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Privacy Policy
We, at THE OPEN HOUSE. (“our Brand”) offers via its website (“our Site”) services, products, applications and tools that allow you to contact us to check your property sale and purchase eligibility, mortgage loan eligibility, assist you with the entire process of selling or purchasing a property in Singapore, and other property-related matters.
In order to serve you better, we require information from you and/or your organization, some of which may be considered as personal data or confidential information of your organization respectively. We understand however, the importance of the privacy and security of your information, and we have therefore set out in detail below how we collect and use your information. Kindly review the terms and conditions of our Privacy Policy as follows so that you may be reassured that we take data protection seriously:-
A. Please note that your access and use of our website at www.theopenhouse.sg ("our Site") is subject to our Brand’s website’s Terms of Use (“Terms of Use”), as well as the terms and conditions as set out herein this Privacy Policy. Accordingly, by accessing our Site, you are agreeing to our collection of your information pursuant to this Privacy Policy. Should you disagree with any clause in our Terms of Use and/or this Privacy Policy, please immediately cease your access of our Site.
B. In order for you to maximize the utility of our Site, participate in our blog and/or forum, access our services, utilize our financial tools and applications (collectively “Platform”), take-part in our promotions, receive our marketing materials, newsletters or updates for information and/or promotion regarding our services, products and property or mortgage loan related matters (our newsletters, updates and/or promotions shall be collectively referred to as our “Updates”), your Personal Data (as defined in clause 1.2 below) and/or your Confidential Information (as defined in clause 1.4 below) has to be provided to us, and we will need to keep and use your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information in order to fulfil the purpose for which you have contacted us, subscribed to our Site, Updates and/or services.
For expediency and for compliance with any changes in the law, we reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy in our sole discretion at any time without prior notice to you, and you agree that your continued access our Site and/or desire to receive our Updates constitutes your unconditional acceptance of our amended Privacy Policy. You agree that it is your sole responsibility to keep yourself updated of any amendments by reviewing this Privacy Policy at our Site regularly.
Types of Data Collected
1.1 When you visit our Site, participate in our Platform, use any of our Apps, and/or email us, we collect Personal Data and Anonymised Data. “Apps” refer collectively and individually to the financial tools and applications available on our Site, including but not limited to interest rate indicators, loan analysers, loan eligibility assessments, and loan repayment calculators.
1.2 “Personal Data” refers to information with personal identifiers that can be used separately or collectively to identify an individual, such as name, address, NRIC number, mobile number, email address, birthdate, gender, income range, property ownership, residency status, and credit card details.
1.3 "Anonymised Data" refers to information that is not associated with or linked to your Personal Data and cannot be used to identify individual persons.
1.4 “Confidential Information” refers to sensitive or proprietary information of an organization (incorporation, partnership, or other similar forms of legal entity) that is not available in the public domain, such as the annual turnover of an exempt private company.
2. Collection of Anonymised Data
2.1 We collect Anonymised Data about you when you access or use our App and/or our Site via the application of generally acceptable web technologies including but not limited to "web beacons", "cookies", "clear GIFs", "widgets", "online evaluations", "surveys", “HTML5”, and third-party web analytics such as "Google analytics" (collectively, “Acceptable Technologies”). This automatic collection of non-personal information includes (without limitation) collection of your IP Address, the web browser software that you used, the specific pages of our Site viewed by you, the Apps that you utilise, and third party websites that you may have visited prior to our Site. Our purpose for the aforesaid collection of information is for us to understand the preference of our visitors and users so as to enhance and facilitate the ease with which you are able to access or use our Site.
2.2 As part of the Anonymised Data that we collect, when you access our Site via your mobile device, we will also collect information regarding the type of mobile device that you are utilising so that our Site can provide you with the version of our Site best suited for access via your mobile device.
2.3 If you do not consent to our collection of Anonymised Data, please adjust the settings on your computer, tablet and mobile device to block or disable our use of the Acceptable Technologies. In the event that you choose to access our Site without blocking or disabling or opting out of the Acceptable Technologies, such access by you will constitute your consent to our use of the Acceptable Technologies and our collection of information thereto.
2.4 To better assist you in understanding the generally accepted technology used in our collection of Anonymised Data:-
2.4.1 “IP Address” refers to a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you access the Internet. Under certain circumstances, your IP Address remains the same from browser session to browser session. However, in the event that a consumer Internet access provider is utilized, your IP Address will likely vary from session to session. We track IP Addresses solely in conjunction with session cookies to analyse the flow of webpages on our Site.
2.4.2 “Cookies” refer to small pieces of data that a website or web app sends to your computer’s hard drive or mobile device’s internal storage while you are viewing the said website or utilizing the said web app. Our Site utilizes both session cookies (they expire the moment your Internet browser is closed) and persistent cookies (they will remain in your computer and your mobile device until you actively take steps to delete them) so as to provide you with a more personalized and interactive experience on our website. By changing the options on your Internet browser and adjusting the settings in your mobile device, you can control whether to accept or decline cookies.
2.4.3 “Clear GIFs” refer to clear electronic images that are used to track your opening of webpages on our Site and your pattern of browsing our webpages, for the purpose of allowing us to assess the attractiveness of the content on our Site, and the flow of webpages and layouts that appeal to you. Clear GIFs are also commonly known as "web beacons" and may be included on our Site and our Apps, and generally works in conjunction with cookies to identify users and user behavior. Some of our HTML based emails also utilize Clear GIFs in order for us to assess what are the emails we sent that have been opened and acted upon. Clear GIFs collect only limited data, such as a cookie number, the time and date of when a particular webpage on our Site is accessed, and a description of the webpage on Our Site in which the clear GIF resides. Such collected Anonymized Data helps us to determine the effectiveness of the way our webpages are arranged on Our Site, our modes of communications and promotional campaigns.
2.4.4 "Third-party web analytics" refer to services provided by third party service providers for the assessment, analysis, and measurement and reporting of the behavior of visitors to a website in order to assess and improve the effectiveness of the website. One of the most well-known third-party analytics service is "Google Analytics".
2.4.5 “HTML5 local storage” refer to caching services utilizing primarily a cache manifest file, which allows for storage of your preferences offline which will then be updated and synchronized when you go online.
3. Your Consent to our Collection, Retention and Use of Personal Data and Confidential Information
3.1 In order for our Brand to provide you with our services and products, you agree and consent to our Brand collecting, using and retaining your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information as follows:-
(i) When you sign up for our Updates, participate in our Platform, or you email us with any queries, you will be required to provide us with your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information in order for us to add you to our mailing list, reflect you as a participant on our Platform, or to revert to your queries.
(ii) When you utilise our Apps, your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information will be analysed in order for our Apps to function and generate the reports and/or results for your review.
(iii) When you enquire with us purchasing or selling a property, we will collect your Personal Data (and/or Confidential Information) and disclose such Personal Data (and/or Confidential Information) to relevant real estate or governmental institution(s) for the purpose of assisting you to buy or sell your property.
(iv) When you sign up for any accounts to participate in our Platform, enrol for any membership programme or other promotional campaigns that we provide, we will require your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information in order to keep a record of and provide you with the benefits that accompany our membership programme and/or promotional campaigns. Unless you withdraw from our membership programme or promotional campaigns, or our relevant promotional campaign ends, we will keep your Personal Data for as long as you are still part of our membership programme and/or promotional campaigns (whichever is the later) so that we can provide you with the relevant benefits. In relation to your Confidential Information, we will retain them for as long as we are of the reasonable opinion that your organization may still be interested in our Brand’s services so that our Brand can be expeditious in the provision of our services whenever you should seek our assistance.
(v) When you click on any of our Brand’s Google ads or other internet based advertisements for more information regarding our services or our Site, we collect the Personal Data and/or Confidential Information that you provide in order to follow up with you pertaining to your interest in our services and/or our Site.
3.2 In addition, we will retain your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information where necessary and for such duration as may be required in order for our Brand to comply with applicable laws and regulations, assist in any legal investigations, meet the demands from any regulatory or law enforcement bodies, for utilization in legal proceedings, minimizing fraud, collection of debts, repayment of loans, resolving disputes, identifying issues, enforcing contractual breaches and/or claiming for damages.
4. Disclosure of Personal Data and Confidential Information
4.1 We may need to disclose your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information to:-
i) third party service providers in order for us to facilitate your access to and use of our Site, for us to contact you as you may have requested via our Site, for us to maintain and update your records to ensure that you receive our replies to your queries, for us to follow up on any enquiries, and to provide you with any other perks accompanying your participation in our membership programme and/or promotional campaigns. The aforesaid third party service providers have a contract with us to perform the services necessary for you to use our Site and receive Updates, and such third party service providers therefore include but is not limited to webhost companies, website maintenance companies, mobile applications’ maintenance companies, database storage companies, membership programme service providers, companies that assist to perform mass mailing on our behalf, etc.;
ii) our book-keepers, accounting firms, audit firms, law firms and/or other professional advisory firms who are maintaining our records in accordance with legal requirements;
iii) governmental, regulatory or law enforcement bodies who have a legal right to demand for your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information;
iv) financial institutions, banks, credit bureaus, and other third parties whose services are required in order for you to apply for a mortgage loan or re-financing;
v) credit bureaus, credit rating agencies and fraud preventing companies for the purpose of minimizing fraudulent activities via your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information; and
vi) our affiliated or related companies and/or third parties to whom we may sell, divest, transfer, assign, share or otherwise engage in a transaction that involves, some or all of our Brand’s assets (which may include your Personal Data), in the course of a corporate divestiture, corporate restructuring, merger, acquisition, joint venture, bankruptcy, dissolution, reorganisation, or any other similar transaction or proceeding.
Except as provided above, we do not sell, rent, licence or otherwise disclose your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information to third parties or our affiliated companies. We are careful in our selection of third party service providers, and all such third party service providers as well as our abovementioned affiliated companies are bound by obligations of data protection (pursuant to contracts and/or applicable laws) similar to the obligations herein this Privacy Policy.
5. Transferring Personal Data out of Singapore
5.1 Pursuant to the purposes and activities as set out in sections 2 and 3 above, it may be necessary for us to transfer your Personal Data out of Singapore. You hereby agree and consent to the aforesaid transfer, on the understanding that the recipients of such Personal Data are also subject to applicable laws or contractual obligations similar to the obligations as set out in the Personal Data Protection Act 2012.
6. Accurate and Complete Personal Data and Confidential Information
6.1 In order for us to provide you with access to our Site and all is associated functions, our services, and to perform the activities as set out in sections 2 and 3 above, you warrant that the Personal Data (and/or Confidential Information) that you provide to us is accurate, and that all Personal Data (and/or Confidential Information) as may be relevant for that particular purpose/circumstance has been provided (for example, when seeking to purchase a property, your assets and property ownership must be correctly indicated).
7. Do-Not-Call ("DNC") Provisions and Registries
7.1 We respect your selections in relation to the channels via which you wish to receive our Updates. Therefore, if you have registered your telephone and/or fax number with the Do-Not-Call Registries in relation to telephone calls, text or fax messages, we will not send you any Updates via the channels that you have opted out of by registering with the Do-Not-Call Registries. However, if you have previously consented to our sending you Updates via your telephone number (calls or text messages) and/or facsimile number, we will continue doing so until you withdraw your consent by contacting our Data Protection Officer at hello@theopenhouse.sg.
8. Withdrawal of Consent
8.1 You may at any time withdraw your consent to our use, retention, disclosure or transfer of your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information pursuant to this Privacy Policy by emailing our Data Protection Officer at hello@theopenhouse.sg. However, please note that any such withdrawal of consent may result in us being unable to continue providing our services or fulfilling our contractual obligations with you, including but not limited to termination of your access to our Site, termination of any membership programme benefits that would otherwise have been available to you, inability to provide you with the opportunity to participate in promotions, inability to fulfil any request for developer promotions or mortgage loan applications that you may have submitted to or through our Brand, and inability of the banks to process any mortgage loan or refinancing enquiries or applications that you may have submitted through our Brand. Accordingly, your withdrawal of consent may also lead to the termination of any contract(s) that you may have with our Brand, as well as termination of any mortgage loan or re-financing applications submitted through our Brand or contracts with any financial institutions, for which our Brand expressly reserves its rights and remedies thereto. Our Data Protection Officer will further advise you on the legal consequences that may ensue should you contact her to withdraw your consent.
8.2 Should you wish to unsubscribe to our Updates, please click the "unsubscribe" option made available in our emails to you. Please note however that this may result in our being unable to make available to you updates on our services, your benefits under our membership programme and any ongoing promotions.
9. Access and Correction of Personal Data and Confidential Information
9.1 Should you wish to access, update or make corrections to your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information held with us, or if you wish to receive further clarifications on your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information held with us, please email our Data Protection Officer at hello@theopenhouse.sg.
9.2 There will be no administrative fees or other charges levied for any request to correct or update your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information. However, for all other requests such as accessing your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information held with us, obtaining a record of when you accessed our Site, the date of your requests for developer promotions, best interest rates, applications for loans made to banks, etc., a reasonable administrative fee may be levied depending on your request as time and resources will be spent in accommodating your requests.
9.3 Should you have any queries or complaints pertaining to this Privacy Policy, our Terms of Use, your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information as registered with us, or in relation to our Brand’s use, retention, disclosure or transfer of your Personal Data and/or Confidential Information, or should you desire to learn more about our data protection policies and security measures, please email our Data Protection Officer at hello@theopenhouse.sg.
10. Minors
10.1 Our Site, our Apps and services are not meant for persons who may be defined as minors under applicable law. We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from minors, however, through the internet, we are not able to ascertain on our end whether such individuals are minors. It is thus the responsibility of parents or guardians to ensure that their minors do not access our Site, our Apps or provide us with Personal Data without their parental/guardian's consent. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her minor has accessed our Site or provided us with Personal Data without his/her consent, he or she should contact our Data Protection Officer at hello@theopenhouse.sg promptly. If we become aware that a minor under 18 has provided us with Personal Data without their parent or guardian's consent, we will delete such information from our records.
11. Security Measures for Protection of Personal Data and Confidential Information
11.1 We ensure that our Site is protected by reasonable security measures afforded by current technology, and that all our data hosts and servers are similarly protected by such security measures, including but not limited to firewalls.
11.2 Your Personal Data and Confidential Information is kept securely and protected against unauthorized access and disclosure. We utilize security means such as (without limitation) password protection, encryption, locked and restricted access. We have strict policies in place restricting access to Personal Data and Confidential Information to only our authorized personnel on a need-to-know basis.
11.3 We will take practical steps to ensure that your Personal Data will not be kept longer than as set out herein this Privacy Policy, or for as long as is necessary for fulfilling the purposes for which you have entrusted us with your Personal Data, or as may be required for legitimate business or legal purposes, whichever is the latest.
12. Third Party Sites, Mobile Applications and Social Network Sites
12.1 Our Site may contain hyperlinks to websites or mobile applications operated by third parties. Such third party websites or mobile applications are not governed by our Privacy Policy or Terms of Use. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or data security of such third party websites or mobile applications, even if they are co-branded with our Brand name or logo, or our Site displays products or services that originate from such third parties. As such, we urge you to learn about the privacy policies of these third party websites before accessing or using them, and to be careful about providing any Personal Data and/or Confidential Information to such third party websites or mobile applications. We seek your understanding that we are not liable for any acts or omissions or any loss or damage that you may suffer due to your use or access of such third party websites or mobile applications.
12.2 Our Brand may utilize reputable social media/network sites such as, but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn (collectively the "Social Media Sites") so as to connect to your social networks. In order to generate interest in our Site and services amongst the contacts in your social networks and to allow you to share your interest in our Site and/or our Services, we provide access to our Site to the third party Social Media Sites, and there are links on our Site to such Social Media Sites. The aforesaid association with the Social Media Sites does not constitute any endorsement or recommendation of any of the Social Media Sites by our Brand nor vice versa. As per clause 11.1 above, kindly review the terms of use and privacy policies of the Social Media Sites before you use or access such Social Media Sites in conjunction with our Site or any of our promotions and our services made available via any Social Media Sites.
12.3 The association of our Site with the Social Media Sites makes available certain features which when used by you, may result in information being made available from your accounts with the Social Media Sites to our Brand. Such information which we collect about you shall constitute public information that is available in the general domain because such information was made publicly available by the Social Media Sites. Should you prefer that we do not collect your information from the Social Media Sites, please (i) do not use the features or links that associates our Site with the Social Media Sites; and (ii) adjust the settings in your accounts with the Social Media Sites to prevent the sharing of your information with our Site. Please note that our Brand cannot control nor is our Brand howsoever responsible for the sharing of your information by the Social Media Sites with third parties.
12.4 One of the features which you may see available on our Site in association with the Social Media Sites, is the “like” feature by Facebook, and other similar functions provided by other Social Media Sites. When you “like” our Site or our services, information about our Site and our services will be made known to your network within your Social Media Sites’ accounts via a variety of methods employed by the relevant Social Media Site. Your information may also be made known alongside with our services that you have liked pursuant to the methods/channels made available by Social Media Sites in relation to such features. If you are not agreeable to the aforegoing, please instruct the relevant Social Media Site or adjust your account settings with the Social Media Site. Please note however that we are not obliged to display on our Site or any related webpages (whether on Social Media Sites or otherwise) any of your information, including but not limited to your photo or name, even if you “like” our Site or our services. In the event that any of your information, product or service endorsements (including your liking of our Site or any of our Brand’s services or third party products or services) appear on our Site or any related webpages (whether on Social Media Sites or otherwise), we shall have the right in our sole discretion to remove such information or product/service endorsements from our Site or any related webpages.
13. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
13.1 The terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy are governed by the laws of Singapore. In the event of any disputes arising from this Privacy Policy and your use of our Site, you must first contact our Data Protection Officer at hello@theopenhouse.sg regarding your concern and use your best endeavours to amicably settle any dispute in good faith. We on our part will also use our best endeavours to amicably settle your concerns in good faith. However, if no amicable resolution is reached within 30 days, you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of Singapore.