1. Introduction

This privacy policy is operated by We are Found Ltd, whose registered office and trading address is at Second Floor, Northern Assurance Building, 9-21 Princess Street, Manchester M2 4DN (“we”, “us”, “our” or “Found”) (“Privacy Policy”). Any reference to “you” or “your” means you as a customer of our products and/or as a user of our website at www.wearefound.co.uk “Website”).

This Privacy Policy sets out how your personal data (meaning any information about you which is personally identifiable like your name, address, telephone number or e-mail address, generally referred to throughout this Privacy Policy as “personal data”) will be stored and used when you use our Website, express an interest in and/or purchase property from us and/or receive associated services or otherwise contact us by telephone, SMS, direct mail, e-message or the like or in person.  Please read this Privacy Policy carefully, together with any other privacy policy or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy policy supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

This Privacy Policy only applies to the collection of your personal data by us and the use of that personal data by us and those whom we authorise.  It does not cover any third-party websites to which we may provide links, nor does it cover advertisers.  They may have their own privacy policies and/or terms and conditions of use.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Our Website is not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

For the purpose of UK data protection laws, we are a data controller.

By accessing and continuing to use the Website, you accept the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Should you wish to contact Found at any time with regards to this Privacy Policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights as set out in sections 7 and 8, please use the contact details in section 16 below.

2. What information do we hold about you and how is it collected?

We are committed to respecting your privacy. We aim to minimise the use of your personal data.

Information you give us.

We may collect and process the following data about you:

• Details regarding our properties you express an interest in through our Website or in person and of the fulfilment of any purchases or leases;

• Information that you provide via our Website or when entering into any contractual documentation with us, such as your name, address, telephone number, and email address. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use and lease properties displayed on our Website;

• if you contact us by phone, e-mail or otherwise, we may keep a record of that correspondence;

• we may also ask you to complete surveys/feedback forms that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them;

• details of your visits to our Website, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data and other communication data.

Information we collect about you

We may collect information about the device you are using to access the Website, including where available, your IP address, operating system and browser type, device information and technical information, for system administration and to report aggregate information to Found. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns and does not identify any individual.

We may operate CCTV and other surveillance systems in (and around) our developments, which capture images of you. We may be able to identify you from the CCTV data. We will only use this data to prevent, detect, deter and report on crime, to protect buildings and assets from crime, to protect the health and safety of customers, prospective customers, staff and other visitors and/or to assist with criminal investigations and support law enforcement bodies.

We use CCTV systems in this way for our legitimate interests (to prevent and detect crime), to comply with legal or regulatory obligations (to law enforcement bodies) and/or to protect the vital interests of you or another individual.

Data from CCTV cameras will not be retained indefinitely but will be permanently deleted once there is no reason to retain the recorded information. Exactly how long images will be retained will vary according to the purpose for which they are being recorded. For example, where images are being recorded for crime prevention purposes or requested by a law enforcement body, data will be kept by them for as long as they need it. In all other cases, recorded images will be kept for no longer than 90 (ninety) days. We will maintain a comprehensive log of when data is deleted.

Information we receive from other sources

We may receive information about you from third parties when you use the Website or as part of any potential or actual purchase, including sales agents, managing agents, new build warranty providers, our identity, anti-money laundering and/or credit checking providers, other business partners, sub-contractors, advertising networks, analytics providers, hosting providers and search information providers.

In addition, in common with many other online services, we may use “cookies” or other devices to store and sometimes track information about you (see section 13 below).

Special categories of personal data

We do not generally process any special categories of personal data, meaning personal data revealing:

• racial or ethnic origin;

• political opinions;

• religious or philosophical beliefs or trade union membership;

• genetic or biometric data that uniquely identifies you 

• data concerning your health, sex life or sexual orientation.

Nor do we collect data relating to criminal convictions or offences or related security measures.

However, we may process certain special categories of personal data and/or information about criminal offences in the event you:

• Seek to lease a property built for disabled people. We are obliged by planning conditions and building regulations at a number of our developments to sell or let a set number of plots suitable for disabled people;

• Have an accident in or near one of our developments that is captured by CCTV and/or then logged in our accident record book;

• Are involved in carrying out criminal activity that is captured on one of our CCTV systems; and

• Include such information in your CV, which you (or a third party) send to us about employment opportunities with us.

Generally, we will require your explicit consent to process such special categories of data. Otherwise, we may need to process such personal data to protect your vital interests if you are incapable of consent or to comply with specific laws requiring us to collect such personal data.

We do not use your personal data to carry out automated decision-making.

3. Use of Information

We will use the information about you for the following purposes:

• To process and deal with your request or enquiry and any complaints made by or against you;

• to enter into contracts with you and carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including to process the lease of property to you as requested and to manage the buildings and estate;

• to deal with and progress your registration of interest form;

• for internal record keeping;

• to monitor, support, improve and develop our products and services and to monitor, develop and improve the Website and your experience;

• to contact you directly or by one of our appointed agents by e-mail, phone or mail;

• to notify you of products, information or services which we feel may be of interest to you, where you have consented to be contacted, or there is a legitimate interest for us to contact you for such purposes;

• to ensure that content from our Website is presented in the most effective manner for you and the device you are using to access the Website;

• to make the Website more secure, and to administer our Website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes; and/or

• investigate any suspected breach of the Terms of Use or the breach of other terms and conditions otherwise relating to you and monitor compliance or to prevent or detect fraud.

We may (depending upon what you have requested us to do) share your personal data on a need-to-know basis with the following parties to progress your request:

• our enquiry line;

• our customer service team;

• our marketing, sales and/or managing agents. Our sales agents will need to share your personal data with various third parties that provide identity, anti-money laundering and/or credit checking services solely in connection with your prospective purchase of property from us;

• our property management contractors or agents and our new build warranty provider;

• our service providers acting as processors who provide IT, software and system administration services;

• your advisors or authorised legal or mortgage representatives;

• our payment system provider; and/or

• our staff, officers, professional advisers and other third parties who act for us for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy or for other purposes approved by you.

In other certain limited circumstances, Found may disclose your personal data to third parties:

• If Found or substantially all of its assets are acquired by or merged with a third party or enter into a joint venture, in which case personal data held by Found about its customers or prospective customers will be one of the transferred or disclosed assets. In each case, the legal basis on which we process data in these circumstances is our legitimate interest to ensure our business can be continued by a purchaser or the merged entity. If you object to our use of personal data in this way, the relevant buyer of our business or merged entity may not be able to provide goods and/or services to you;

• if Found are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms and conditions and other agreements, for tax or other purposes, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Found, our customers, or others; or to investigate or prevent a crime, suspected or actual fraud or tax evasion;

• to any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006, and / or

• to obtain any professional advice.

We may also pass aggregate information on the usage of our Website to third parties, but this will not include information that can be used to identify you.

Information for marketing purposes

Where you have consented to us using your personal data for marketing purposes, we may use your information to conduct marketing and data analysis or to send you updates and news concerning Found and its business partners, which may be of interest to you. Where we have processed your personal data to provide you with marketing communications with consent, we may contact you at least every twelve (12) months to ensure you are happy to continue receiving such communications.

If at any time after you have consented to us using your information for marketing purposes and you wish us to stop using your information for these purposes, please email us using the contact form on our website or use the unsubscribe link displayed on every marketing email. Your personal data will be removed from our marketing lists but will be added to a “do not contact” list, and you may still receive messages for other purposes (such as providing services to you).

Marketing Automation

We use a marketing automation platform to send our marketing. By submitting your details to our Newsletter sign-up, you acknowledge that the information you provide will be transferred to a third party for processing in accordance with their Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

As advised above, you can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us or by contacting us using the contact form on our website.

4. Grounds for processing personal data

To process your personal data lawfully, we need to rely on one or more valid legal grounds. The grounds we may rely upon include:

• to be able to enter into and perform the contract for the sale of goods and/or services you have requested from us. If you do not wish to provide us with your personal data in this way, you will be unable to purchase property and/or associated services from us;

• your consent to particular processing activities. For example, where you have consented to us using your information for marketing purposes;

• our legitimate interests as a business (except where your interests or fundamental rights override these). For example, it is within our legitimate interests to use your data to prevent or detect fraud or abuses of our Website, provide you with the best customer experience we can, ensure our business can be continued by a purchaser, or

• our compliance with a legal obligation to which Found is subject. For example, we have a duty to investigate and respond to complaints made against us and may need to process your personal data as part of such investigation.

The legal basis for processing any (if any) data regarding your disability (see section 2 above) is that it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, as we would need to verify you are disabled so that we comply with our planning conditions and building regulations when selling or letting wheelchair accessible plots.

5. Disclosure of your personal data

There are circumstances where we may wish to disclose or are compelled to disclose your personal data to third parties. This will only take place in accordance with the applicable law or regulation and for the purposes listed above. These scenarios include disclosure:

• to our subsidiaries, branches or associated offices;

• to our outsourced service providers or suppliers to facilitate the provision of our services, for example, the disclosure to any real estate agents of your contact details where you indicate that you are interested in a particular development;

• to third-party service providers and consultants to protect the security or integrity of our business, including our databases and systems and for business continuity reasons;

• to another legal entity, on a temporary or permanent basis, for the purposes of a joint venture, collaboration, financing, sale, merger, reorganisation, change of legal form, dissolution or similar event. In the case of a merger or sale, your personal data will be permanently transferred to a successor company;

• to legal advisors who may need to manage or litigate a claim;

• to public authorities where we are required by law or regulation to do so, and

• to any other third party set out in 3 above or where you have provided your consent.

6. Period of storage

We will keep your details on record until we have completed dealing with your request, enquiry or transaction and then for a reasonable period afterwards, in accordance with applicable data protection legislation in the United Kingdom. We do not share personal data with third parties except as necessary to carry out our business or your request or as required by law, regulation or other legal processes or as set out in section 3 above – we never sell personal data. By submitting data electronically, you are providing consent to the transmission of data collected via our Website, as stated above.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Where you lease a property from us, we will generally retain your data for a period of the later of (i) no less than 12 (twelve) years after the lease began as new properties we operate come with a ten year new build home warranty and (ii) six (6) years after the last services were performed, to ensure that we can assist you should you have any questions or feedback in relation to the property and/or services or to protect, or to defend our legal rights. However, we will process certain of your personal data for the duration of any lease we grant you and a short period thereafter.

7. Your rights under UK data protection legislation

You have the right to object to us processing your personal data where we are processing personal data:

• based on our legitimate interests (as set out above). If you ask us to stop processing your personal data on this basis, we will stop processing your personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling grounds as to why the processing should continue in accordance with data protection laws and regulations and

• for direct marking purposes. If you ask us to stop processing your personal data on this basis, we will stop.

In each case, please do so by making contact with us directly (please see section 16 below).

8. Your other rights with regard to your personal data

Data protection law provides individuals with certain rights, including the right to access, rectify, withdraw consent, erase, restrict, transport, and object to the processing of their personal data. Individuals also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant information protection authority if they believe that their personal data is not being processed in accordance with the law. Further information about your rights is set out below:

Right of access. You have the right to receive confirmation as to whether your personal data is being processed by us, as well as various other information relating to our use of your personal data. You also have the right to access your personal data, which we are processing. You can exercise this right by making contact with us directly (please see section 16 below).

Right to rectification. You may request that we rectify any inaccurate and/or complete any incomplete personal data, including by means of providing a supplementary statement. If we disagree and believe the information to be accurate and complete, we will advise you and include a notation on the record that you dispute the information’s accuracy. Requests for corrections or supplements to all other personal data should be made to us via the contact form on our website, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.  We will respond to your request to correct or supplement your personal data within a reasonable time period and, in any event, within any time period specified in relevant laws and regulations.

Right to restriction. You have the right to restrict our processing of your personal data where:

• the accuracy of the personal data is being contested by you;

• the processing by us of your personal data is unlawful, but you do not want the relevant personal data erased;

• we no longer need to process your personal data for the agreed purposes, but you want to preserve your personal data for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or

• we are processing your data on the basis of our legitimate interest (as set out above), and you:

• object to our processing on the basis of our legitimate interest in the first bullet of section 7 above; and

• want processing of the relevant personal data to be restricted until it can be determined whether our legitimate interest overrides their legitimate interest.

Where any exercise by you of your right to restriction determines that our processing of particular personal data is to be restricted, we will then only process the relevant personal data in accordance with your consent and, in addition, for storage purposes and the purpose of legal claims.

Right to withdraw consent. You may, as permitted by law, withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data at any time. Such withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on your previous consent. Please note that if you withdraw your consent, you may not be able to benefit from certain service features for which the processing of your personal data is essential.

Right to object to processing. You may, as permitted by law, request that we stop processing your personal data where our processing is based on our legitimate interests or carrying out a task in the public interest. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling, legitimate grounds to process your information, which overrides your rights and freedoms.

Right to data portability. You have the right to receive the personal data you have provided us in a structured, standard, machine-readable format and the right to transmit such personal data to another controller where we process such personal data based on consent or performance of a contract.

Right to erasure. You may request that we erase your personal data, which we are processing where one of the following grounds applies:

• the processing is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which your personal data was collected or otherwise processed;

• our processing of your personal data is based on your consent; you have subsequently withdrawn your consent, and there is no other legal ground we can use to process your personal data;

• you object to the processing of your personal data as set out in the first bullet of section 7 above, and we have no overriding legitimate interest in our processing;

• the personal data have been unlawfully processed; and

• the erasure is required for compliance with a law to which we are subject.

We will comply, unless there is a lawful reason for not doing so.

Exercising your rights. If you wish to exercise any of your rights set out above, please contact us directly (please see section 16 below).

Your right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority. We would appreciate it if you contact us with any questions or if you have a complaint in relation to how we process your personal data. However, you do have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office, the supervisory authority for data protection issues in England and Wales (www.ico.org.uk).

No fee is usually required. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you.  We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally, it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.