Rent Reporting, powered by Buildium: Privacy Policy
Effective Date: December 20, 2024
Download Page
Buildium is committed to providing clear and concise information regarding our collection and processing of personal information. This Privacy Policy describes how Buildium (“Buildium”, “we,” or “us”) collects, uses, and discloses certain personal data for rental payment reporting services (“Rent Reporting Services”), provides information to you about your rights under data privacy laws and how to exercise those rights, and provides our “Notice at Collection” to California residents under California law. By accessing our website or utilizing Rent Reporting Services, you consent to the information collection and handling practices outlined in this Policy.
NOTICE AT COLLECTION
The following notices are provided to California residents under California law:
- Buildium may collect personal information, including sensitive personal information, about consumers as described in Section II of this Privacy Policy.
- The purpose(s) for which the categories of personal information, including categories of sensitive personal information, are collected and used are described in Section V of this Privacy Policy.
- Buildium does not sell personal information collected through Rent Reporting Services or (subject to the statements in the last paragraph of Section IX) share such personal information for cross-contextual behavioral advertising. Buildium may provide personal information to third parties as described in Section II of this Privacy Policy.
(4) Buildium intends to retain each category of personal information described in Section II of this Privacy Policy for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, taking into account Buildium’s ongoing business needs for the applicable information, any applicable legal needs for the information and/or requirements under applicable law.
I. Rent Reporting Services & Scope
Buildium offers Rent Reporting Services to rental property residents for purposes of reporting residents’ rent payments to one or more national credit bureaus. This Privacy Policy covers the information collection, use, and handling practices for the entire scope of Rent Reporting Services. References to “Rent Reporting Services” encompass both the Rent Reporting service and the corresponding activities of Buildium and its affiliates in offering and operating the service. This Policy does not apply to the privacy or security practices of any third party.
II. Personal Information Collection & Disclosure
Buildium collects and has collected in the preceding twelve (12) months, the categories of personal information necessary to provide our Rent Reporting Services listed in the chart below.
Buildium may provide personal information to third parties for business purposes under limited circumstances, including service providers and vendors that support or integrate with the Rent Reporting Services described in this Privacy Policy (see “Disclosure” column in the chart below). Buildium only discloses personal information to the extent reasonably necessary to support Rent Reporting Services requirements, or for the third-party vendors or service providers to perform the services on our or your behalf. We do not permit third party vendors or service providers to use or disclose your personal information except for the purpose of providing the services we request of them. However, please note that Buildium does not maintain direct control over the privacy policies and practices of our property owner or property manager clients (“Clients”) or any other third-party companies, agents, or contractors.
Note: Some personal information examples included in this chart may overlap with multiple categories.
| Category | Examples | Disclosure | |
| Business Purposes | Sales | ||
| Identifiers |
|
Credit bureaus/service providers/vendors/Buildium affiliates/payment processors and gateways | N/A |
| Sensitive Personal Information |
Note: Some of these examples are not considered “sensitive personal information” under all states’ privacy laws. |
Buildium affiliates
|
N/A |
| Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)) |
|
Credit bureaus/service providers/vendors/Buildium affiliates/payment processors and gateways | N/A |
| Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law |
|
Credit bureaus/service providers/vendors/Buildium affiliates | N/A |
| Commercial information |
|
Credit bureaus/service providers/vendors/Buildium affiliates | N/A |
| Internet or other similar network activity. |
|
Service providers/vendors/Buildium affiliates | N/A |
III. Personal Information Exceptions
Personal information does not include:
- Publicly available information
- De-identified or aggregated consumer information
- Information excluded from state privacy law scope, such as:
- health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA); and
- personal information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994.
IV. Personal Information Sources
Rent Reporting Services personal information is collected from (i) the Rent Reporting Services account holder during service enrollment, (ii) property management companies’ rent ledger and management systems, and (iii) indirectly from payment processors/gateways/banks and website analytics software and services integrated with Rent Reporting Services.
V. Personal Information Use & Processing
The personal data collected by Rent Reporting Services is used for a variety of purposes, including:
- To fulfill the purpose for which the personal information was collected and provide the requested Rent Reporting Services
- To distribute communications and legally required notices regarding the status of your Rent Reporting Services account via phone, email and/or SMS text
- To provide Rent Reporting Services maintenance, enhancement, research, development, security, support, and website optimization
- To maintain compliance with federal and state laws related to the Rent Reporting Services
- To create, maintain, customize and secure Buildium Rent Reporting Services subscriptions and user accounts
- To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations
- To exercise or defend legal claims
- To evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Buildium’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by Buildium is among the assets transferred
- To process payments submitted by you through your Rent Reporting Services account
More specifically, Buildium uses the following types of data for the indicated purposes:
| Data Type | Purpose/Use |
| First, last and middle name or initial | Identification of resident, subscription management, and provision of Rent Reporting Services |
| Physical address | Provision of Rent Reporting Services |
| Date of birth | Identification of resident, subscription management, and provision of Rent Reporting Services |
| Resident ID | Identification of resident, subscription management, and provision of Rent Reporting Services |
| Site ID/Lease and PMC Information | Provision of Rent Reporting Services |
| Credit card information (cardholder name, card number, expiration date, CVV)
(Note: This information is not permanently stored in Buildium Rent Reporting, but is transmitted to the payment processor and tokenized for security purposes). |
Processing resident’s subscription fee payments |
| Phone number | Resident communications and support |
| Email address | Resident identification, subscription management and communications |
| Username, password, password hints and security questions | Online user account setup, access, and validation/security |
| Commercial information | Provision of Rent Reporting Services, subscription management, and customer support |
| Internet or other similar network activity | Rent Reporting Service maintenance, enhancement, security, support and website optimization. |
Buildium will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice. Additionally, Buildium processing of sensitive personal information is limited to activities necessary for the delivery and performance of Rent Reporting Services.
VI. Personal Information Rights and Choices – State Privacy Rights
Certain state jurisdictions provide their legal residents with specific rights regarding their personal information. Each right includes the ability to make a specific consumer request and corresponding obligation of the receiving party to (i) verify the identity of the requestor and (ii) respond in accordance with statutory guidelines. This section describes your rights and, along with Section VII below, explains how to exercise those rights if you are a legal resident of one of those states. Please be advised, the nature of Rent Reporting Services and applicable regulations may exempt a portion of the personal information collected by Rent Reporting Services from the scope of state privacy rights.
Accessing and Updating/Correcting Personal Information
You have the right to confirm whether or not Buildium is processing your personal data and, if so, to access such personal data. You may access and update or correct your information (as needed) by logging into your Buildium Resident Center account or by submitting consumer privacy request as described in Section VII below. If you require verification that your requested changes have been completed, and such verification is not readily displayed in your Buildium Resident Center account, you may request confirmation at the email address listed below (See Section XVII “Contact Us”).
Data Portability and CA Residents’ Access to Specific Information Regarding Personal Information Use & Disclosure
You have the right to request a copy of the personal information collected about you in a readily useable format that is transferable to other entities, to the extent technically feasible (frequently referred to as “data portability”). If you make a data portability request, Buildium may be restricted from providing certain sensitive personal information in response to the request.
If you are a California resident, you also have the right to request a disclosure summarizing the collection, use, sale, sharing and disclosure to third parties of your personal information over the past 12 months, including:
- The categories of personal information about you that we collected, sold, shared or disclosed for a business purpose.
- The categories of sources from which the personal information was collected.
- Our business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, sharing or disclosing the personal information.
- The categories of third parties to whom we disclose or sell, or with whom we share, that personal information.
- The specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.
Deletion of Personal Information
You have the right to request that Buildium delete any of your personal information that we collected and retained, subject to certain exemptions and exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, unless a state privacy law exemption or one of the below exceptions applies, we will delete or de-identify (and direct our service providers to delete or de-identify) your personal information from our records. Buildium will not attempt to re-identify any personal information de-identified through this process or any other de-identified information in our possession.
Exceptions to Your Right to Deletion
We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is reasonably necessary for Buildium, our service providers or contractors to:
- Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, fulfill the terms of a written warranty or product recall conducted in accordance with federal law, provide the Rent Reporting Services that you requested or are reasonably anticipated by you within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you or your property manager, or otherwise perform our contract with you or your property manager.
- Help to ensure security and integrity to the extent the use of your personal information is reasonably necessary and proportionate for those purposes.
- Debug Rent Reporting Services to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
- Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise that consumer’s free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
- Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research that conforms or adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the ability to complete such research, if you previously provided informed consent
- Enable solely internal uses that are: (i) reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us or our Clients; and (ii) compatible with the context in which you provided the information.
- Comply with laws, regulations, statutes, codes, ordinances, or other legal obligations.
VII. How to Submit a Consumer Privacy Request
To exercise the access, correction, data portability, disclosure (CA residents) and deletion rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by either:
- Calling us toll-free at: (888) 414-1988
OR
- Via the secure webform linked here
Only you (or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf) may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.
Certain state privacy laws may limit the number of requests for access and/or portability that you can make in a 12-month period (e.g., two under California law). Other states may require one free response per consumer in a 12-month period but allow us to either decline to act on a request or charge a reasonable fee to cover the administrative costs of responding to requests that are manifestly unfounded, excessive or repetitive.
The verifiable consumer request must:
- Provide sufficient information that allows us to confirm your identity as the person about whom we collected personal information (and, if applicable, the authority and identity of an authorized representative).
- Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.
Process Used to Verify Consumer Requests
Please note, we cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot: (i) verify your identity or authority to make the request; and (ii) confirm the personal information relates to you. We will use the identifying information that you provide in your request (name, address, email address, etc.) as compared to the information in our files to verify your identity or authority to make the request and to determine whether any personal information in our files relates to you.
We will only use personal information provided in a consumer request for these purposes.
Instructions for Authorized Agents
If you are an authorized agent making a request on behalf of a consumer, then in addition to information about the consumer, you may be required to submit your own contact information and evidence that the consumer gave you permission to submit the request on their behalf. Once our response to your verifiable consumer request is ready, our response will be sent to you at your designated email address.
VIII. Consumer Request Responses, Timelines and Appeals
We will confirm receipt of your request within ten (10) business days. If you do not receive confirmation within the 10-day timeframe, please email [email protected]. We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt. If we require additional time beyond the 45 days, we are entitled to an extension up to an additional 45 days (for a total response timeline capped at 90 days). If an extension is necessary, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.
If you have an account with us, we will deliver our written response to that account where possible. If you do not have an account with us, or your existing account lacks a communication feature, we will deliver our written response to your designated email address.
We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable.
If we deny your verifiable consumer request, you may appeal our decision by contacting us at [email protected]. We will respond to your appeal as described in this Section VIII.
IX. Personal Information Sales, Sharing, Targeted Advertising and Profiling – Opt Out Rights
Buildium does not sell personal information collected through Rent Reporting Services or use such information for targeted advertising or profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning consumers and no such activity has occurred in the prior 12 months. Subject to the statements in the last paragraph of this section, Buildium does not share personal information collected through Rent Reporting Services for cross-contextual behavioral advertising and no such activity has occurred in the prior 12 months.
If Buildium changes its practices and engages in the sale or sharing of personal information or in targeted advertising or profiling as regulated by law, we will provide advance notification to impacted individuals and offer the ability to opt in/opt out in accordance with regulatory requirements.
Buildium utilizes cookies and tracking technologies as set forth in the Cookie Policy. Under some circumstances, these technologies may be deemed a “sharing” of personal information under applicable privacy laws. Where this is or may be the case, such as on our Buildium.com website, Buildium provides a Cookie Settings preference center to allow you to opt out and customize the cookies presented.
X. Non-Discrimination
We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your privacy rights. Unless permitted by law, we will not engage in any of the following practices in response to your exercise of privacy rights:
- Deny you goods or services.
- Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.
- Provide you a different level or quality of goods or services.
- Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.
XI. Other California Privacy Rights
The State of California also grants California residents privacy rights via laws unaffiliated with the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CCPA”). Those rights include the following:
California’s “Shine the Light” law (California Civil Code §1798.83) permits 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 an email to [email protected].
XII. Cookies, Web Beacons, and Other Technologies – Do Not Track
When you access our Rent Reporting Services or our website, our servers may place small text files (“cookies”) on your computer for recordkeeping purposes. Among other things, cookies enable us to gather information about your activity on our website for the purposes of improving your online experience, establishing secure user accounts, remembering your preferences and settings, and for other similar customization purposes.
In addition to cookies, our Rent Reporting Services and our website may utilize web beacons, clear gifs, or other technologies to gather information on how users interact with and utilize various features. For example, these technologies can identify popular pages, viewing patterns, click-through, conversion rates, and other information that can be used to improve, monitor, and operate our websites, products, and services.
A detailed summary of our cookie and similar technology usage is set forth in our Cookie Policy.
Some web browsers have a “Do Not Track” feature. This feature lets you tell websites you visit that you do not want to have your online activity tracked. These features are not yet uniform across browsers, and our sites are not currently set up to respond to those signals. Most internet browsers provide controls that allow users to directly manage or disable the placement and usage of cookies on their computer. Please note that disabling cookies may deactivate or otherwise restrict certain features of our Rent Reporting Services or our website.
XIII. Third Party Links to Other Sites
Our Rent Reporting Services may include links to third party service providers contracted by Clients. These linked services are operated by unaffiliated third parties that have separate and independent privacy policies, terms of use, and related notices or disclosures regarding information handling practices. We cannot be responsible for the information handling practices of independent parties and encourage you to review their practices prior to information disclosure.
XIV. Data Security
Buildium implements and maintains appropriate physical, administrative, technical and organizational measures to protect the information we process against unauthorized or unlawful access, use or disclosure, and against accidental loss, damage, alteration or destruction. Under our security policies and practices, access to personal information is restricted and authorized only for those who have a business need for such access. Buildium strives to protect the personal information that we process; however, no security program is 100% secure and we cannot guarantee that our safeguards will prevent every unauthorized attempt to access, use, or disclose personal information. We maintain security incident response policies and procedures to handle incidents involving unauthorized access to personal data we process.
XV. Children’s Online Privacy
Our Rent Reporting Services do not target or attract the attention of children under the age of 13 for the online collection of personal information. Buildium does not knowingly “sell” or “share” (as defined by applicable law) the personal information of consumers under the age of 16 in connection with the Rent Reporting Services.
XVI. Changes to Our Privacy Policy
Buildium reserves the right to amend this Privacy Policy at our sole discretion at any time. When we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post the updated content to our applicable websites and services along with the effective date of the change. Your continued use of our Rent Reporting Services following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.
XVII. Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or its implementation, you may contact us via the following methods:
Via US Postal Service at:
Buildium, LLC
Attn: Privacy (Legal)
2201 Lakeside Blvd.
Richardson, TX 75082
OR
Via email at:
[email protected]