Privacy policy

Who we are and what this covers

Instant Property Valuations (we, us, our) sells two property reports for Australian properties: an automated Property Value Estimate Report, and a certified valuation prepared and countersigned by a certified practising valuer. We adhere to the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), and this policy covers this website and everything we do with personal information when you browse it, contact us or order a report.

Personal information is information that identifies you or could reasonably identify you. Information about a property is not personal information on its own, but where it is linked to you as the person who ordered, we treat the combination as personal information.

What we collect

• Contact details you give us, such as your name and email address, and the state or territory your enquiry relates to.
• Property details you give us when ordering a report, such as the address and attributes of the property and the date the report is to be assessed at.
• Order and payment records. Payments are processed by an external payment provider, and your full card details go to that provider, never to us. We receive confirmation of payment, the amount and a payment reference.
• Correspondence: what you send us through forms on this site or by email, and our replies.
• Technical data collected when you browse, such as pages visited, approximate location from your IP address, and device and browser type. The cookies section below names the services that collect it.

We do not ask for sensitive information as the Privacy Act defines it, such as health or political information, and we ask you not to send us any. We do not sell personal information and we do not buy marketing lists.

How we collect it

Directly from you, when you fill in a form, order a report or email us. Forms on this site are provided by Squarespace, our website host, which stores submissions on our behalf.

The property information inside a report is drawn mainly from public records and property market data. Where we receive personal information from a third party, we protect it as this policy sets out.

Where the law requires consent to a particular use of your information, we ask for it for that use, rather than treating the act of contacting us as consent to everything.

How we use it

• To prepare and deliver the report you ordered.
• To take payment and keep the transaction records the law requires.
• To answer your enquiry.
• To send service messages about your order, including the link that shows your order status.
• To improve the site and our reports, using the aggregated analytics described below.
• To meet legal obligations.

We only send marketing email if you asked for it. Every marketing email contains a working unsubscribe link, and you can opt out at any time by using it or by telling us through the contact page. Service messages about an order you placed are not marketing.

Who we disclose it to

We disclose personal information only where it is needed to do the things above:

• The certified practising valuer preparing a certified valuation you ordered. They receive the property details and enough about you to prepare and address the report.
• Squarespace, which hosts this website and stores form submissions.
• Google and Meta, for the analytics and advertising services described in the cookies section below.
• Our payment provider, which is named at checkout and handles your card details under its own privacy policy.
• Providers of cloud hosting and email delivery we use to prepare, store and send reports.
• Our professional advisers and insurers, where reasonably necessary.
• Government bodies, courts and law enforcement, where the law requires it.

These providers process personal information under their own privacy policies, which are linked below where you are likely to want them. We cannot bind another company to this policy, so we choose providers whose published commitments we are prepared to rely on.

If our business is sold or there is a change of control, personal information may be transferred with it, to the extent the law permits and under obligations of confidentiality. A buyer takes it subject to this policy or one at least as protective.

We do not sell or rent personal information to anyone.

Cookies, analytics and advertising

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. We use Google Analytics and Google Search Console (Google LLC) to understand how visitors find and use the site, and Google Ads (Google LLC) and the Meta Pixel (Meta Platforms, Inc.) to measure and deliver advertising. These providers collect information such as your IP address, device identifiers and browsing activity on our site, and process it under their own privacy policies: Google and Meta.

Essential cookies set by Squarespace make the site work and cannot be switched off from our side. You can opt out of personalised advertising at adssettings.google.com and in your Meta ad preferences, and you can reject or delete cookies in your browser settings. The site still works with non-essential cookies blocked.

How it is protected

Connections to this site are encrypted, order records are held in access-controlled systems, and full card details never touch our systems at all. No system is immune to failure, so we keep what we hold to the minimum needed and delete what is no longer needed.

If a data breach happens that is likely to result in serious harm, we assess and notify it under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, including telling the people affected.

How long we keep it

Order and report records are kept for seven years after the transaction, because tax law requires it and because a report may need to be produced again for an audit or a dispute years later. After seven years they are deleted or de-identified.

Enquiries that do not become orders are kept only as long as a reply might need them. Analytics data is retained on the providers' systems under the settings we control, on the shortest setting that still does the job.

Access and correction

You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct anything that is wrong. Ask through the contact page. We answer without charging you.

The Privacy Act sets out limited circumstances where access can be refused. If we refuse any part of a request we say why in writing, and tell you how to complain about the refusal.

Complaints

If you think we have mishandled your information, tell us first through the contact page and we will look into it and respond to you. If our answer does not resolve it, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

Changes to this policy

When this policy changes, the new version is published here with a new date at the top, so you can tell which version you are reading. If a change matters to something you have already ordered, we tell you by email rather than relying on you to re-read this page.

How to contact us

The contact page reaches a monitored inbox, and privacy questions are answered by a person.