How we use your personal data
Our primary purpose in collecting your personal data is to provide you with the services you requested and those which we believe will optimize your use of the Site. You agree that we may use for personal data for the following purposes:
- For the services or support you request;
- To contact you from time to time with critical user or service updates;
- To send other messages that are useful to the service we provide on the Site;
- To assist people you have done (or agreed to do) business with. For example if you are an owner and a traveler who has booked or enquired with you needs your details we may pass them on; if you are a traveler and an owner you have booked with needs to contact you we may give them your details;
- To provide personalized, targeted, or location-based content, services, and advertising from us and third parties;
- To promote the services related to the Site or those of the Group and/or our affiliates by email and via social media platforms;
- To compare information for accuracy, and verify it with third parties;
- To provide information and statistics on the responsiveness of owners to enquiries on the Site, to improve travellers’ experience;
- To detect, investigate and prevent activity we think may be potentially illegal, unlawful or harmful and to enforce our Privacy Policy and/or our Terms or any other purpose referenced herein or therein. We collate statistics about site traffic, sales and other commercial information which we pass onto third parties to assist us in improving the services we provide to you. We also use demographic information to tailor the Site and we share that information with third parties so that they can build up a better picture of our customer base and general consumer trends; and
- To help us meet our legal and compliance obligations – for example we may use personal data we hold on you to do background checks, to screen prospective Owners against official lists in the UK and overseas and to do credit checks.
How We May Disclose Your Personal Data
We may disclose your personal data to enforce our policies, to comply with our legal obligations or in the interest of national security, public interest or law enforcement in any country where the HomeAway Group has entities or affiliates. For example, we may respond to a valid request by a law enforcement agency or regulatory or governmental authority. We may also disclose data in connection with actual or proposed litigation, or to protect our property, people and other rights or interests.
We share your information with third parties who help deliver our products and services to you. Examples include hosting our web servers, analysing data, providing marketing assistance, and providing customer service. These companies will have access to your personal information as necessary to perform their functions, but they may not use that data for any other purpose. We will remain responsible for any information shared in this way.
We may also share your personal data with:
- if you opt in to receive information about the opportunities, products, or services of third parties, we supply your contact information to those third parties so they may contact you;
- An Owner if you send them an enquiry through the Site;
- Another user if you have done or may do business with them;
- We may display statistics of usage, such as information related to the responsiveness of owners, in the listings;
- Companies in the HomeAway Group and/or affiliates;
- Other companies we work with to feature all or part of our Owners’ property listings or otherwise provide promotional or other services related to our or HomeAway Group’s business. This might include featuring your listings and photographs on other websites; or
- Any third party you have asked us to share your personal data with – such as Facebook if you have asked us to connect with your Facebook account.
You may have accessed our website through a hyperlink from the website of one of our trading partners. If so, you consent to your personal details and purchase information, including behavioral patterns, being shared with that trading partner in accordance with our contractual relationship with them.
In the unlikely event that we will sold, or some of its assets transferred to a third party, your personal information, as a valuable asset, may also be transferred. Potential purchasers and their advisors may have access to data as part of the sale process. However, use of your personal information will remain subject to this Privacy Policy. Similarly, your personal information may be passed on to a successor in interest in the unlikely event of a liquidation, bankruptcy or administration. Our customer database could be sold separately from the rest of the business, in whole or in a number of parts. It could be that the purchaser’s business is different from ours too.
How Do We Protect Your Personal Information Once We Have It?
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to guard against unauthorised or unlawful processing of your personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, your personal data. While no system is completely secure, we believe the measures implemented by the Site reduce our vulnerability to security problems to a level appropriate to the type of data involved. We have security measures in place to protect our user database and access to this database is restricted internally. However, it remains each user's responsibility:
- To protect against unauthorized access to your use of the Site;
- To ensure no-one else uses the Site while the user's device is logged on to the Site (including by logging on to your device through a mobile, Wi-Fi or share access connection you are using);
- To log off or exit from Site when not using it;
- Where relevant, to keep your password or other access information secret. Your password and log in details are personal to you and should not be given to anyone else or used to provide shared access for example over a network. You should use a password which is unique to your use of the Site – do not use the same password as you use for another site or email account; and
- To maintain good internet security. For example if your email account or Facebook account is compromised this could allow access to your account with us if you have given us those details and/or permitted access through those accounts. If your email account is compromised it could be used to ask us to reset a password and gain access to your account with us. You should keep all of your account details secure. If you think that any of your accounts has been compromised you should change your account credentials with us, and in particular make sure any compromised account does not allow access to your account with us. You should also tell us as soon as you can so that we can try to help you keep your account secure and if necessary warn anyone else who could be affected.
If you have asked us to share data with third party sites, however (such as Facebook) their servers may not be secure. Credit card information is generally stored by our credit card processing partners and we ask them to keep that data secure. We also use third parties to help us optimize our website flow, content and advertising (see below).
Note that, despite the measures taken by us and the third parties we engage, the internet is not secure. As a result others may nevertheless unlawfully intercept or access private transmissions or data.
How long will we keep your personal data?
We will retain your personal data only as long as is necessary for the purposes to which you consent under the Terms and Conditions and this Privacy Policy, or as is required by applicable law, and then we will delete it.
