to data protection and user privacy:

• UK Data Protection Act 1988 (DPA)

• EU Data Protection Directive 1995 (DPD)

• EU General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR)

3.0 PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT THIS WEBSITE COLLECTS AND WHY WE COLLECT IT

This website collects and uses personal information for the following reasons:

3.1 Site visitation tracking

Like most websites, this site collects user visitor data. We use this data to determine the number of people using our site, to better understand how they find and use our web pages and to see their journey through the website.

This website may collect* information (already held in the public domain) attributed to the IP address of the computer or device that is being used to access it. The information is supplied to us by Google Analytics and Statcounter. These systems do not use your IP address to identify you, the individual, in any way. We regard these companies as third party and as such you can see their privacy details here:

https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html 

https://statcounter.com/about/legal/ 

3.2 Contact forms and email links

Should you choose to contact us using the contact form on our Contact us page none of the data that you supply will be stored by this website or be processed by any third party data processors. Instead the data will be sent in an email to us over the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). Our own SMTP servers are protected by TLS (sometimes known as SSL) meaning that the email content is encrypted using SHA-2, 256-bit cryptography before being sent across the internet. The email content is then decrypted by our local computers and devices. However, not all mail servers are secured in such a way. Therefore, we would suggest that you always consider email as an insecure medium and not include personal, confidential or otherwise sensitive information within an email.

3.3 Email newsletter

If you choose to join one of our email newsletters, the email address that you submit to us will be forwarded to Marketers choice who provide us with email marketing services. We consider Marketers choice to be a third party data processor. The email address that you submit will not be stored within this website's own database or in any of our internal computer systems. Your email address will remain within Marketers choice database for as long as we continue to use Marketers choice services for email marketing or until you request removal from the list. You can do this by un-subscribing using the unsubscribe links contained in any email newsletters that we send to you or by requesting removal via email. When requesting removal via email, please send your email to us using the email account that is subscribed to the mailing list. If you are under 16 years of age you MUST obtain parental consent before joining our email newsletter.

While your email address remains within the Marketers choice database, you will receive periodic (approximately one per month) newsletter-style emails from us. We do not share our email address list with third parties although we may suggest third party products or services to you in our emails. http://www.marketerschoice.com/privacy-policy/

3.4 Registering as a Member

If you choose to register as a Member business with this website we ask you to complete a registration form which includes your name, business address, contact details and service details. This is so that we may display your details to web site visitors and contact you about updates. If you choose to have your data deleted from our website we may retain the information that is required of us by law. You will be asked to confirm business insurance and compliance with the professional code of conduct and GDPR and we will retain this information to maintain transparency for clients. 

  

4.0 HOW AND FOR WHAT LENGTH OF TIME WE WILL STORE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Information You Give Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our Website or give us in any other way. By registering with us as a Member via our Website, you choose to accept the practices described in this Privacy Notice. We use the information that you provide for such purposes as set out in here.

As detailed in section 3.2 above, if you submit an email your information will not be stored on this website but sent to us in an email form and saved securely in our third part email platform Google professional email management. You can see their privacy policy here https://policies.google.com/privacy

We will keep your information only as long as necessary to facilitate your enquiry and provide you with information and services as necessary. If you make a purchase from this website or from our services we will keep your information as long as we are required to do so by the UK HMRC service for tax accounting. Your information will be stored on our secure servers as detailed in 5.0. 

If you take out Membership services we may store your information in files on a secure server to facilitate your Membership listing on this website. Your information will be kept as long as you require us to provide this services and information will be displayed on this website according to your instructions and as checked and authorised by you. After the service ends your data will be kept as long as required of us for tax accounting. Your personal details are not transferred to our Accountancy service provider. 

If you complete the service enquiry form your details may be sent to one of our registered Members to assist you with your enquiry. These members are required to comply with all Data protection regulations and if you no longer require their services then your data will be destroyed on a periodic basis or as soon as you request it to be removed from their files. You should check the Privacy policy of any external party with which you choose to contact or contract business services from.

5.0 ABOUT OUR DATA PROTECTION AND THIS WEBSITE'S SERVER

Data security is of great importance to us and to protect your data we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to to safeguard and secure data collected via this Website.

This website is hosted by Daily Hosting within a UK data centre located in Nottingham. 

You can see their privacy policy here https://www.daily.co.uk/terms/privacy.html

All traffic (transferral of files) between this website and your browser is encrypted to protect your data and delivered over HTTPS.

We work to protect the security of your information during transmission by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts information you input.

Because of the nature of the Internet, data that is provided by you may pass through any location - including countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and by using the web site you consent to the transfer of the data. If you are outside the EEA, you agree to use the data sent to you only for your own purposes and in accordance with the English data protection laws (including the GDPR 2018).

It is important for you to protect against unauthorised access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to log off/sign off and not just close a page when you finish using a shared computer.  If password access is required for your use of certain parts of the Website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential.

6.0 INFORMATION TO PREVENT OR DETECT FRAUD

When you apply through this Website to register with us, we may check our own and the your business partners records which are available in the public domain. If you give us false or inaccurate information and we suspect or identify fraud we will record this and may also pass this information to FPAs and other organisations involved in crime and fraud prevention. 

7.0 SHARING YOUR INFORMATION

Information about Members is an important part of our business and that of our other websites which each have a clear privacy policy. We share Member information only as described below and with controls that either are subject to this Privacy Notice or follow practices at least as protective as those described in this Privacy Notice. We do not typically share personal information about Users who are not Members.

• When you post a Request for Services: We share Client information (full name, postcode, email address and phone number) with Professionals that are registered with us to respond to a Client's request for services. Professionals must comply with the Professionals Code of Conduct concerning how they deal with Clients and use Client information.

• When you respond to a Request for Services: We share Professional's information (name, business address including postcode, email address and phone number) with Clients when they respond to a request for services.

• We disclose account and other personal information when we believe disclosure is appropriate to comply with the law; enforce or apply our User Agreement and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of our Website, our Users, or others.

• Sharing Information with Search Engines: To enable others to find Members and find out more about the services you offer, your profile information on our Website may be included within search engine results. This includes but is not limited to your company name, profile picture, work area, services offered and reviews from homeowners.

• Facebook And Other Social Media Services: We offer many ways for users to find enjoy, and share content about professionals from a range of sectors. We enable and encourage users to explore who else is using our Website and their public profiles. Most of your information (apart from financial information) includes your name and/or username, profile picture, tier of membership, your activity, including the designs and projects you like, social media applications that you link to your account and user content that you post on our Website. Your activity on our Website may appear in the activity feed of friends and users who follow your profile on our Website. You acknowledge and agree that the use of your information by any third party website or social media platform will be governed by their own privacy policies.

• Payment Data: We will collect and process payment and financial data when you use our payment service to pay for services sourced through our Website. This information will be stored by third party payment processors. The third party payment processors will provide us with some payment information about you, including a unique reference, your payment card type, and the expiry date and last four digits of the payment card.  

• HSC Design Ltd, may from time to time, expand or reduce our business and this may involve the sale and/or transfer of control of all or part of HSC Design Ltd Data provided by users, where it is relevant to any part of our business transferred, will be transferred and the new owner or newly controlling party will under the terms of this privacy policy, be permitted to use the Data for the purposes for which it was originally supplied to us. They will have a duty to comply with the GDPR Data Protection policy and safeguard your data.

8.0 THIRD PARTY ADVERTISERS AND EXTERNAL WEB LINKS

Our Website may occasionally include third-party advertising and links to other websites. If you access other websites using the links provided, the operators of those websites may collect information from you which will be used by them in accordance with their privacy notice which may differ from ours. You are advised to read the privacy policy or statement of external websites prior to using them.

9.0 DATA BREACHES

We will report any unlawful data breach of this website's database or the database(s) of any of our third party data processors to any and all relevant persons and authorities within 72 hours of the breach if it is apparent that personal data stored in an identifiable manner has been stolen.

If password access is required for certain parts of the Website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential.

10.0 YOUR CHOICES

You choose what information to pass to us and can update this at any time by using the sign in update options or contacting us.

If you choose to visit our Website, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Notice and our Terms including limitations on damages, resolution of disputes, and application of English Law.

If you have any concerns about privacy at this website or wish to be removed from our records, please contact us with a thorough description, and we will try to resolve it.  If you are not happy with our response you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. www.ico.org.uk

11.0 DATA CONTROLLER

The Data controller of this website is: 

HSC Design Ltd, a UK Private Limited Company with company number: 6576986

Whose registered office is: HSC Design Ltd, Elizabeth House, 13-19 Queen Street, Leeds, LS1 2TW 

HSC Design Ltd have been registered with the Information Commissioners Office under the Data Protection Act since 27th June 2012. Registration Number Z324311X.

12.0 DATA PROTECTION CONTACT

HSC Design Ltd

Telephone: 0333 800 8001

Email: Contact us

13.0 CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy may change from time to time in line with legislation or industry developments. We will not explicitly inform our clients or website users of these changes. Instead, we recommend that you check this page occasionally for any policy changes. Specific policy changes and updates will be mentioned in the change log on this page.

This Privacy policy was last updated: 17th May 2018