We encourage you to read this privacy policy to understand the information we collect and how we use and disclose it.

Dwelly (“we”/”us” is committed to protecting your privacy. We make the website, https://www.dwelly.ca (the “Website”) available together with our services as further described in our Terms of Use (the “Services”). This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, store, use and distribute information about our users through the Website and Services.

This section outlines how personal information may be collected and used (or not used) on this Web site, and outlines responsibilities and liabilities that correspond to such collection and/or use. These terms cover this Web site and its content exclusively, and do not include Web sites that are linked, or malicious third-parties. It is our commitment to end users to operate this Web site with integrity and honesty – taking the time, effort, and care to protect users and information that may be provided.

Consent

By using the Website or our Services you consent to the use of your Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy. Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy, your Personal Information will not be used for any other purpose without your consent. We will not actively collect Personal Information for the purpose of sale or marketing in a way that specifically identifies the individual. In other words, we don’t sell customer lists. You may withdraw your consent to our processing of your Personal Information at any time. However, withdrawing consent may result in your inability to continue using the Website and/or the Services.

Information Collection

We aim to collect, use and disclose only such information as is required to enable us to manage your account, to provide the Services, to maintain our customer/visitor lists, to respond to your inquiries or provide feedback, for identification and authentication purposes and for service improvement. We will maintain the confidentiality of any contact information you provide to us on signing up for our Services or contacting us with questions or for further information and we will use it only for the purposes for which we have collected it (subject to the exclusions and disclosures we have listed below), unless you agree that we may disclose it to other third parties.

Two types of information may be collected through the Website and our Services: Personal Information and Non-Personal Information. This Privacy Policy does not extend to the collection, use or disclosure of the following information which is currently not limited by applicable privacy laws: (a) information that is publicly available, such as names, addresses, telephone numbers and electronic address when listed in a directory or made available through directory assistance; or (b) Non-Personal Information (as defined further below).

"Personal Information" is personally identifiable information, such as your name, address, e-mail address, credit card information, birth date and gender. At the time of collection, we will clearly identify the information being collected and the purposes for which it will be used. It is always your choice whether or not to provide Personal Information but if you choose not to provide certain requested Personal Information, in some instances you may not be able to register to use the Website or be able to access and use the Website at all. In other instances, your choice not to provide certain other Personal Information may mean that you will not be able to use certain features of the Website. We may collect Personal Information in respect of the Website through registration processes; communications with you; information downloads; service use; user support; and surveys.

"Non-Personal Information" is information of an anonymous nature, such as an Internet Protocol Address (IP Address), the domain used to access the Website, and the type and version of browser or operating system being used by visitors to the website. Aggregate information, such as demographic statistics of our users (e.g. average age or geographical allocation of our users), number of visitors, what pages users access or visit, and average time spent on the Website is not considered Personal Information. Similarly, business contact information such as the name, title, business address, or telephone number of a business or professional person or an employee of an organization is not considered Personal Information.

Although the use of certain Non-Personal Information collected, used or disclosed through the Internet as described herein is not restricted (and to the extent that such is the case, the obligations under this Privacy Policy do not apply to such information), we provide information in this Privacy Policy about the collection of such information for the sake of transparency with respect to the operation of the Website. Such Non-Personal Information is collected or derived by us in the course of operating this Website. For example, our web servers may automatically collect Non-Personal Information that is provided through your browser or stored in a cookie when you choose to visit the Website.

Use of Information. Information is used for the following purposes:

  • Registration and Profile Information:
    • If you are a prospective landlord: to gain full access to our Website and Service as a Landlord, you must register for a Dwelly account. When you register for an account, we need your personal information, including the following: (i) your name, company name, email address, physical address, phone number, account password and Government issued photo ID to ensure we send personal information about Prospective Tenants to the right person; (ii) Payment information, to complete your transactions; (iii) Your IP addresses, devices, and locations used to access Dwelly (iv) Information regarding your rental property. We may request and collect additional information from you after you have registered for an account. If so, we will explain why and seek your consent. When you register, we will also seek your consent to retrieve additional personal information about you from third parties and other identification/verification services such as credit-reporting agencies. We may also collect additional personal information in other ways, including through emails, surveys, and other forms of communication. Once you begin using the Service through your Dwelly account, we will keep records of your transactions and collect information of your other activities related to our Service.
    • If you are a prospective tenant: Dwelly collects personal information for the purpose of providing the Service to Landlords and operating the Website, some of which may be collected for the purpose of disclosure, with your consent, to the Prospective Landlord. This information constitutes a Consumer Report Information which may include: (i) contact information, including telephone number, email address and postal code; (ii) credit information, including credit checks, credit references, name, current/ former address, date of birth, current/ former employment, paying habits, outstanding debt obligations, estimated income, cost of living obligations, etc.; (iii) identifying information, including your name, current/former address; (iv) information for your co-applicant, as the case may be, such as name, email, and relationship to you; (v) information about dependants, such as name, age and relationship to you; (vi) publicly accessible information, including but not limited to information from public records, tenant database records, public social media content, information accessible via the internet, etc.; (vii) rental history information, including monthly rent, evictions, property damage, current and previous addresses, reasons for moving and landlord contact; (viii) additional information through the Prospective Tenant form, such as vehicle and commute information, pets’ name, animal type, breed, age, weight and training. Consumer Report Information will only be disclosed to the Prospective Landlord with your express consent, which is sought through our Service or Website.
  • Tenant Application: If you choose to submit a tenant application through the Website, the prospective landlord to whom you are sending the application will be able to view all of the information contained in your application which may include your name, contact information, housing history, employment history and personal references.
  • Listing Information: If you post a rental listing on the Website, the listing (including all of the information contained therein such as the address, square footage, price, description, list of amenities, available date, photos, and videos) will be publicly viewable on the Website along with your first name and the first letter of your last name and profile photo.
  • Social Sharing: If you choose to use any of the social sharing features supported by the Website to share information with your network, such information will be processed according to the privacy practices of the applicable third-party social media provider as well as your privacy settings in respect of your account with such third-party social media provider.
  • Messages: Tenants have the ability to send messages to prospective landlords through the Website, and landlords can send replies to such messages. If you send a message to another user, they will be able to see your first name and the first letter of your last name, your profile photo and the content of your message. If you receive a message from another user, you will receive an email to be notified that you have received a new message.
  • Tenant Application: If you choose to submit a tenant application through the Website, the prospective landlord to whom you are sending the application will be able to view all of the information contained in your application which may include your name, contact information, housing history, employment history and personal references.
  • Scheduling Viewings: Landlords can post dates and times when rental units are available for viewing. Viewing times will be publicly available on the Website along with the listing, and tenants may schedule a viewing using our scheduling functionality. When a tenant schedules a viewing, the landlord will be able to see the tenant’s first name and the first letter of their last name, their profile photo and the time of their scheduled viewing.
  • Surveys and Questionnaires: If you choose to complete a survey, we will use your survey responses and biographical information from your profile such as your age, gender and educational background to create anonymous aggregate statistics.
  • Transactional Notifications: We provide notifications for certain activities relating to your use of our Services despite your indicated e-mail preferences, for example we may send you notices of any awards or scholarships that may be of interest to you, or let you know about updates to our Terms of Use or Privacy Policy.
  • Marketing Communications: If you opt-in to receive marketing communications from us, we will keep you up to date on our products and services. You may withdraw your consent to receiving marketing communications from us at any time by following the opt-out instructions in each communication, or by contacting our marketing department at [email protected].
  • Statistics: We also collect statistics about use of the Services. This information will be kept confidential, however, aggregate statistics that do not personally identify an individual will be kept by us and such aggregate statistics may be made available to other members or third parties including advertisers and sponsors. We will also use this information to tailor our content and improve the Services.
  • System Logs and Cookies: Cookies are used by us to track content usage and traffic on the Website. A cookie is a feature of your web browser that consists of a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web server. The Website uses cookies to help it compile aggregate statistics about usage of this Website, such as how many users visit the Website, how long users spend viewing the Website, and what pages are viewed most often. This information is used to improve the content of the Website. You can set your browser to notify you when you are sent a cookie. This gives you the chance to decide whether or not to accept it. If you disable cookies, you may not be able to take advantage of all the features of the Website. We do not link any of the information we use in cookies to any personally identifiable information submitted by you when you are on the Website.

Your IP address is reported by your web browser whenever you visit a page on the Website. This information is recorded together with your registration information on our databases. If we plan to use your Personal Information in future for any other purposes not identified above, we will only do so after informing you by updating this Privacy Policy. See further the section of this Privacy Policy entitled ‘Amendment of this Policy’.

Disclosures and Transfers

We have put in place contractual and other organizational safeguards with our agents (see further below) to ensure a proper level of protection of your Personal Information (see further Security below). In addition to those measures, we will not disclose or transfer your Personal Information to third parties without your permission, except as specified in this Privacy Policy (see further Important Exceptions below).

As at the date of this Privacy Policy, we share Personal Information about you in respect of the Website only with our service providers which include our website host, cloud service provider, analytics providers, email marketing provider and payment processors. Our service providers host data in Canada and in the United States and accordingly your Personal Information may be available to Canadian and United States government or agencies under a lawful order, irrespective of the safeguards we have put in place for the protection of your Personal Information.

We have put in place contractual and other organizational safeguards with our agents (see further below) to ensure a proper level of protection of your Personal Information (see further Security below). In addition to those measures, we will not disclose or transfer your Personal Information to third parties without your permission, except as specified in this Privacy Policy (see Exceptions below).

Proprietary Rights

From time to time we may employ third parties to help us improve the Website and/or the Services. These third parties may have limited access to databases of user information solely for the purpose of helping us to improve the Website and/or the Services and they will be subject to contractual restrictions prohibiting them from using the information about our members for any other purpose.

Exceptions

We may disclose your Personal Information to third parties without your consent if we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) our rights or property, other users of the Services, or anyone else (including the rights or property of anyone else) that could be harmed by such activities. We may disclose Personal Information when we believe in good faith that such disclosure is required by and in accordance with the law.

We may also disclose your Personal Information in connection with a corporate re-organization, a merger or amalgamation with another entity, a sale of all or a substantial portion of our assets or stock, including any due diligence exercise carried out in relation to the same, provided that the information disclosed continues to be used for the purposes permitted by this Privacy Policy by the entity acquiring the information.

Security

The security of your Personal Information is important to us. We use commercially reasonable efforts to store and maintain your Personal Information in a secure environment. We take technical, contractual, administrative, and physical security steps designed to protect Personal Information that you provide to us. We have implemented procedures designed to limit the dissemination of your Personal Information to only such designated staff as are reasonably necessary to carry out the stated purposes we have communicated to you.

In certain areas, such as when you provide credit card or other payment information to us, the Website works to help protect the security of your credit card and other payment information during transmission by using industry standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology.

You are also responsible for helping to protect the security of your Personal Information. For instance, never give out your email account information or your password for the Services to third parties.

Retention

We will keep your Personal Information for as long as it remains necessary for the identified purpose or as required by law, which may extend beyond the termination of our relationship with you. We may retain certain data as necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, or for legitimate business purposes, such as analysis of aggregated, non-personally-identifiable data, account recovery, or if required by law. All retained personal information will remain subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you request that your name be removed from our databases, it may not be possible to completely delete all your Personal Information due to technological and legal constraints.

Policy Amendment

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. If we decide to change this Privacy Policy in the future, we will post an appropriate notice on the home page. Any non-material change (such as clarifications) to this Privacy Policy will become effective on the date the change is posted and any material changes will become effective 30 days from their posting on the Website. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all Personal Information that we have about you. The date on which the latest update was made is indicated at the bottom of this document. We recommend that you print a copy of this Privacy Policy for your reference and revisit this policy from time to time to ensure you are aware of any changes. Your continued use of the Website signifies your acceptance of any changes.

Delete/Deactivate Procedure: Users may unsubscribe to any of our Services at any time or delete or deactivate their account in its entirety by selecting the appropriate action in the Account Settings under My Profile.

Access and Accuracy

You have the right to access the Personal Information we hold about you in order to verify the Personal Information we have collected in respect to you and to have a general account of our uses of that information. Upon receipt of your written request, we will provide you with a copy of your Personal Information although in certain limited circumstances, we may not be able to make all relevant information available to you such as where that information also pertains to another user. In such circumstances we will provide reasons for the denial to you upon request. We will endeavor to deal with all requests for access and modifications in a timely manner. We will make every reasonable effort to keep your Personal Information accurate and up-to-date, and we will provide you with mechanisms to update, correct, delete or add to your Personal Information as appropriate. As appropriate, this amended Personal Information will be transmitted to those parties to which we are permitted to disclose your information. Having accurate Personal Information about you enables us to give you the best possible service.

Contact Us

You can help by keeping us informed of any changes such as a change of address or telephone number. If you would like to access your information, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions of if you find any errors in our information about you, please contact us at: hello[at]Dwelly.ca.