Privacy notice
This notice explains what personal information is collected when you visit the RentFairly website or join the early-access list, and how it is used. If anything here is unclear, email us and we'll be happy to explain it.
Who is responsible for your information
RentFairly is a trading name of Rand Irons. His trading address is Bowden House, 36 Northampton Road, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, LE16 9HE.
Rand is the data controller for the early-access list. This means he is responsible for how the personal information described in this notice is used.
Rent Fairly Ltd is being set up. When that happens, the company will take over the early-access list and become responsible for your information in Rand's place.
This will not change how your information is used. It will remain the same list, used for the same reason and under the same wording you agreed to. If that ever changes, we'll explain what is changing and ask for your consent where needed.
We'll update this notice before the handover and explain the change in the first email sent by Rent Fairly Ltd.
If you do not want to stay on the early-access list after the company takes over, you can unsubscribe or email us. Either way we stop emailing you, and we keep only the minimum records explained under "How long we keep it".
If you have a question about this notice or your personal information, email us at enquiries@rentfairly.co.uk.
What we collect
When you visit the site, our website host, Vercel, receives ordinary technical information such as your IP address and which pages were requested. It may keep this information in service logs. We explain how and why this information is used under "Who else sees it".
When you join the early-access list, we collect:
- your email address
- the consent wording you agreed to, which version of that wording it was, and the date and time you agreed
- whether you also ticked the optional box to receive occasional updates, including the wording shown and the date you agreed
- where available, the page you came from and any campaign tags in the link you used
We do not ask for your name, address, rent or anything about your tenancy. There is no account to create.
Joining the list is entirely up to you. No law or contract requires you to give us your email address. If you would rather not, the only consequence is that we cannot tell you when early access opens.
Why we collect it
We use your information for the following reasons.
To tell you when early access opens
We use your email address to let you know when early access opens.
We rely on your consent to do this, including under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 for the email itself.
To welcome you to the list
When you sign up, we send you one short welcome email so you know we have received your request. There is nothing in it you need to click: you are on the list as soon as the form says so.
We rely on our legitimate interests in acknowledging signup requests and keeping the early-access list accurate. This is a service message and does not include occasional updates or other marketing.
To send occasional updates
If you also tick the optional box to receive occasional updates, we'll email you from time to time about RentFairly. This may include what the report can do, changes to the service and news that affects renters in England.
This is a separate consent. You only join the updates list if you tick that box.
Unsubscribing stops the emails from both lists, including the one telling you early access has opened. It does not stop us replying if you write to us.
To understand where signups come from
Where available, we record the page or link you came from and any campaign tags included in that link. This helps us understand which of our own posts are bringing people to the website.
We rely on our legitimate interests in understanding which of our promotional activity works.
We delete this information when you come off the early-access list, or sooner if you object to us using it.
To keep a record of your signup
We keep a record of your email address, the wording and version shown to you, and the date and time you submitted the form.
This allows us to show when and how you joined the list and what you agreed to. We do not use this record for analytics or to build a profile about you.
To respond when you contact us
If you email us, we keep your message, your email address and anything you attach for as long as we need to deal with your enquiry. We may then keep it for up to 12 months after the last message, in case the matter comes up again.
We rely on our legitimate interests in answering people who contact us and keeping an appropriate record of that correspondence.
Email activity
Emails sent through Brevo may contain a small tracking image and tracked links. Brevo may record when an email is opened or a link is clicked.
We do not use this information to profile you or decide which emails you receive.
We do not use your information to make automated decisions about you or to build a profile about you.
Who else sees it
We use a small number of service providers to run the website and early-access list.
Brevo stores the list and sends emails on our behalf. Brevo is operated by Sendinblue SAS in France.
Brevo keeps a record of the emails it sends for us, so that a delivery problem can be looked into: which address an email went to, when it was sent, and whether it arrived, bounced or was refused. This covers the emails we send you one at a time, such as the welcome email. We have set these to be deleted after one month, and Brevo is set never to keep a copy of what the emails said.
Some emails go to everybody on the list at once rather than to one person, such as the occasional updates and the one telling you early access is open. For those, Brevo records which address each email went to and whether it arrived.
Under Brevo's standard policy these records have no automatic expiry while our account holds fewer than 10 million email events. Above that, events older than 24 months are normally deleted automatically.
Unsubscribing does not delete this history, because it marks your address rather than removing your contact. So where we keep your contact, either because you are on the updates list or to respect your unsubscribe, this history can outlast the 24 months we keep your signup record for. Deleting a contact removes its information, including its history, from our Brevo account.
Vercel hosts the website. Like any website host, its servers receive ordinary technical information when someone visits the site. This may include an IP address and the pages requested, and Vercel may record this information in service logs.
These logs are used to protect the website, find faults and keep it running. We rely on our legitimate interests in operating and protecting the website. On our hosting plan Vercel keeps its runtime logs for one day. Vercel may hold other service and security records for its own periods.
When you submit the signup form, your information passes through Vercel's servers on its way to Brevo. Vercel is a US company.
Petal & Code Ltd built the website and may see the early-access list while working on it. Its access will end when that work does.
Microsoft provides the Exchange Online service used for the enquiries mailbox. If you email us, your message and anything you attach will be held there.
Where these organisations handle personal information for us, written data protection terms require them to protect it and limit how they may use it. They may use approved suppliers of their own and may keep limited service, account or security information where the law allows.
We do not sell your information or share it with landlords or letting agents.
We'll only share it with the service providers described here, as part of the proposed transfer to Rent Fairly Ltd, or where the law requires us to do so.
Where your information is held
Brevo stores the early-access list on servers in the European Economic Area, or EEA. The UK recognises the EEA as providing an adequate level of protection for personal information.
Some of our other suppliers, or suppliers they use, may handle information outside the UK and the EEA. This includes Vercel, which is a US company.
Where your information is transferred abroad, our contracts with those suppliers use safeguards approved by the UK for international transfers. For Vercel this is the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, used with the Standard Contractual Clauses.
Email us if you would like more information about these safeguards, including how to obtain a copy where one is available.
How long we keep it
We keep your email address on the early-access list until we have sent you the email saying early access is open. We'll take it off the list within 30 days of sending that email.
Unsubscribing before then is not the same thing and is quicker: it stops the emails straight away, and your address stays on the list marked as one that must not be emailed. "When you unsubscribe" below explains what is then kept and for how long.
If early access has not opened within 24 months of the day you joined, we'll take your email address off the early-access list instead of contacting you after such a long gap, and delete your signup record. If you are not on any other list of ours, your email address is deleted too.
If you join again while you are still on the list, the 24 months runs from the most recent time you agreed rather than the first. We keep the date of your first agreement as the record of it, and the later date is the one that decides when your address is deleted.
If you also ticked the optional box to receive occasional updates, your email address will be held on a separate updates list, and we will send those emails until you unsubscribe or we close the list.
Clearing the early-access list after launch is scheduled housekeeping rather than an unsubscribe, so it does not stop the updates emails. Unsubscribing is what stops those, and it stops the early-access emails at the same time.
Your signup record
After you come off the early-access list, we may keep the minimum record of your signup. This includes:
- your email address
- the wording and version shown to you
- the date and time you agreed
We rely on our legitimate interests in keeping this record so that we can answer any later question or complaint about the emails we sent you.
We keep it until 24 months after the email announcing that early access has opened.
If you unsubscribe, the 24 months runs from the date we record your unsubscribe instead. That is true whether you unsubscribe before that email or after it. We read unsubscribes from our email provider at a daily check, so the date we record is the date of the next check after you unsubscribe.
If early access never opens and you have not unsubscribed, the signup record is deleted 24 months after your most recent signup agreement, at the same time as your address comes off the early-access list.
When you unsubscribe
Clicking unsubscribe in any of our emails stops the emails from both lists: the early-access list and, if you joined it, the occasional updates list. That includes the email telling you early access has opened.
Our email provider records this by marking your address as one that must not be emailed, rather than by taking it off each list. The effect is the same: nothing further is sent to you. Your address is then removed or reduced to a suppression record as described below.
It does not stop us replying if you write to us. Those are answers to you, not marketing.
We may keep the minimum signup record for the period explained above. We also keep a suppression record. This is your email address, the date we record your unsubscribe, and the dates of the last email announcing that early access has opened and of your removal from the list. We add nothing else to it.
Our email provider keeps its own record of the emails it sent to your address, and that stays with your contact. It is described under "Who else sees it".
We keep this record for as long as RentFairly sends marketing emails. This makes sure your choice continues to be respected and prevents your address from being added again by mistake.
We rely on our legal obligations and legitimate interests in keeping this suppression record.
Cookies
This site sets no cookies of its own.
It does not use third-party analytics, advertising pixels, external fonts or scripts loaded from other companies.
Our website host may set a short-lived cookie if it needs to check that a visitor is not part of an automated attack. It remembers that your browser passed that check, so you are not asked again. We do not read it, and it is not used for advertising or analytics.
The referral and campaign information described above is recorded without using cookies. There is nothing to accept or reject, so the site does not need a cookie banner.
If this changes when the full RentFairly service launches, we'll update this notice and ask for consent where required.
Your rights
Data protection law gives you rights over your personal information. Depending on the circumstances, you can ask us to:
- show you what information we hold about you and give you a copy
- correct information that is wrong or incomplete
- delete your information
- stop using it, or pause what we do with it while a question is being resolved
- give you information you provided in a form a computer can read, or send it to another organisation
- object where we rely on our legitimate interests to use your information
This includes the right to object to the proposed company transfer or to our keeping the referral information, signup record, suppression record or correspondence described in this notice.
If you object, we'll consider your request and explain our decision. If you object to us keeping the referral information, we'll delete it.
You can withdraw your consent at any time. It must be as easy to withdraw as it was to give.
You can email us to withdraw your consent. Our emails will also include an unsubscribe link where appropriate.
Withdrawing your consent does not make anything we did before you withdrew it unlawful.
You will not normally have to pay to use your rights. We'll respond without undue delay and normally within one month, although the law allows longer in some circumstances.
If you want to complain
If you think we have handled your information badly, email us at enquiries@rentfairly.co.uk. Tell us what has happened.
We'll acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it without undue delay, keep you informed and tell you the outcome.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, whether or not you have contacted us first.
Visit ico.org.uk or call 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this notice
We may update this notice as the website develops into the full RentFairly service. Every version is numbered and dated, so you can tell which one you are reading.
If we change how we use your information, we'll update this page. If the change is important or affects you, we'll also let you know by email.
If you need anything else, email us at enquiries@rentfairly.co.uk.