Houfy Privacy Policy

Houfy.com Inc. (“Houfy”,“we”, “us”, or “our”) value you as our customer, and recognize the importance of your privacy. This Privacy Policy details your rights regarding the information we collect or hold about you and provides guidance on how to contact us with any privacy-related inquiries.

If you don’t agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, you may not access or use the Houfy Services. If you have any comments or questions about this Privacy Policy, feel free to contact us at info@houfy.com

Last updated November 30 2023

I. Privacy Policy Summary

1.1 What does this Privacy Policy cover?

This Privacy Policy is designed to describe:

• The specific types of personal information we collect and how we use it.
• The instances in which we might share your personal information.
• The choices available to you regarding the collection, use, and sharing of your personal information.

1.2 What personal information do we collect and use, and how do we collect it?

We collect personal information in three primary ways:

• Directly from you when you provide it to us.
• Automatically through technologies such as cookies, subject to your consent where required.
• From third parties, such as our business partners.

This occurs, for example, when you create an account on Houfy, sign up for offers or information, or make an inquiry or booking using our platform.

The automated collection of information is conducted through technologies like cookies on your browser or via our mobile apps. This information helps us improve our services, maintain accurate records, investigate potential fraud, and effectively market our offerings.

1.3 How is your personal information shared?

Your personal information may be shared under circumstances such as:

• Facilitating bookings and providing support during your travels or stays.
• Communicating with you, including sending information about products and services or enabling communication with travel providers or property owners/managers.
• Compliance with legal obligations or to protect our legal rights.

1.4 What are your rights and choices?

You can exercise your data-protection rights in various ways. For example, you can opt out of marketing by clicking the “unsubscribe” link in emails you receive, changing preferences in your account, as applicable, or by contacting our customer service team.

II. Core Principles

When it comes to your personal information we believe in transparency, not surprises. So before we get into the details, we want to share with you a few of our core privacy principles.

• First, we don’t sell your personal information to anyone. It’s just not the type of business we’re in.
• Second, we don’t share your personal information unless you’ve specifically allowed it, or for the very limited purposes described below.
• Finally, we appreciate that when you use our Houfy Services, you trust us with your information, and we take that responsibility very seriously.

This Privacy Policy applies to the use of the Houfy Services (as defined below), including by both consumers and Professionals. “Professional(s)” means individuals, companies and other organizations or persons acting as real estate professionals or otherwise engaged in a business related to Houfy's Services, including, without limitation, agents, brokers, real estate professionals, home service professionals and other service professionals. Except as otherwise indicated, Professionals, consumers and other persons using the Houfy Services are individually and collectively referred to as “you.”

This Privacy Policy applies to personal information collected by Houfy Corporation, through the Houfy websites, and mobile apps, mobile-optimized websites and other applications and/or electronic media (such as emails Houfy sends) (collectively, the “Services”). This includes, but is not limited to: https://www.houfy.com & https://www.maps.houfy.com

This Privacy Policy holds us accountable for protecting your rights and your privacy.

2.1 Definitions

If you see an undefined term in this Privacy Policy (such as “Listing” or “Houfy Services”), it has the same definition as in our Terms of Service (“Terms”).

When this policy mentions “Houfy,” “we,” “us,” or “our,” it refers to the Houfy Corporation that is responsible for your information under this Privacy Policy.

III. Collection

When you use the Houfy Services, we collect the following information, and use it only as described below:

3.1 Account Information.

We ask for and collect the following personal information about you when you use the Houfy Services. This information is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract between you and us and to allow us to comply with our legal obligations. Without it, we may not be able to provide you with all the requested services.

• Account Information. When you sign up for an Houfy Account, we require certain information such as your first name, last name and email address.
• Profile and Listing Information. To use certain features of the Houfy Services (such as booking or creating a Listing), we may ask you to provide additional information, which may include your address, phone number, and a profile picture.
• Identity Verification Information. To help create and maintain a trusted environment, we may collect identity verification information (such as images of your government issued ID, passport, national ID card, or driving license, as permitted by applicable laws) or other authentication information.
• Payment Information. To use certain features of the Houfy Services (such as booking or creating a Listing), we may require you to provide certain financial information (like credit card information) in order to facilitate the processing of payments (via Stripe or Square Payments).
• Communications with Houfy and other Members. Information pertaining to your communications with Houfy or other Members is collected, including the content you choose to share.

3.2 Third Party Account Information. If you use Third Party Services, such as social media or photo-sharing services, you may provide us with your Third Party Services account information, such as your username (note that we don’t store any passwords you use to access Third Party Services). We transmit, and may store, such account information, only as needed to provide the Houfy Services, and only in accordance with the terms and policies of the Third Party Services.

We do not control, supervise or respond for how the third parties providing your information process your Personal Information, and any information request regarding the disclosure of your personal information to us should be directed to such third parties.

• Third Party Services. If you link, connect, or login to your Houfy Account with a third party service (e.g. Google, Facebook), the third party service may send us information such as your registration, friends list, and profile information from that service. This information varies and is controlled by that service or as authorized by you via your privacy settings at that service.
• Background Information. For Members in the United States, to the extent permitted by applicable laws, Houfy may obtain reports from public records of criminal convictions or sex offender registrations. For Members outside of the United States, to the extent permitted by applicable laws and with your consent where required, Houfy may obtain the local version of police, background or registered sex offender checks. We may use your information, including your full name and date of birth, to obtain such reports.
• Enterprise Product Invitations and Account Management. Organizations that use our Enterprise products and programs with property managers may submit personal information to facilitate account management and invitations to use enterprise products.
• Referrals. If you are invited to Houfy, the person who invited you may submit personal information about you such as your email address or other contact information.
• Other Sources. To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may receive additional information about you, such as demographic data or information to help detect fraud and safety issues, from third party service providers and/or partners, and combine it with information we have about you. For example, we may receive background check results (with your consent where required) or fraud warnings from service providers like identity verification services for our fraud prevention and risk assessment efforts. We may receive information about you and your activities on and off the Houfy Services through partnerships, or about your experiences and interactions from our partner ad networks.

3.3 Payment Information. When you initially provide or update your payment information, we transmit it via an encrypted connection to our Payment Processor, Stripe or Square. Stripe and Square use and process payment information in accordance with their Privacy Policies. We don’t store payment information, other than zip code and/or country, which is required for billing and to comply with tax and other government regulations.

3.4 Communications With Us. When you send us emails or other communications, such as customer support inquiries, we maintain those communications and their contents so that we can resolve your inquiries or otherwise assist you. We may review, scan, or analyze your communications on the Houfy Platform for reasons including fraud prevention, security investigations, risk assessment, regulatory compliance, product development, research, analytics, enforcing our Terms of Service, and customer support purposes. We primarily use automated methods for these purposes but may occasionally need to manually review communications, such as for fraud investigations and customer support, or to assess and improve the functionality of these automated tools. We will not review, scan, or analyze your messaging communications to send third-party marketing messages to you and we will not sell reviews or analyses of these communications.

Sometimes we’ll send you emails about your account, service changes or new policies. You can’t opt out of this type of “transactional” email (unless you delete your account). But, you can opt out of non-administrative emails such as digests, newsletters, and activity notifications through your account’s “Settings” page

When you interact with an email sent from Houfy (such as opening an email or clicking on a particular link in an email), we may receive information about that interaction. We won’t email you to ask for your password or other account information. If you receive such an email, please send it to us so we can investigate.

3.5 Public Comments On The Services. We maintain any comments, contributions to discussions, or messages submitted to members of the Houfy Services, in order to provide the Houfy Services. This includes the ability to review, scan, or analyze these communications for the purposes of fraud prevention, security investigations, risk assessment, regulatory compliance, product development, research, analytics, enforcing our Terms of Service, and customer support. Automated methods are primarily used for these purposes, with occasional manual reviews as necessary.

3.6 Files You Provide Us. When you use the Houfy Services, we store, process, and transmit your Member Content (such as your photos) and information related to your Member Content (such as location tags in photos). We process and store such files and information in order to provide the Houfy Services, as described in our Terms of Service. We may review, scan, or analyze the content you upload, including photos and other files, for purposes such as fraud prevention, security investigations, risk assessment, regulatory compliance, product development, research, analytics, enforcing our Terms of Service, and customer support. This analysis may be conducted using automated methods, with manual reviews performed as necessary.

You may choose to provide us with additional personal information in order to obtain a better user experience when using the Houfy Services. This additional information will be processed based on our legitimate interest or when applicable, your consent.

• Additional Profile Information. You may choose to provide additional information as part of your Houfy profile, such as preferred language, city, and a personal description. Some of this information as indicated in your Account settings is part of your public profile page, and will be publicly visible to others.
• Address Book Contact Information. You may choose to import your address book contacts or enter your contacts’ information manually to access certain features of the Houfy Services, like inviting them to use Houfy.
• Other Information. You may otherwise choose to provide us information when you fill in a form, update or add information to your Houfy Account, respond to surveys, post to community forums, participate in promotions, communicate with our customer care team or use other features of the Houfy Services.

3.7 Usage Information. This includes information about your activity on and interaction with the Houfy Services, such as your IP address, your device or browser type, the webpage you visited before coming to our sites and identifiers associated with your devices. This information enables us to analyze how the Houfy Services are being accessed and used, and to track performance of the Houfy Services.

When you use the Houfy Services, we automatically collect personal information about the services you use and how you use them. This information is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract between you and us, to enable us to comply with legal obligations and given our legitimate interest in being able to provide and improve the functionalities of the Houfy Services. We may also review, scan, or analyze your interactions and communications on the Houfy Platform for purposes including fraud prevention, security investigations, risk assessment, regulatory compliance, product development, research, analytics, enforcing our Terms of Service, and customer support. Automated methods are primarily used for these purposes, with occasional manual reviews as necessary.

• Geo-location Information. Your devices (depending on your settings) may transmit location information to the Houfy Services. We use this information to customize, improve and protect the Houfy Services. For example, we may use your location information to determine local language preferences, or to geotag a post.
• Usage Information. We collect information about your interactions with the Houfy Platform such as the pages or content you view, your searches for Listings, bookings you have made, and other actions on the Houfy Services.
• Log Data and Device Information. We automatically collect log data and device information when you access and use the Houfy Services, even if you have not created an Houfy Account or logged in. That information includes, among other things: details about how you’ve used the Houfy Services (including if you clicked on links to third party applications), IP address, access dates and times, hardware and software information, device information, device event information, unique identifiers, crash data, cookie data, and the pages you’ve viewed or engaged with before or after using the Houfy Services.
• Cookies and Similar Technologies. We use these technologies to do things such as remember your preferences, keep you safe and improve and promote the Houfy Services. You can read more about how we use these technologies in our Cookie Policy, which is incorporated by reference into this Privacy Policy. We may collect certain information by automated means using technologies such as cookies, web beacons, pixels, browser analysis tools, server logs, and mobile identifiers. In many cases the information we collect using cookies and other tools is only used in a non-identifiable without reference to personal information. For example, we may use information we collect to better understand website traffic patterns and to optimize our website experience. In some cases we associate the information we collect using cookies and other technology with your personal information. Our business partners may also use these tracking technologies on the Houfy Services or engage others to track your behavior on our behalf.
• Pixels and SDKs. Third parties, including Facebook, may use cookies, web beacons, and other storage technologies to collect or receive information from our websites and elsewhere on the internet and use that information to provide measurement services and target ads. For apps, that third parties, including Facebook, may collect or receive information from your app and other apps and use that information to provide measurement services and targeted ads. Users can opt-out of the collection and use of information for ad targeting by updating their Facebook account ad settings and by contacting info@houfy.com with a description of your request and validation information. Users can access a mechanism for exercising such choice by going to http://www.aboutads.info/choices and http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/. For more information on our use of these technologies, see our Cookie Policy.
• Do Not Track Signals. While you may disable the usage of cookies through your browser settings, the Houfy Services currently does not respond to a “Do Not Track” signal in the HTTP header from your browser or mobile application due to lack of standardization regarding how that signal should be interpreted.

IV. Sharing

When you use the Houfy Services, we may share your information only as described below:

4.1 Third Parties You Authorize

You can give third parties access to your and your End Users’ information on the Houfy Services. For example, you may wish to integrate Your Sites with a third party newsletter service that requires access to the email addresses you collect from your End Users, in order for that newsletter service to send emails on your behalf and at your direction. Please be aware that any third party's utilization of this information will be governed by the terms and privacy policies of the third party.

4.2 Following The Law

We may disclose your information to courts, law enforcement, governmental or public authorities, tax authorities, authorized third parties, or other members if and to the extent we are required or permitted to do so by law or where disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (i) comply with our legal obligations, (ii) comply with a valid legal request, such as a subpoena or court order, or to respond to claims asserted against Houfy, (iii) respond to a valid legal request relating to a criminal investigation to address alleged or suspected illegal activity, or to respond to or address any other activity that may expose us, you, or any other of our users to legal or regulatory liability, (iv) enforce and administer our agreements with members, including our Terms of Service, (v) respond to requests for or in connection with current or prospective legal claims or legal proceedings concerning Houfy and/or third parties, in accordance with applicable law, or (vi) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Houfy, its employees, its members, or members of the public.

Notification: Where appropriate and/or legally required, we may notify members about legal requests, unless: (i) providing notice is prohibited by the legal process itself, by court order we receive, or by applicable law, or (ii) we believe that providing notice would be futile, ineffective, create a risk of injury or bodily harm to an individual or group, or create or increase a risk of fraud upon or harm to Houfy, our members, or expose Houfy to a claim of obstruction of justice.

Disclosure to Tax Authorities: Where legally required or permissible according to applicable law, we may disclose hosts’ and/or guests’ information to relevant tax authorities or other governmental agencies, depending on where you are based, for the purpose of the tax authorities’ determination of proper compliance with relevant tax obligations.

Disclosure to Governmental Authorities for Registrations, Notifications, Permits, or License Applications or Numbers: In jurisdictions where Houfy facilitates or requires a registration, notification, permit, or license application or number of a host with a governmental authority, we may share information of participating hosts with the relevant authority during the application process, when the listing is published, and periodically thereafter.

4.3 Others Working For Houfy

Houfy uses certain trusted third parties to help us provide, improve, promote and protect the Services. For example, we may use third parties to help us provide customer support, manage our ads on other sites or assist with data storage. These third parties may access, process or store your information to perform tasks only for the purposes we’ve authorized, and we require them to provide at least the same level of protection for your information as described in this Privacy Policy. We also may share with third parties aggregated or anonymized information that does not directly identify you.

4.4 Business Transfers

If we're involved in a reorganization, merger, acquisition or sale of our assets, your information may be transferred as part of that deal. Rest assured, any such transfer will be conducted in accordance with applicable data protection laws, and we will take measures to ensure that your privacy rights and the commitments outlined in this Privacy Policy are upheld during and after the transfer.

V. Protection

We employ security measures such as using firewalls to protect against intruders, building redundancies throughout our network (so that if one server goes down, another can cover for it) and testing for and protecting against network vulnerabilities. We use encryption (HTTPS/TLS) to protect data transmitted to and from our site. However, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, so we can’t guarantee security. You use the Service at your own risk, and you’re responsible for taking reasonable measures to secure your account.

If you know or have reason to believe that your Houfy Account credentials have been lost, stolen, misappropriated, or otherwise compromised or in case of any actual or suspected unauthorized use of your Houfy Account, please contact us following the instructions in the Contact Us section below.

VI. Retention

We'll retain your personal information for as long as we need it to provide you with the Services. You can ask for your personal information to be deleted at any time by deleting your Account or contacting us at info@houfy.com. Please note that there may be latency in deleting your personal information from our servers and backup storage, and we may retain your personal information in order to comply with the law, protect our rights, resolve disputes or enforce our agreements. Any retention beyond the required period will be in accordance with applicable data protection laws and subject to stringent security measures.

VII. Location

Information that you submit through the Houfy Services may be transferred to countries other than where you live (for example, to our servers in the US). To ensure the seamless provision of the Houfy Services, we may also store information locally on the devices you use to access our platform. Moreover, in certain instances, we may transfer information to third parties located outside the US for processing or to support the Houfy Services. Be assured that we mandate these third parties to uphold at least the same level of protection for your information as outlined in this Privacy Policy.

VIII. Access

To modify or delete the personal information you have provided to us, simply log into the Houfy Services and update your profile. We may retain certain information as required by law or for necessary business purposes. If you wish to receive a copy of the personal information that we maintain about you, please submit a formal request. Please note that, in accordance with applicable laws, this request may be subject to a fee not exceeding the prescribed amount permitted by law

IX. Communications

As part of our commitment to your privacy and preferences, we will periodically send you emails related to our services, including service-related announcements and transactional information. These are necessary for the ongoing use and management of your Houfy account and services.

In addition to these necessary communications, you may receive marketing or promotional emails from us. We respect your choice regarding these communications. You have the right to opt out of receiving marketing or promotional communications at any time. To opt out, simply click the 'unsubscribe' link (or a similar phrasing) provided in the footer of each marketing or promotional email. Please note that even after opting out of marketing communications, you will continue to receive non-promotional emails related to your account and transactions with Houfy.

We also ensure that all our communications comply with applicable laws and regulations regarding user communication preferences. Your privacy and the respect of your communication preferences are a top priority for us at Houfy.

X. End User Information

10.1 Collection And Use Of End User Information

In your use of the Houfy Services to create or publish Your Sites, and Your Sites may have End Users. We may collect, use, or delete various types of information, as outlined in Section 2, from your End Users, based on your directives and on your behalf and we treat such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. This collection is conducted to facilitate, enhance, and safeguard the Services offered to you. For instance, during transactions, you might require End Users to provide personal details like name, address, email address, and payment information, enabling you to fulfill their orders effectively.

10.2 Your Relationship With End Users

You are empowered to manage your End Users’ information, including collection, usage, and deletion.. However, you're solely responsible for complying with any laws and regulations that apply to your End Users’ information. This includes the obligation to maintain an appropriate privacy policy for your Sites. Houfy disclaims any liability for your interactions or relationships with your End Users and does not offer legal advice in these matters.

10.3. End User Payment Information

Your End Users’ payment information may be processed via third party eCommerce Payment Processors with which you integrate your Account, in accordance with such eCommerce Payment Processors’ terms and policies. We transmit your End Users’ complete payment information when they initially provide or update it, only so that we can pass it along to the eCommerce Payment Processors you agree to use. We don’t collect or store your End Users’ payment information.

10.4 A Message To The End Users

Hello, End User! We hope you create your own site on Houfy some day! However, Houfy has no direct relationship with you. If you’d like to make any requests regarding your personal information, please contact the owner of the site you’ve visited or used, as they control your data. They may then submit any such information requests to us, and we’ll respond to them. We retain your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

XI. Privacy Shield

To facilitate our global operations Houfy may transfer, store, and process your information within our partners, and service providers based in Europe, India, Asia Pacific and North and South America. Laws in these countries may differ from the laws applicable to your country of residence. For example, information collected within the EEA may be transferred, stored, and processed outside of the EEA for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. Where we transfer store, and process your personal information outside of the EEA we have ensured that appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure an adequate level of data protection.

11.1. Compliance

Houfy complies with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use and retention of personal information transferred from the European Union to the United States (“EU Personal Data”). We’ve certified to the Department of Commerce that we adhere to the Privacy Shield Principles and, assuming our certification is approved, you’ll be able to find it here. You can learn more about Privacy Shield by visiting https://www.privacyshield.gov/

Additionally, Houfy commits to cooperating with EU data protection authorities (DPAs) and comply with the advice given by such authorities with regard to human resources data transferred from the EU in the context of the employment relationship.

11.2. Accountability.

Our accountability for EU Personal Data we receive under the Privacy Shield and subsequently transfer to a third party is described in the Privacy Shield Principles. In particular, we may use third parties to process data on our behalf as described in this Privacy Policy, and we remain liable if they do so in a manner inconsistent with the Privacy Shield Principles and we're responsible for the event giving rise to the damage.

11.3. Inquiries And Disputes

If you have questions you believe to be within the scope of our Privacy Shield certification, please contact us first at info@houfy.com and we'll respond within 45 days. For any complaints that we can’t resolve directly, JAMS is the independent organization responsible for reviewing and resolving complaints about our Privacy Shield compliance, and you can contact JAMS at https://www.jamsadr.com/eu-us-privacy-shield. In the event your concern still isn't addressed by JAMS, you may be entitled to a binding arbitration under the Privacy Shield Principles. For purposes of enforcing compliance with the Privacy Shield, Houfy is subject to the investigatory and enforcement authority of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

11.4 California & Vermont Residents

Houfy acknowledges the specific privacy rights of California and Vermont residents. We will not share personal information collected about you with our affiliates or third parties, whether they are financial or non-financial entities, except as allowed or required by the laws specific to your state.

11.5 California Privacy Rights

California law permits Members who are California residents to request and obtain from us once a year, free of charge, a list of the third parties to whom we have disclosed their personal information (if any) for their direct marketing purposes in the prior calendar year, as well as the type of personal information disclosed to those third parties. See the “Contact Us” section for where to send such requests.

Houfy does not share personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes without your prior consent. Accordingly, you can prevent disclosure of your personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes by withholding consent.

XII. Modifications

Houfy reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time in accordance with this provision. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post the revised Privacy Policy on the Houfy Services and update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

We will also provide you with notice of the modification by email at least thirty (30) days before the date they become effective. If you disagree with the revised Privacy Policy, you may cancel your Account.

If you do not cancel your Account before the date the revised Privacy Policy becomes effective, your continued access to or use of the Houfy Services will be subject to the revised Privacy Policy.

XIII. Contact Us

If you have any questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy or Houfy's information handling practices, you may email us at the email addresses provided in the relevant sections above or contact us via mail at: info@houfy.com

Houfy, Inc., Legal Department, PO Box 38742, Colordao Springs, CO 80937 USA

Privacy Policy - Houfy