Legal
Privacy Policy
Last updated: [LAST UPDATED DATE]
This privacy policy explains how [BUSINESS LEGAL NAME] (“we”, “us”, “our”), operating the Victoria Real Estate website at victoriarealestate.ca, collects, uses, and protects personal information you provide through this website. We are committed to handling your information in accordance with British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and the principles of openness, accountability, and minimum necessary collection.
1. What we collect
We collect personal information you actively give us through forms on this site. Specifically:
- Contact details — your name, email address, and (if you provide it) phone number.
- Inquiry content — the property you're asking about, any message you write, and whether your request is a listing inquiry or a valuation request.
- Address you ask us to value — when you request a home valuation, the address (and optionally city, postal code, and basic property attributes) you submit.
- Technical metadata — your IP address, browser type, and timestamps of requests. These are kept short-term for rate-limiting, abuse prevention, and basic operational logging.
We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under the age of majority in British Columbia.
2. How we use your information
We use the information you give us to:
- Respond to your inquiry about a specific property — by email or phone, as you've invited us to.
- Prepare and deliver the home valuation you requested.
- Send you follow-up information about the property or valuation you asked about, where it is reasonable to expect we would do so.
- Operate, secure, and improve this website — for example, preventing abuse of our forms or diagnosing technical issues.
3. We do not sell your data
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their marketing. We do not place your contact details into ad-network audiences.
4. How we store and protect it
Information you submit is stored in databases we operate, hosted by reputable cloud providers, with reasonable technical and organizational safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the data — including encryption in transit (HTTPS) and access controls on the systems that hold it. Only people who need your information to respond to you have access to it.
No method of transmission or storage is ever perfectly secure. If we ever become aware of a privacy breach that creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will notify you and the appropriate authorities as required by law.
5. Lawful basis for collection
Under PIPA, we collect, use, and disclose personal information with your consent — which you give us when you submit a form asking us to respond to you. The purpose of collection (responding to your inquiry or providing the valuation you asked for) is limited to what is reasonable for that purpose.
6. Your rights
You have the right to:
- Access — ask us what personal information we hold about you.
- Correct — ask us to fix information that is inaccurate.
- Delete — ask us to delete your personal information, subject to any legal or regulatory retention obligations we may have.
- Withdraw consent — ask us to stop using your information for the purposes you originally agreed to.
- Unsubscribe — opt out of any non-transactional follow-up communication at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, email us at [CONTACT EMAIL]. We will respond within 30 days as required by PIPA.
7. Retention
We keep your information only as long as is reasonably needed for the purpose it was collected for, or as required by applicable real estate, tax, or regulatory record-keeping obligations. Inactive leads with no follow-up activity are reviewed periodically and deleted when retention no longer serves a legitimate purpose.
8. Cookies and analytics
This site uses minimal cookies — primarily functional cookies required for the site to work properly. We may use privacy-aware analytics to understand how visitors use the site in aggregate. We do not use third-party advertising cookies or cross-site tracking pixels.
9. Listing data and third-party sources
Property listings shown on this website are sourced through the Canadian Real Estate Association's Data Distribution Facility (CREA DDF®) and from real estate board feeds (Matrix). That data is provided to us for the purpose of displaying listing information; CREA and the relevant boards remain the source of record. Their terms and privacy practices govern that data.
10. Brokerage information
Real estate services referenced on this site are provided through Real Broker B.C. Ltd., the licensed brokerage. Where regulatory or trust-related obligations require additional record-keeping (for example, identity verification under the Real Estate Services Act or anti-money-laundering rules), that brokerage data handling is governed by Real Broker B.C. Ltd.'s own policies in addition to this one.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top. Material changes that affect how we use information you've already given us will be communicated to you directly where reasonably possible.
12. Contact us
Questions, requests, or complaints about how we handle your personal information can be sent to:
[BUSINESS LEGAL NAME]
[MAILING ADDRESS]
[CONTACT EMAIL]
If we are unable to resolve your concern, you have the right to contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia (oipc.bc.ca).