ReferralExchange.com Privacy Notice

Last updated: February 7, 2023

At ReferralExhange.com (the "Site"), operated by Referral Exchange, Inc. ("Company" or "We" or "Us"), We are committed to protecting your privacy and creating a safe and secure online environment for anyone who visits or uses the Site) and the services that We provide to connect real estate buyers and sellers with real estate agents to assist them with their real estate transactions (the "Services"). This Privacy Notice (the "Privacy Notice") describes our privacy practices. This Privacy Notice applies solely to information that we collect through and/or in connection with the your use of the Site and/or our Service. This Privacy Notice does not address information that you provide to us in other contexts, such as a business relationship not handled through the Services or to an employment relationship. If you are a California resident and would like to exercise your California privacy rights, please see our California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) Disclosures Section below.

  1. Acceptance of Privacy Notice & Modifications

    By using the Services or creating an account with us, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Notice. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Notice, please do not use the Services.

    This Privacy Notice may be revised from time to time as we add new features and services, as laws change, and as industry privacy and security best practices evolve. We display the "last updated" date on the policy in the upper right corner of this Privacy Notice so that it will be easier for you to know when there has been a change. If we decide to change our Privacy Notice, we will post those changes to this Privacy Notice, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Notice at any time, so please review it frequently. All updates and modifications to Privacy Notice will be effective from the day they are posted online (except as stated below. If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we will notify you here, by email, and/or by means of a notice on our homepage prior to the change becoming effective. If you do not agree to any updates or modifications to the Privacy Notice, simply do not use or access the Services (or any part thereof). Your continued use of the Services after we have posted the updated Privacy Notice, or, in the event of material changes, ten (10) days following the date we posted the notice of such changes on the Site and/or notified you through email, as applicable, signifies to us that you acknowledge and agree to be bound by the revised Privacy Notice.

  2. What Personal Information Do We Collect?

    We collect various types of information depending on how you access and use the Services. "Personal information" and/or "personal data" means information and data that identifies you or could reasonably be used to identify you. Examples of personal information include your name, address, phone number, and/or email address.

    In some circumstances, we collect information directly from you, as described in the "Information Collected Directly" Section below. In other circumstances, you may not provide us information directly, for example, you may visit one of our affiliated sites, and realestateagents.com, to search for homes or real estate agents,( the "Affiliate Sites" )in which case, the information that you provide on these Affiliate Sites related to your real estate needs will be also processed by this Site and our Services to help connect you with a qualified real estate agent. In addition, if you are potential real estate buyer or seller, we may receive information about your real estate needs from our network of real estate agents or from third party sites, such as Zillow. We may also collect information from you indirectly as described in the "Information Collected Indirectly" Section below.

    1. Information Collected Directly
      1. Information From Real Estate Purchasers/Sellers

        If you choose to enter information related to your prospective real estate purchase or sale, you are asked to indicate whether you are interested in purchasing or selling real estate, the location of any real estate that you intend to sell or the area in which you intend to buy, the estimated price range of the prospective real estate purchase or sale, the type of property, your first and last name, your email and your telephone number.

      2. Registration Information

        If you are a real estate agent, to use this Services to provide or obtain leads for prospective customers who are interested in purchasing or selling real estate, you must first create a username and password. During registration, you are required to give the Company your contact information, such as your name, email address, company name, work address, and phone number.

      3. Contacting Us

        If you use the "Contact Us" page of the Site or the "Learn More" button, you will be asked to provide your name, email address, phone number and information regarding your request. If you send Us an email or text communication we collect your email or text communications to Us.

      4. Payment Information

        If you a Real Estate Agent using our Services, you will need to provide certain tax and payment information in order for us to collect and services fees that you are to pay to access certain features of the Services or to receive any referral fees or commission due to you under our Term of Services. Note that our third party service provider, currently Stripe, store actual bank account or credit card details, but we do need to collect certain required tax information, for example, 1099 Forms, in order to provide certain required information to the appropriate taxing authorities.

    2. Information Collected Indirectly
      1. Usage Information - Profile

        Company stores information collected through cookies, or log files to create a "profile" of user preferences. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data. Company ties user's personal information to information in their profile, in order to provide tailored promotions and marketing offers and improve the content of the Site for user.

      2. Information Collected From Third Party Services

        We may use certain third party services such as White Pages to verify the information that you provide to us, for fraud prevention and to better provide our Services.

      3. Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

        Company and its partners, affiliates, analytics, or service providers use technologies such as: cookies, beacons, tags and scripts. These technologies are used in analyzing trends, administering the Site and Services, tracking users' movements around the Site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis.

        We use Google Tag Manager to help us administer the tags on our Site.

        Third parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our Site or to display advertising based upon your web browsing activity use local shared objects (LSOs), such as HTML 5, to collect and store information. Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing HTML5 LSOs. To manage Flash LSOs, please click here.

        We may use Google Analytics to evaluate use of the Site for our internal purposes such as evaluating usage of the Site. To learn how Google Analytics collects and processes data, please visit: "How Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps" located at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners.

    3. Aggregated Data

      With the personal information and other data collected by us, we process "Aggregated Data", such as statistical or demographic data. Aggregated Data may be derived from personal information, but is not considered personal information under the law if it does not directly or indirectly reveal an individual's identity. If we combine or connect Aggregated Data with personal information so that it can directly or indirectly identify an individual, we treat the combined data as personal information, which will be processed in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

    4. Behavioral Targeting/Re-Targeting

      We partner with a third party to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third party partners may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on this Site and other sites in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you interest-based ads, you may opt-out by clicking here.

      We use Google AdSense/Adwords to publish ads on this Site. When you view or click on an ad a cookie will be set to help better provide advertisements that may be of interest to you on this and other websites. You may opt-out of the use of this cookie by visiting Google's Advertising and Privacy page.

  3. How Do We Use Your Personal Information?

    If you are a prospective real estate buyer or seller, when you submit information to the Site or to an Affiliated Site for a to help locate a real estate agent, we use this information to facilitate and provide you the Services you request, including without limitation, matching you with our network of participating Real Estate Agents ("Real Estate Agents"). If you are one of our Real Estate Agents, when you submit information to the Site, we use this information to facilitate and provide you the Services you request, including without limitation, matching you with our real estate buyer or sellers.

    In addition, depending on how you use the Services, we may use your information to:

    • Deliver direct marketing communications to you regarding our products and services that we may think are of interest to you;
    • Respond to your queries and requests, or otherwise communicate directly with you (including, without limitation, via SMS text messages);
    • Detect any fraudulent or illegal activity against you, the Company, or its other customers and users of the Services;
    • Perform system maintenance and upgrades, and enable new features;
    • To comply with a legal or regulatory obligation (for example, keeping records of our sales and of referral fees or commission paid for tax compliance); and
    • Provide information to regulatory bodies when legally required, and only as outlined below in Legal Obligations and Security.
    • To collect and fees due from Real Estate Agents or to make any payments due to Real Estate Agents.
  4. Do We Disclose Any Personal Information to Outside Parties?

    We will share or sell your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Notice. Your trust and confidence are our highest priority. For questions or concerns regarding our Privacy Notice, please contact Us as described in the "Contact Company" section at the end of this Privacy Notice.

    1. Disclosures to Third Parties Providing Real Estate Related Services

      The Site provides users with the optional ability to work with a third party site to obtain or get pre-approved for a mortgage using a third party service thorough an iframe window that appears on our Site. Any information that you provide for this purpose is collected by a third party service who is not our service provider and is subject to their terms and Privacy Notice as visible in their iframe window. They may use your personal information differently than we do, so please review their Privacy Notice before deciding to provide any information.

    2. Disclosures to Third Parties Assisting In Our Operations

      Company may share your personal information under confidentiality agreements with other companies that work with, or on behalf of, Company to provide products and services. These companies may use your personal information to assist Company in its operations. However, these companies do not have any independent right to share this information.

    3. Disclosures to Real Estate Agents

      If you submit a realty request, either directly or through one of our Affiliate Sites, we will share your information with any Real Estate Agents that we have matched you with.

      Note that Real Estate Agents are not our service providers, and they may use your personal information differently than we do, and we do not control their use of your information. Please make your choice to share your information carefully and review your agreements with, and the privacy notices of the Real Estate Agents that we match you with, and of any other third parties you decide to share your information with, if applicable.

      Company will not be able to contain or retrieve personal information once it has been shared or disclosed, and Company will have no responsibility or liability for any consequences that may result because we have released or shared personal information with others in connection with your request.

    4. Disclosures Under Special Circumstances

      If we are required to disclose personal information by law, such as pursuant to a subpoena, warrant or other judicial or administrative order, our policy is to respond to requests that are properly issued by law enforcement within the United States. Under such circumstances, unless prohibited by applicable law, we will attempt to provide you with prior notice that a request for your information has been made in order to give you an opportunity to object to the disclosure. We will attempt to provide this notice by email, if you have given us an email address. However, government requests may include a court-granted non-disclosure order, which prohibits us from giving notice to the affected individual. In cases where we receive a non-disclosure order, we notify the user when it has expired or once we are authorized to do so.

      Note that if we receive information that provides us with a good faith belief that there is an exigent emergency involving the danger of death or serious physical injury to a person, we may provide information to law enforcement trying to prevent or mitigate the danger (if we have it), to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

    5. Business Transfers

      We may share your personal information with other business entities in connection with the sale, assignment, merger or other transfer of all or a portion of Company's business to such business entity. We will require any such successor business entity to honor the terms of this Privacy Notice.

      If We are involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Site of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information.

  5. Links to Third Party Websites

    This Site may contain links to web sites maintained by third parties. Please be aware that these links are provided for your convenience and reference only. Company does not operate or control in any respect any information, software, product or services available on such Web sites. Company's inclusion of a link to a web site does not in any way imply an endorsement of the services or the site, its contents, or its sponsoring organization. When you connect to a website that is linked to our Site, we encourage you to read the privacy statements of that website. This Privacy Notice applies solely to information collected by this Site.

  6. Security Data Retention

    Company follows generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information you submit to Company, both during transmission and once Company receives it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, while Company strives to use commercially acceptable means to protect users' personal information, Company cannot guarantee its absolute security.

    Personal information is processed for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it is collected (for example, to perform our obligations to you in connection with your use of the Services), to comply with legal and regulatory obligations and for the duration of any period necessary to establish, exercise or defend any legal rights. In order to determine the most appropriate retention periods for your personal information, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of your such information, the reasons for which we collect and process your such personal information, and applicable legal requirements.

    In some instances, we may choose to anonymize your personal information instead of deleting it, for statistical use, for instance. When we choose to anonymize, we make sure that there is no way that the personal information can be linked back to you or any specific individual.

    If you have any questions about our security and/or data retention practices, please send an email to company at support@referralexchange.com.

  7. Your Choices
    1. Access to Personal Information

      If your personal information changes, or if you no longer desire to use the Services, you may correct, update, delete, or deactivate it by (i) making the change on our member information page, (ii) emailing our Customer Support at support@referralexchange.com. Please note that we do not control the use of your information by lenders and/or Real Estate Agents that has been shared with such lenders and/or Real Estate Agents in connection with a loan and/or realty request made by you. Any request for the deletion of your information by Lenders and/or Real Estate Agents will need to be directed to the applicable lenders and/or Real Estate Agents.

    2. Opt-Out/Choice – Direct Marketing

      You may manage your receipt of marketing and non-transactional communications by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link located on the bottom of any of our marketing e-mails, or by sending us an email to support@referralexchange.com; calling: (877) 695-9300; or you can write to: Attn: Customer Support, ReferralExchange.com, PO Box 3634 Seattle, WA 98124-3634.

      We will use commercially reasonable efforts to process such requests in a timely manner. You cannot opt out of receiving transactional e-mails related to the Services (e.g., requests for support).

    3. Cookies – Our Response to "Do Not Track" Signals

      With respect to your choices regarding cookie and other tracking technologies, most web and mobile device browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you can change your browser to prevent that or to notify you each time a cookie is set. You can also learn more about cookies by visiting www.allaboutcookies.org which includes additional useful information on cookies and how to block cookies using different types of browsers or mobile devices. Please note, however, that by blocking or deleting cookies used on the Services, you may not be able to take full advantage of the Services.

      Some Internet browsers include the ability to transmit "Do Not Track" signals. Since uniform standards for "Do Not Track" signals have not yet been adopted, Company does not process or respond to "Do Not Track" signals.

  8. Children's Privacy Protection

    Company understands the importance of protecting children's privacy in the interactive online world. The Site is not designed for, or intentionally targeted at, children under 18 years of age. It is not our policy to intentionally collect or maintain information about anyone under the age of 18. No one under the age of 18 should submit any personal information to Company or the Site.

  9. Sensitive Information

    California's "Shine the Light" law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits users of our Site and/or Services that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send us an email at support@referralexchange.com or by calling us at: (415) 653-5555 or reach out to us in a manner prescribed in our Privacy Notice.

  10. California Privacy Notice - California Privacy Rights Act Disclosures

    This California privacy notice supplements the information provided in this Privacy Notice and applies only to Personnel Members who are California residents. If you have any questions about your California privacy rights or the information provided in this California privacy notice, please contact us as described in the Privacy Notice.

    For purposes of this California privacy notice, "Personal Information" is used as defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 ("CPRA") and means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, to a particular consumer or household. Personal information does not include:

    • information that is lawfully made available from federal, state, or local government records;
    • anonymous, de-identified, or aggregated information; and
    • information excluded from the scope of the CPRA, such as health or medical information covered under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA") and financial information covered under the Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA") or Gramm-Leach Bliley Act ("GLBA").

    When we talk about the "sale" or "sharing" of Personal Information, we are also using those terms as they are defined in the CPRA.

    1. California Privacy Rights

      Personnel Members who are California residents have the following rights related to their Personal Information:

      • Know - You have the right to know:
        1. the categories of Personal Information we've collected,
        2. the categories of the sources from which the Personal Information is collected,
        3. the business or commercial purposes for collecting the Personal Information,
        4. the categories of third parties to whom we've disclosed Personal Information, and
        5. the categories of Personal Information we've disclosed for a business purpose, sold, or shared and the third parties to whom we've disclosed, sold, or shared the Personal Information;
      • Access - You have the right to receive a copy of the Personal Information we have collected;
      • Correct - You have the right to correct inaccurate Personal Information we have collected;
      • Delete - You have the right to request that we delete your Personal Information, subject to certain exceptions;
      • Opt-out of sale and sharing - You have the right to opt-out of having your Personal Information sold and shared; and
      • No discrimination - You have the right not to be discriminated against because you have exercised your rights under California law.

      For information on how to exercise your rights, please see Exercising Your California Rights.

      Below is a summary of the Personal Information categories, as defined by the CPRA, that we have collected in the previous twelve (12) months, the business purposes for which we've used them, and the third parties to which we've disclosed them for business purposes. Some of the information in several of the categories may overlap.

      In the table below, "Service Providers" means our service providers, agents, and professional advisers as described above in Section 4 (Do We Disclose Any Personal Information To Third Parties).

      Category of Personal Information Sources How We Use It We Share It With
      Identifiers (such as name, postal address, unique personal identifier, email address, social security number, driver's license number, passport number)
      • Directly from you
      • Provided by our Real Estate Agents
      • We generate internally
      • Service Providers
      • To Provide the Services to You
      • To Improve The Services
      • To compensate Real Estate Agents
      • Security and management of systems & facilities
      • Legal requirements
      • Analytics
      • Service Providers
      • Real Estate Agents
      The categories of Personal Information in § 1798.80(e) of the California Civil Code (such as name, signature, Social Security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, certain financial information)
      • Directly from you
      • Service Providers
      • To Provide the Services to You
      • TO Compensate Real Estate Agents
      • To Improve the Services
      • Security and management of systems & facilities
      • Legal requirements
      • Analytics
      • Improve our programs and systems
      • Service Providers
      • Real Estate Agents
      • To Provide with Information on Real Estate Agents, if applicable, as part of the Services
      Electronic network activity information (such as browsing history, search history, and information regarding interaction with a website, or online application)
      • Directly from you
      • Service Providers
      • We generate internally
      • To Provide the Services
      • Security and management of systems & facilities
      • Legal requirements
      • Analytics
      • Improve our programs and systems
      • Service Providers
      Geolocation data (such as IP Address)
      • Service Providers
      • To Provide the Services
      • Security and management of systems & facilities
      • Service Providers
      Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information (such as from recorded video conferences)
      • Directly from you
      • Service Providers
      • To Provide the Services to You
      • Security and management of systems & facilities
      • Improve our programs and systems
      • Service Providers
      Inferences drawn from any of the information identified above
      • Service Providers
      • We generate internally
      • To Provide the Services To You
      • Analytics
      • Improve our programs and systems
      • Service Providers

      For more information about the purposes for which we use Personal Information and the third parties with whom we share Personal Information, please see Sections 3 and 4 in the Privacy Notice above.

      For more information about the categories of Sensitive Personal Information we collect and the purposes for which we use Sensitive Personal Information, please see Section 2 in the Privacy Notice above. In addition to the categories of Sensitive Personal Information listed in Section 2, for purposes of the CPRA, Sensitive Personal Information may also include certain government ID numbers (e.g., social security, driver's license, state ID card, or passport number).

    2. No Sale and Limited Sharing of Personal Information

      We do not sell your Personal Information and do not sell or share your Sensitive Personal Information to or with third parties, as "sale" and "share" are defined under the CPRA. We do not disclose Personal Information with third parties for their own marketing purposes. We may share certain of your personal information in order to provide the Services that you have requested in the form of certain disclosures as further described in Section 4 of the Privacy Notice.

    3. Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information

      We do not use or disclose Sensitive Personal Information for purposes of inferring characteristics about individuals.

    4. Exercising Your California Privacy Rights

      To exercise any of the California privacy rights described above, you or your authorized agent acting on your behalf may submit a request by:

      To verify your identity, we may ask you to confirm Personal Information we already have on file for you. If we cannot verify your identity from the information we have on file, we may request additional information, which we will only use to verify your identity and for security or fraud prevention purposes.

      If you use an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf, we may require proof from you that they have been authorized directly by you to act on your behalf.

      We will respond to your rights request as required under the CPRA.

      We reserve the right to deny your request subject to applicable law, such as if we cannot verify your identity or the authority to receive the Personal Information related to you.