These terms of service (“Terms") govern your use of (i) the websites idealflatmate.com or idealflatmate.co.uk (the “Site") and (ii) the services we provide from time to time through the Site. Together, we refer to (i) to (ii) as the “Service".

Information about us.

The Service is a technology platform, which allows users (such as you) to sign-up with us to (i) place adverts for rooms on our Site, (ii) take a survey to help us find your ideal flatmate, (iii) search for available rooms advertised by other users on our Site, and/or (iv) message other users of our Site, amongst other things.

We, Ideal Housemate Ltd of Flat 209, Northstand Apartments Highbury Stadium Square, London, England, N5 1FN (“Company", “we", “us" and “our") provide the Service to you on the basis of these Terms.

If you wish to contact us in writing, have a complaint or are required to give us notice in writing, you can send this to us by email at tom@idealflatmate.co.uk. If we have to contact you or give you notice in writing, we will do so by email to any email address you provide to us.

If you need it, our VAT number is 225009248.

Important notices:

Changes to these Terms.

We may change these Terms from time to time by notifying you of such changes by any reasonable means, including by posting a revised version of these Terms through the Site or by emailing you at the address you provided upon registering for an Account.  Any such changes will not apply to any dispute between you and us arising prior to the date on which we posted the revised Terms incorporating such changes, or otherwise notified you of such changes.

Your use of the Service (including the Site) following any changes to these Terms will constitute your acceptance of such changes.  The “Last Updated" legend above indicates when these Terms were last changed. We may, at any time and without liability, modify or discontinue all or part of the Service; charge, modify or waive any fees required to use any part of the Service; or offer opportunities to some or all Service users.

Minimum age requirements.

You confirm that you are of legal age to form a binding contract and hereby agree to be bound by these Terms. You must be at least 16 years of age to use the Service, to sign-up for an Account and to submit any personal data to us through or in connection with your use of the Service.

Accounts.

Account Creation.  In order to use certain features of the Service, including to (i) sign-up to advertise your spare room, (ii) take a survey to help us find your ideal flatmate, (iii) search for all available rooms advertised by other users on our Site, and/or (iv) message other users of our Site, you must register for an account with us (“Account") and provide certain information about yourself as prompted by the Account registration form. We will use any such information in accordance with our Privacy Policy. You agree that you have no ownership or proprietary interest in your Account.

Accurate and up-to-date Information. All the registration information you submit must be truthful, accurate and complete. If for any reason any information you submit becomes untruthful, inaccurate and/or incomplete, you agree that you will update that information on your Account. If any information you provide is or becomes untrue, inaccurate, or incomplete, we have the right to terminate your access to and use of your Account and the Service.

What to do if you want to delete your account.  You can delete your Account at any time, for any reason, by emailing us at tom@idealflatmate.co.uk.

You are responsible for your Account.  You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Account log-in information, including your username and password. You must not share your Account log-in information with any third party. Accordingly, you are responsible for all activities that occur under your Account or through the use of your username and password, including the payment of any deposit or rent, whether or not authorised by you or without your knowledge.

What to do if you become aware of, or suspect, unauthorised use of your Account. You must promptly change your password and notify us by emailing us at tom@idealflatmate.co.ukif you suspect or become aware of any unauthorised use of your Account or any other breach of security.

Prohibition on use of another Account. You may not use anyone else's account or permit anyone else to use your Account for any reason, at any time. You agree that we will not be liable to you for any loss you may incur as a result of someone else using your Account. You also agree that you will be liable for any loss that we or any third party may incur as a result of someone else using your Account, whether or not you were aware of such use.

Account suspension or termination. You agree that we have the right in our sole discretion to refuse to accept your registration and/or to suspend or terminate your access to and use of your Account and the Service (or any part thereof) for any reason at any time.

Fees, Payments and Cancellations

Fees. We do no charge any fees for simply having an account with us. Most features of the Site are also made available free of charge such as browsing for available rooms, searching for compatible flatmates, completing our survey.

Refunds. Refunds will be made only in exceptional circumstances and will be at the discretion of the Company. Refunds will not be offered if a user does not successfully meet a flatmate using the Site.

Posting and responding to adverts

You need to register an Account with us in order to post an advert on the Site. To post an advert on the Site click on www.idealflatmate.co.uk and follow the instructions. By posting an advert on the Site you are confirm and promise to us that: (i) all the information you include in your advert is truthful, accurate and not in any way misleading; (ii) any photos you include in your advert are a current and accurate representation of the room(s) you are advertising; and (iii) all adverts will comply with these Terms, including our Acceptable Use Policy (see the Acceptable Use Policy section below).

You are responsible for the content of any adverts you post to the Site, including any errors, omissions or inaccuracies contained in such adverts. You must ensure that all adverts you post to the Site contain full details of any fees associated with entering into the relevant lodging or tenancy agreement, including any agency fees or deposit that may apply. We accept no liability to you or any other person for the content of any adverts posted on our Site. We advise that you check the content of your advert immediately after posting it to the Site to ensure you are happy with it. You may edit or remove any adverts you have placed on our Site at any time by following the instructions at www.idealflatmate.co.uk

You may contact other users of our Site via the messaging system on our Site. In some cases users who have advertised a room may include their phone number and email, in which case you may contact them directly. Please note that we will not disclose any of our users' contact details or other personal information without the relevant user's permission. We do not routinely monitor communications between users via the messaging system on our Site, but we may use software to track communications and we reserve the right to monitor them in order to investigate any suspected breach of our Terms, any illegal behaviour or any other misuse of our Service, or for any other reasonable reason as determined by us from time to time.

We reserve the right to refuse to list and/or deactivate any adverts or edit any User Content we deem, in our reasonable discretion, to be in violation of these Terms. If we receive any complaints about an advert or user, we reserve the right to temporarily suspend the advert or Account in question while we investigate the matter. After carrying out such an investigation we may terminate your Account if we deem it appropriate to do so in our absolute discretion.

Intellectual Property Rights.

You may use the Service subject to these Terms (including, without limitation the Restrictions and Acceptable Use Policy sections of these Terms).

The Service is protected by and embodies copyrights, trademarks, patents, rights in inventions, design rights, database rights, trade secrets, moral rights, privacy rights, rights of publicity (in each case whether registered or unregistered) and other intellectual property and proprietary rights (together, “Intellectual Property Rights").

You acknowledge that the Service and the Intellectual Property Rights embodied in or relating to it anywhere in the world are and will remain our property and/or the property of our licensors, and that you have no rights in, or to, the Service other than the right to use the Service in accordance with these Terms.

You acknowledge that you have no right to have access to all or any part of the Service in source code form.

We reserve all rights in the idealflatmate.com and idealflatmate.co.uk domain names and all related domains and sub-domains and any other logos, service marks, brand names, trading names and/or trademarks appearing anywhere on the Site and nothing in these Terms should be construed as granting any licence or right to use any of such trademarks or domain names.

We reserve the right to modify, suspend or discontinue the Service and the rights granted to you under these Terms in whole or in part at any time, with or without notice. You agree that we shall not be liable to you or to any third party for such modification, suspension or discontinuation.

Restrictions

Your right to use the Service is subject to the restrictions listed below. Except as expressly set out in these Terms or as permitted by any local law, you undertake:

  1. not to use the Service for any purpose that is fraudulent or otherwise unlawful;
  2. not to interfere with the operation or fair play of the Service and to comply with our Acceptable Use Policy (see the Acceptable Use Policy section below);
  3. not to copy the whole or any part of the Service, except where such copying is incidental to the normal use of the Service for its intended purposes, or where it is necessary for the purpose of back-up or operational security;
  4. not to reproduce, republish, reuse, upload, post, transmit or distribute any content presented in or provided by the Service, including without limitation for public or commercial purposes, including any text, images, audio and video;
  5. not to rent, lease, sub-license, loan, distribute, time-share, translate, merge, adapt, vary or modify the whole or any part of the Service;
  6. not to make alterations to, or modifications of, the whole or any part of the Service, or permit the Service or any part of it to be combined with, or become incorporated in, any other product or service;
  7. not to disassemble, decompile, reverse-engineer, derive any code or algorithms or create derivative works based on the whole or any part of the Service or attempt to do any such thing except to the extent that (by virtue of section 296A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) such actions cannot be prohibited because they are essential for the purpose of achieving inter-operability of the Service with another software program, and provided that the information obtained by you during such activities: (i) is used only for the purpose of achieving inter-operability of the Service with another software program; (ii) is not unnecessarily disclosed or communicated without our prior written consent to any third party; and (iii) is not used to create any software that is substantially similar to the Service;
  8. not to sell, resell, link to, exploit, provide or otherwise make available the whole or any part of the Service (including object and source code), in any form to any person without prior written consent from us;
  9. not to remove any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices from the Service, and to include our copyright notice on any copies you make of the Service on any medium; and
  10. that you are responsible for obtaining and have obtained any and all necessary authorisations, consents and permissions, including from any third party, to the extent that you submit, post, transmit or otherwise process personal data using the Service.

User Content

User Content" means any and all information and content or materials that you submit, post or transmit on or using the Service, including any information, text, images, photos, videos and other material (for example when you post an advert on our Site or when you post a comment on our message boards).  You are solely responsible for your User Content.  You assume all risks associated with use of your User Content, including any reliance on its accuracy, completeness or use by others, or any disclosure of your User Content that personally identifies you or any third party. You agree that you own all User Content that you post and that you do not need any permission from any third party to post your User Content. You agree that you will not misrepresent the source, identity or content of any information sent, posted, transmitted or made available via the Service (such as claiming that you own or created User Content or other work that is not actually yours). You acknowledge that it is your responsibility to ensure that your adverts comply with all applicable laws.

Adverts. You must also ensure that all adverts you post to the Site meet the requirements set out in the Posting and Responding to Adverts section above.

How User Content cannot be used. You confirm and promise to us: that your User Content does not and will not violate our Acceptable Use Policy (see below at the section titled Acceptable Use Policy).  You may not represent or imply to others that your User Content is in any way provided, sponsored or endorsed by us.  Because you alone are responsible for your User Content, you may expose yourself to liability if, for example, your User Content violates the Acceptable Use Policy.

Backing up User Content . We are not obligated to backup any User Content, and your User Content may be deleted at any time without prior notice – accordingly we recommend you store and backup copies elsewhere. You are solely responsible for creating and maintaining your own backup copies of your User Content if you desire.

Licence for us to use your User Content.  So that we can operate the Service, and host and display your User Content you grant (and confirm and promise to us that you have the right to grant) us a licence to reproduce, distribute, publicly display and perform, prepare derivative works of, incorporate into other works, and otherwise use and exploit your User Content on the basis that such licence is:

Moral rights waiver. You hereby irrevocably waive (and agree to cause to be waived) any claims and assertions of moral rights or attribution with respect to your User Content.

Do not send us confidential information in User Content. Please note that the User Content you provide to us or make available on or through the Service will not be treated as confidential information – accordingly, you agree not to submit to us any information or ideas that you consider to be confidential or proprietary. You acknowledge that your communications with other users via the Service are public and not private communications, and that you have no expectation of privacy in respect of such communications. Any personal data you submit on our message boards or other features of the Service may be seen and used by other users. We strongly encourage you not to disclose your personal data via such features. We are not responsible for any information (including personal data) you communicate in this way.

Monitoring. You agree that we have no obligation to monitor User Content that you or any other person provides or makes available on or through the Service. However, you agree that we may in our absolute discretion, monitor, alter, remove or refuse to post any such User Content for any reason. The opinions expressed in User Content reflect solely the opinions of the user and do not necessary reflect our opinions. We are not responsible for the accuracy, truthfulness or completeness of any User Content and we will not be liable to you for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on such User Content.

You are responsible for your relationship with other users of our Site. However, we reserve the right, but are not obliged, to monitor disputes between you and other users.

Acceptable Use Policy.

The following terms constitute our “Acceptable Use Policy":

Protection of our reputation and third party rights. You agree not to use the Service to collect, upload, transmit, display, or distribute any User Content: (a) that is obscene, sexually explicit, offensive, hateful, inflammatory or otherwise objectionable or be defamatory of any person; (b) that is threatening, abusive or invasive of another's privacy or likely to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety; (c) that is likely to harass, upset, embarrass or alarm another person; (d) that promotes discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age; (e) that is intentionally misleading or likely to deceive any person; (f) that impersonates any person or to misrepresents your identity or affiliation with any person; (g) that gives the impression that such User Content emanates from us;  (h) that advocates, promotes, assists or enables any illegal or unlawful activities; (i) that promotes violence or indecent or sexually explicit material; (j) that violates any law, regulation, or obligations or restrictions imposed by any third party; (k) that otherwise exposes any person to any danger of any kind; (l) that disseminates or otherwise discloses another person's personal information without his or her prior permission or collects or solicits another person's personal information for commercial or unlawful purposes.

Protection of our systems. In addition, you agree not to: (i) upload to, transmit, distribute, or otherwise make available through the Service any computer viruses, worms, trojan horse, time bomb, spyware, robots, bots, spiders or other computer code, file or program that is or is potentially harmful or invasive or intended to damage or hijack the operation of, or to monitor the use of, any computer system, hardware, software, equipment or data; (ii) send through the Service unsolicited or unauthorised advertising, promotional materials, junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of duplicative or unsolicited messages, whether commercial or otherwise; (iii) use the Service to harvest, collect, gather or assemble information or data regarding other users, including email addresses or passwords, without their consent or otherwise systematically download and store Site content; (iv) use any features of the Service for anything other than their intended purpose, including exploiting any glitches for personal gain; (v) interfere with, disable, disrupt, or create an undue burden on servers or networks connected to the Service, or violate the regulations, policies or procedures of such networks; (vi) attempt to gain unauthorized access or provide automated access to or use of the Service (or to other computer systems or networks connected to or used together with the Service); or (vii) assist, permit or encourage any person to perform any of the activities described above.

How might we enforce these Terms of Use if you violate them?  We reserve the right (but have no obligation) to review any User Content, and to investigate and/or take appropriate action against you if you violate the Acceptable Use Policy or any other provision of these Terms or otherwise create liability for us or any other person. The action we take will be determined by us acting in our sole discretion. Examples of action that we might take could include: removing or modifying your User Content, terminating these Terms and your Account and/or reporting you to law enforcement authorities or relevant rightsholder.

Feedback.

If you provide us with any feedback or suggestions regarding the Service (“Feedback"), you hereby transfer to us all rights in such Feedback. You also agree that we shall have the right to use and fully exploit such Feedback and related information in any manner we consider appropriate. 

Do not send us confidential information in Feedback. Please note that the Feedback you provide to us will not be treated as confidential information – accordingly, you agree not to submit to us any information or ideas that you consider to be confidential or proprietary.

Other users.

You agree to treat all other users courteously and lawfully. You agree not to behave in any interaction with another user in any way: (a) that is obscene, sexually explicit, offensive, hateful, inflammatory or otherwise objectionable or defamatory of any person; (b) that is threatening, abusive or invasive of another's privacy or likely to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety; (c) that is likely to harass, upset, embarrass or alarm another person; (d) that promotes discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age; (e) that is intentionally misleading or likely to deceive any person; (f) that impersonates any person or to misrepresents your identity or affiliation with any person; (g) that advocates, promotes, assists or enables any illegal or unlawful activities; (h) that promotes violence or indecent or sexually explicit material; (i) that violates any law, regulation, or obligations or restrictions imposed by any third party; (j) that otherwise exposes any person to any danger of any kind.

Third Party Services.

Third Party Links & Ads.  The Service may make available access to information, products, services and other materials made available by third parties, including links to third party websites and services, and/or display advertisements for third parties (collectively, “Third Party Links & Ads"). By using such functionality, you are directing us to access, route and transmit to you the applicable Third Party Links & Ads.

Where the Service contains links to Third Party Links & Ads, these links are provided for your information and convenience only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources. We do not review, approve, endorse, control or make any promises with respect to Third Party Links & Ads, including the accuracy, validity, timeliness, completeness, reliability, integrity, quality, legality, usefulness or safety of Third Party Links & Ads, or any intellectual property rights therein.  Certain Third Party Links & Ads may, among other things, be inaccurate, misleading or deceptive. Nothing in these Terms shall be deemed to be a representation or warranty by us with respect to any Third Party Links & Ads.  We have no obligation to monitor Third Party Links & Ads, and we may block or disable access to any Third Party Links & Ads (in whole or part) through the Service at any time.  In addition, the availability of any Third Party Links & Ads through the Service does not imply our endorsement of, or our affiliation with, any provider of such Third Party Links & Ads.

You use Third Party Links & Ads at your own risk. You use all Third Party Links & Ads at your own risk, and should apply a suitable level of caution and discretion in doing so. When you click on any of the Third Party Links & Ads, the applicable third party's terms and policies (including terms of use and privacy policies) apply, not these Terms.

Disclaimer.

The Services are provided “as is" and, to the extent permitted by applicable law, we, and our directors, officers, employees, agents, representatives, licensors and third party providers, exclude all representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the functions contained in the Site will be uninterrupted or error free, that defects will be corrected or that the Site or its content are free of viruses or other harmful components.

Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you acknowledge and agree that any rooms, flats, houses, properties or tenancy arrangements are provided by our users and not by us. We have no control over, nor accept any responsibility or liability for, any such arrangements or issues you may encounter with them.
We do not inspect any of the properties or rooms that feature in adverts on our Site. We strongly advise you to inspect properties thoroughly before you make any binding commitments in respect of any properties or rooms listed on our Site.

The information made available on the Site, whether posted by us or by any other users, is provided for information purposes only. We cannot guarantee that any adverts or other information provided on the Site will be correct, accurate, up-to-date or meet your needs or requirements. The information provided on the Site is not intended to be professional or legal advice of any kind and should not be relied on as such. Any reliance you place on any materials or information made available on the Site is entirely at your own risk. Such information is also subject to change at any time without notice.

Nothing in these Terms is intended to disclaim or exclude any warranty or liability that cannot be disclaimed or excluded by operation of applicable law.

Availability.

We reserve the right, temporarily or permanently, in whole or in part, to modify, suspend or discontinue the Service without notice for valid commercial reasons without liability to you. Without limitation to the preceding sentence, we may periodically schedule system downtime for maintenance and other purposes.

You also acknowledge that unplanned system outages may occur. The Site is provided over the Internet and so the quality and availability of the Site may be affected by factors outside our reasonable control.  Accordingly, we cannot accept any responsibility for any connectivity issues that you may experience when using the Site or for any loss of material, data, transactions or other information caused by system outages, whether planned or unplanned.

In addition, you acknowledge and agree that you (and not us) are responsible for obtaining and maintaining all telecommunications, broadband and computer hardware, equipment and services needed to access and use the Service, and for paying any data charges that may be charged to you by your network provider in connection with your use of the Service.

Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you.

The Service is not bespoke to you. You acknowledge that the Service has not been developed to meet your individual requirements, and that it is therefore your responsibility to ensure that the facilities and functions of the Service meet your requirements.

We are responsible to you for foreseeable loss and damage caused by us. If we fail to comply with these Terms, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaching these Terms or our failing to use reasonable care and skill, but we are not responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable. Loss or damage is foreseeable if either it is obvious that it will happen or if, at the time these Terms are entered into, both we and you knew it might happen. Our liability to you for foreseeable loss and damage caused by us is limited to the total amount of any payments you have made to us for services offered to you through the Site.

When are we liable for damage caused by a defect in the Service? If the Service damages a device or digital content belonging to you and this is caused by our failure to use reasonable care and skill we will either repair the damage or pay you appropriate compensation. However, we will not be liable for damage which you could have avoided by following our advice, including to apply an update, patch or error correction offered to you free of charge or to have in place any minimum system requirements advised by us.

We are not liable for business losses. If you use the Service for any commercial or business purpose we will have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity, whether or not it was foreseeable.

We are not liable for the acts or omissions of other users. As noted in the Disclaimersection above, we are not liable for any losses you may suffer as a result of the behaviour, acts or omissions of any other users or for your use or reliance on any adverts, information, material or other User Content made available via our Site, or for any tenancy or lodging arrangements of any kind that you enter into as a result of using our Site, whether or not such losses were foreseeable.

We are not liable for events outside our control. We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or any delay in the performance of, any of our obligations under these Terms that is caused by any event or circumstance beyond our reasonable control, including any failure of public or private telecommunications networks or any delays or latency due to your physical location or your wireless data service provider's network.

What we do not exclude. Nothing in these Terms shall limit or exclude our liability for:

  1. death or personal injury resulting from our negligence;
  2. fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or
  3. any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by English law.

Your liability.

You agree to compensate us for any claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses (including legal costs and expenses) reasonably incurred by us that arise out of your use of the Service in breach of these Terms. We reserve the right to assume the exclusive defence and control of any claim brought by a third party in connection with your use of the Service and you agree to assist and cooperate with us in relation to any such claim.

Terminating these Terms.

We may terminate these Terms (including the rights and licences granted to you) immediately by written notice to you for any reason, including if you commit a material or persistent breach of these Terms.

Upon such termination for any reason:

  1. all rights granted to you under these Terms shall cease;
  2. you must cease all activities authorised by these Terms; and
  3. we may cease providing you with access to the Service, including your Account.

Communications between us

How can you contact us. If you wish to contact us in writing, or if any provision of these Terms requires you to give us notice in writing, you can send this to us by email to tom@idealflatmate.co.uk.

How we may contact you. If we have to contact you or give you notice in writing, we will normally do so by email to the email address associated with your Account.

Other important terms

We may transfer these Terms of Use to someone else. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms to another organisation, but this will not affect your rights or obligations under these Terms. You may not transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms to anyone else without our prior written consent.

Nobody else has any rights under these Terms of Use. These Terms are between you and us. No other person shall have any rights to enforce any of its terms.

If a court finds part of these Terms unlawful or unenforceable, the rest will continue in force. Each of the paragraphs of these Terms operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful or unenforceable, the remaining paragraphs will remain in full force and effect.

Even if we delay in enforcing these Terms, we can still enforce them later. If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these Terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaking these Terms, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date.

These Terms and our Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and us relating to the subject matter in these Terms and our Privacy Policy. They supersede any and all prior or contemporaneous written or oral agreements between us with respect to such subject matter.

Which laws apply to these Terms and where you may bring legal proceedings. These Terms are governed by English law and we both agree to submit to the non?exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts. This means that, if you are resident in Northern Ireland or Scotland, you may bring a claim to enforce your consumer protection rights in connection with these Terms in Northern Ireland or Scotland, as applicable.

ideal flatmate Privacy and Cookie Policy

We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors, service users and other individuals with whom we deal. This Policy sets out information about how we use, store and transfer personal data relating to those individuals which we receive through our websites www.idealflatmate.com and www.idealflatmate.co.uk (each the Site) or otherwise. We are a data controller in relation to that personal data, which means we determine the purposes and means of the processing of that personal data.

This Policy also contains information about our use of cookies. We will ask you to consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this Policy when you first visit our website. We or us means Ideal Housemate Ltd (we or us), a company registered in the United Kingdom under number 09821766 whose registered offices are at Flat 209, Northstand Apartments, Highbury Stadium Square, London, N5 1FN.

Summary

Full details are set out in the relevant sections of this Policy below, but keeping it brief:

  1. Personal Data we Collect

    In this Section we have set out the kinds of personal data that we may collect, use, store and transfer. We have grouped that data together into different categories based on its subject matter, and based on the kinds of individuals to whom they relate.

    Data relating to almost everyone we deal with: e.g. Site users, enquirers, suppliers

    1. We may process data about your use of our Sites (usage data), which we obtain through our analytics tracking systems. The usage data may include your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency and pattern of your service use.
    2. We may process information contained in or relating to any enquiry or communication that you send to us or that we send to you (correspondence data). This could for example include customer support queries from our users, enquiries from journalists or any other correspondence. The correspondence data may include the communication content and metadata associated with the communication, as well as any contact details you may provide to us such as your name, email address, phone number, job title, address or social media username.
    3. Data relating to registered users of our Site:
      1. We may process the account data (account data) you provide to us, which may include your name, email address, phone number, postal address, username, password and demographic data (such as age and gender). If you use a third-party application like Facebook to log into your account on our website then we may receive and process account data from the relevant third party.
      2. We may process information included by you when you complete our survey to help us find your ideal flat mate (survey data). If you are a registered user of our Site then your survey data will be associated with your account. If you complete a survey as part of a sign-up process but then never open an account with us as a registered user, then any survey data you provided to us will not be associated with any account and will be anonymous.
      3. We may process any personal data which you include in any advert, comment, message or other submission you upload or post to our Site or in any message you send through the Site (including messages between users). We call all of this messaging data. We do not pre-moderate or have any control over what you include in messaging data, so we ask that you carefully consider your own privacy in deciding what to include in messaging data. Because messaging data is determined by you, it could potentially include special categories of data, such as data about race, ethnic origin, politics, religion, health, sex life or sexual orientation.
      4. We may process information relating to payments we make to you or receive from you (payments data), which may include your contact details, your payment account details and the transaction details. We do not collect or process your credit or debit card details when you make payments through the Sites. We use Worldpay as a payment processing service provider and it is WorldPay who will collect and process your card details. For more information, see https://www.worldpay.com/uk/worldpay-privacy-notice.
      5. Finally, Our Site includes interfaces that allow you to connect with social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (each an SNP). If you connect to an SNP through our Site, we may access, use and store the information which you have allowed us to access through your SNP account settings (typically this will be account data) (SNP data). You can revoke our access to SNP data at any time by amending the appropriate settings from within your account settings on the applicable SNP.
      6. If you provide feedback to us, we may use and disclose such feedback on our Site and may post your first and last name along with your feedback on our Site. We will collect any information contained in such feedback and will treat the personal data in it in accordance with this Policy.
    4. Data relating to suppliers and other commercial partners

      If we have some other commercial relationship with you or with your employer (for example, a supply, purchase, sponsorship or referral relationship) then we may handle your contact details (name, job title, email address, postal address, telephone number), any related communications, and any related documents (such as contracts, POs and invoices, proposals and so on). We call all of this partner data, and we process it for the purposes of administering our commercial relationship with you.

    5. Personal data we obtain from others

      Your personal data may be provided to us by someone other than you. We might be introduced to you in correspondence by a mutual acquaintance, or we might receive personal data through an SNP, or we might receive personal data through other users of the Site (for instance, if they are your friends or flatmates). Normally this data will be correspondence data, messaging data, SNP data or partner data as described above.

  2. Our purposes and legal bases of processing
    1. We have set out below, in table format, a description of all the ways we may use your personal data. We're also required by law to identify the legal basis on which we handle personal data. These legal bases are set out in Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). When we process personal data on the basis of our legitimate interests then we also need to identify those legitimate interests and have done so below.
    2. Note that we may process your personal data on more than one legal basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Feel free to contact us for further information.
    Type of Data Purpose/Activity Legal Basis for Processing
    Usage Data Analyzing the use of, and improving, our Sites and services, security monitoring and fraud detection and to ensure each Site is presented in the most effective manner. Our legitimate interests (Art 6.1(f) GDPR), namely delivering and improving our Sites, informing marketing strategy, and ensuring the security of the Sites.
    Correspondence Data To communicate with you. If you have indicated your interest in our services then we may also process correspondence data to provide you with occasional news about our services and marketing communications (although you will be free to unsubscribe at any time).

    Our legitimate interests, namely properly administering our business and communications, developing our relationships with interested parties and addressing user concerns and queries.

    Where correspondence data relates to marketing, our legitimate interests in developing our business.

    Where correspondence relates to registered use of our Site, or to any contract or potential contract with you, then our legal basis may be for the performance of a contract with you, or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you (Art 6.1(b) GDPR).

    Account Data, Survey Data Operating our Sites, providing our services, ensuring the security of our Sites and services, verifying logins, and communicating with you.

    Performance of a contract with you (i.e. delivering our services through the account).

    Our legitimate interests, namely properly administering our business, services and communications.

    Messaging data

    Operating our Sites, providing our services, ensuring the security of our Sites and services, verifying logins, and communicating with you.

    Making messaging data available to other users (e.g. adverts).

    Performance of a contract with you.

    Our legitimate interests, namely properly administering our business and communications, ensuring a safe and respectful user experience and allowing users to message each other.

    Special category data contained in messaging data Operating our Sites, providing our services and communicating with you Your consent (Art. 6.1(a) GDPR, Art. 9.2(a) GDPR)
    Payments data Making and receiving payments to and from our website users. Performance of a contract with you.
    SNP data Operating our Sites, providing our services, ensuring the security of our Sites and services, verifying logins, and communicating with you.

    Performance of a contract with you (i.e. delivering our services through the account).

    Our legitimate interests, namely properly administering our business, services and communications.

    Feedback data Promoting our Sites and Services through publication of feedback Our legitimate interests, namely marketing and business development.
    Partner data Administering our commercial relationship with those with whom we do business.

    Performance of a contract with you.

    Our legitimate interests, namely properly administering our business and communications, and developing commercial relationships.

    Any personal data For the purposes of legal compliance (e.g. maintaining tax records) Compliance with our legal obligations (Art 6.1(c) GDPR)
    Any personal data For the purposes of bringing and defending legal claims Our legitimate interests, namely being able to conduct and defend legal claims to preserve our rights and those of others.
    Any personal data Record-keeping and hosting, back-up and restoration of our systems, Our legitimate interests, namely ensuring the resilience of our IT systems and the integrity and recoverability of our data.
  3. Providing your personal data to others
    1. Our advisors. We may disclose your personal data to our insurers and/or professional advisers to take professional advice and manage legal disputes.
    2. Disclosures designated by you. We may disclose your personal data to third parties designated by you, such as other users of the Site to whom you show public information or whom you message.
    3. Our service providers We may disclose personal data to our service providers or subcontractors in connection with the uses we've described above. For example, we may disclose:
      1. any personal data in our possession to suppliers which host the servers on which our data is stored (such as Amazon Web Services, Inc.);
      2. communication data to providers of email or email marketing services (such as MailChimp or Sendgrid);
      3. payments data to our payment processing service providers (such as Worldpay);
      4. usage data to providers of analytics services; and
      5. partner data and other relevant personal data to third parties for the purposes of fraud protection, credit risk reduction and debt recovery.
    4. We do not allow our data processors to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to use your personal data for specified purposes, in accordance with our instructions and applicable law.
    5. Third party advertisers. We may share personal data with advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you and others.
    6. Compliance. We may also disclose your personal data where necessary to comply with law.
    7. Restructuring and affiliates. If any part of our business is proposed to be sold or transferred, your personal data may be disclosed to the new owner or in connection with the relevant negotiations. We may also disclose personal data within our group of
  4. International transfers of your personal data
    1. Some of the third parties to whom we may transfer your personal data, discussed above, may be located outside the EEA or may transfer your personal data to their own service providers located outside the EEA. If so, then we will ensure that transfers by our appointed data processors will only be made lawfully (e.g. to countries in respect of which the European Commission has made an "adequacy decision", or with appropriate safeguards such as the use of standard clauses approved by the European Commission or the use of the EU-US Privacy Shield). You may contact us if you would like further information about these safeguards.
    2. Personal data that you submit for publication through our Site or services or otherwise make visible to other users may be available, via the internet, to others around the world. We cannot prevent the use (or misuse) of such personal data by others.
    3. Other Site users may be located outside the EEA and if you message them using the messaging functions of the Site then your personal data will necessarily leave the EEA.
  5. Data security
    1. We have put in place appropriate security measures to protect your personal data. We also have procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where required by law.
    2. Unfortunately, no transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, and transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure (for example, if you feel that the security of any account you might have with us has been compromised), please immediately notify us of the problem.
  6. Retaining and deleting personal data
    1. We comply with our legal obligations in relation to the retention and deletion of personal data, and in particular ensure that personal data that we process is not be kept for longer than is necessary for the relevant purposes. In particular:
      1. partner and payments data will be retained for seven years after the end of the relevant contractual relationship;
      2. correspondence data will be retained for the period of the enquiry or chain of correspondence and then deleted after twelve months;
      3. most data associated with any account on our Site (including account data, survey data and messaging data) will be kept during the life of the account and then deleted no more than twelve (12) months after account closure. However, we may retain account data and associated messaging data for up to six years following closure where relevant to any ongoing contract or any complaint or potential legal claim;
      4. usage data will be retained for twelve months.
      5. any data which is anonymized, and therefore not personal data, may be retained by us indefinitely. Typically, this will be derived from usage data and survey data.
    2. We maintain system backups for disaster recovery purposes and may retain those backups for up to six months. That means that information which is deleted from our live systems may still remain in backup for up to six months.
    3. We may retain your personal data longer than set out above where necessary to comply with law or in connection with any legal claim.
  7. Your rights
    1. You have rights under data protection law – they are complex, and subject to exemptions, and you can read guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.gov.uk for a fuller explanation of your rights. In summary, though:
      1. the right to access: you have the right to confirmation as to whether or not we process your personal data and, where we do, to access to the personal data, together with certain additional information;
      2. the right to rectification: you have the right to have any inaccurate or incomplete personal data about you rectified or completed;
      3. the right to erasure: in some circumstances you have the right to the erasure of your personal data (for example, if the personal data are no longer needed for the purposes for which they were processed or if the processing is for direct marketing purposes);
      4. the right to restrict processing: you have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data to limit its use. Where processing has been restricted, we may continue to store your personal data and will observe the restrictions on processing except to the extent permitted by law;
      5. the right to object to processing: you have the right to object to our processing of your personal data on the basis of legitimate interests (discussed above) or for direct marketing purposes and if you do so we will stop processing your personal data except to the extent permitted by law;
      6. the right to data portability: you have the right to receive your personal data from us if the legal basis for our processing is the performance of a contract with you, and such processing is carried out by automated means; and
      7. the right to complain to a supervisory authority: if you consider that our processing of your personal data is unlawful, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint with the ICO.
  8. About cookies
    1. A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
    2. Cookies may be either "persistent" cookies or "session" cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.
    3. Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user (except for IP addresses in some cases), but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.
    4. We use these kinds of cookies:
      1. Strictly Necessary Cookies: these cookies are essential to provide you with services available through our Site and to enable you to use some of its features. For example, they allow you to log in to secure areas of our Site and help the content of the pages you request load quickly. Without these cookies, the services that you have asked for cannot be provided, and we only use these cookies to provide you with those services.
      2. Functionality Cookies: These cookies allow our Site to remember choices you make when you use our Site, such as remembering your login details and remembering the changes you make to other parts of our Site which you can customise. The purpose of these cookies is to provide you with a more personal experience and to avoid you having to re-enter your preferences every time you visit our Site.
      3. Analytical/Performance Cookies: These cookies are used to collect information about traffic to our Site and how users use our Site. The information gathered does not identify any individual visitor. The information is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It includes the number of visitors to our Site, the websites that referred them to our Site, the pages that they visited on our Site, what time of day they visited our Site, whether they have visited our Site before, and other similar information. We use this information to help operate our Site more efficiently, to gather broad demographic information and to monitor the level of activity on our Site.
      4. Targeting Cookies: These cookies track your browsing habits to enable us to show advertising which is more likely to be of interest to you. These cookies use information about your browsing history to group you with other users who have similar interests. Based on that information, and with our permission, third party advertisers can place cookies to enable them to show adverts which we think will be relevant to your interests while you are on third party websites. You can disable cookies which remember your browsing habits and target advertising at you by visiting http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/your-ad-choices. If you choose to remove targeted or advertising cookies, you will still see adverts but they may not be relevant to you. Even if you do choose to remove cookies by the companies listed at the above link, not all companies that serve online behavioral advertising are included in this list, and so you may still receive some cookies and tailored adverts from companies that are not listed.
      5. Social Media Cookies: These cookies are used when you share information using a social media sharing button or “like” button on our Site or you link your account or engage with our content on or through a social networking website such as Facebook, Twitter or Google+. The social network will record that you have done this.
      6. Google Analytics: The Sites use Google Analytics (an analytical/performance cookie) to help analyze how users use the Sites, collecting standard internet log information and visitor behavior information in an anonymized form from which no user is identifiable. This information is transmitted to Google and processed to compile statistical reports on activity on the Sites. These reports allow us to optimize our user experience. Google provide a browser add-on for users who wish to prevent their data from being used by Google Analytics. Further information is available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.
      7. Third Parties: Third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.
    5. Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via the support pages made available by your browser operator.
  9. Third Parties

    The Site may contain links to third party websites and refer to third party service providers and other entities. If you follow a link to any third party website or deal with any third party entity referred to on the Sites, then they may have their own privacy and cookie policies, and we are not responsible for their use of any personal data which you may provide to them.

  10. Amendments

    We may update this Policy from time to time by publishing a new version on the Sites. You should check occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this Policy, although we may notify you of material changes to this Policy using the contact details you have given us.

  11. Personal data of children

    Our website and services are targeted at individuals over 18. If we have reason to believe that we hold personal data of a person under that age in our databases, we will delete that personal data. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with information without their consent, he or she should contact us using the details below.

  12. Data protection registration

    We are registered as a data controller with the UK Information Commissioner's Office. Our data protection registration number is ZA202106.

  13. Contact Us

    If you have any questions, comments or requests regarding this Privacy and Cookie Policy or our use of any personal data you provide to us, please contact us at Flat 209, Northstand Apartments, Highbury Stadium Square, London, N5 1FN or at help@idealflatmate.co.uk