USA Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

 

PRIVACY

Last Updated: November 17, 2023

FirstService Residential (“Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) provides this Privacy Policy (this “Policy”) to describe our privacy practices regarding personal information we collect from individuals (“you” or “your”), including when you visit our offices, or when you visit our websites or our mobile applications (collectively, the “Sites”).  

If you do not agree with all of the terms of this Policy, you should not use, browse, or otherwise access any of the Sites.  By browsing or using any of the Sites, you agree to our collection and use of your personal information as described in this Policy and in our Terms of Use.
This Policy does not cover the personal information we collect about employees and independent contractors, or job applicants.

Definition of Personal Information

For the purposes of this Policy, “personal information” means any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably linked , directly or indirectly, with a particular individual or household.  It does not include personal information that is publicly available.

Notice at Collection: Personal Information We May Collect About You

This section describes the categories of personal information we collect about you and may have collected about you in the past 12 months:  

  • Personal identifiers: Name, physical address, email address. phone numbers and other contact information, whether you live in a community managed by us, and IP addresses
  • Professional information: Job title, name and contact information of employer or entity you represent; status as a board member of your homeowner’s association or residential community; name and location of the homeowner’s association or residential community you represent.
  • Audio and Visual information: CCTV recordings of you in the public areas on those properties on which our clients operate security cameras; voice recordings of calls made to our customer service line. 
  • Internet or other electronic network activity: Information regarding your browsing history, visits to and interaction with our Sites and advertisements, information about visits to our social media accounts, device IDs.
Note: whether we collect these categories of personal information is dependent on how you interact with our company. For example, if you neither called our offices on the phone nor were physically present in a facility with video cameras, we would not have collected audio or visual information.

Notice at Collection: Purpose for the Collection of Personal Information

With respect to each of the categories of personal information above, this section describes the reasons we may have collected and used such information in the past 12 months and why we may continue to collect and use it.
Provide You with Services on Behalf of Our Clients: We use your personal information to provide a full range of property management services to our clients, including: management of facilities, public grounds and common areas in communities; contacting you and responding to your requests and inquiries; facilitating sales and leasing/rentals; processing payments; responding to requests for documentation associated with the association or ownership/leasing/rental of real property within each community; providing marketing; facilitating the operation of association boards of directors; providing customer service; operating a call-in center; distributing newsletters and similar materials; compliance with applicable laws, regulations or codes of practice.

Provide You With Additional Services: In addition, we collect personal information in order to market and provide information about our Services and company; improve the Sites by, among other things, understanding who and how they are used; compliance with applicable laws, regulations, or codes of practice.

Security and Fraud Prevention and Detection: We use information for security purposes such as fraud prevention and detection.  We may use personal information, for fraud prevention, or to protect our company, affiliates, our clients, or our Sites, or a third-party website or platform.

Compliance with Laws and for Protection: We use your personal information to support auditing, legal and compliance purposes including responding to court orders or subpoenas. We may also share your personal information if a government agency or investigatory body requests. We may also use your personal information if we believe in good faith that disclosure is legally required or otherwise necessary to protect our rights and property, or the rights, property, or safety of others.

Marketing and Recruiting: We use personal information to inform you about the Company and the services we offer. We may also use your personal information to send you information about career opportunities.

Communications:  We use personal information to communicate with you about your account or our relationship.  We may contact you about your use of our Sites. We may contact you about your account or feedback.  We might also contact you about this Policy or the Sites’ Terms of Use.

Debug and Identify Errors: We use your personal information to debug and identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.

Statistical Analysis and Research: We may use your personal information for statistical analysis and research purposes including analyzing performance.

For those who interact with us in a commercial capacity, we use your personal information to engage in business transactions with the entity you represent and market to or engage in diligence with the entities you represent. 

Notice at Collection: Categories of Personal Information We Sell or Share or Use for Targeted Advertising


When we engage in digital advertising, we may sell the following categories of personal information (according to the broad definition of “sell” under select state privacy laws), share them for purposes of cross-context behavioral advertising, or use them for targeted advertising: personal identifiers (IP address); and internet or other electronic activity information.            

These categories of personal information are sold to or shared for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising with, advertising networks and other companies that facilitate digital advertising. We engage in such sales and sharing to facilitate digital advertising that is able to reach people that are most likely to be interested in the services we provide.  We do so by allowing third parties to place cookies or other tracking technologies on our Sites that may collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites or applications.  For more information about the use of cookies and other tracking technologies, see the section “Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies” below. 

To opt out of such sales/sharing/targeted advertising, click here.

We do not sell or share for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising any of the other categories of personal information we collect.

Notice at Collection: Retention Periods

We retain the categories of personal information we collect for the length of time necessary to provide our Services and to comply with legal obligations or to protect our legal rights. 

Sources of Collection

We collect personal information from individuals directly and through our Sites.  For those who interact with us in a commercial capacity, we collect personal information from your employer or the company you represent or third party references or related contacts.

Use or Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information

We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information to create profiles about or infer characteristics about individuals, or for any purposes other than providing our Services. 

No Profiling to Facilitate Decisions with Legal or Other Significant Effects

We do not engage in the automated processing of personal information to create profiles about individuals that are used in furtherance of decisions with legal or other similarly significant effects, such as the provision or denial of financial or lending services, housing, insurance, or access to essential goods or services.

Disclosure of Personal Information For Business Purposes in the Past 12 Months

In the last 12 months, we may have disclosed the personal information described above with the following categories of third parties for business purposes, as described in the chart below.
 
Categories of Consumers’ Personal Information Categories of Third Parties to Which We Disclosed personal information for a Business Purpose
Personal identifiers: Name, physical address, email address, phone numbers  and other contact information, whether you live in a community managed by us, device IDs and IP addresses. Service providers that provide: customer relationship management (CRM) services; internet, IT, and telecommunications services; analytics information; advertising and marketing services; printing, mailing or other communications services; legal and accounting services.
 
Professional information: Job title and name of employer; status as a board member of your homeowner’s association or residential community; name and location of the homeowner’s association or residential community you represent. Service providers that provide: customer relationship management (CRM) services; printing, mailing or other communications services; advertising and marketing services; legal and accounting services.
 
Internet or other electronic network activity information:  Device and browser type, browsing and search history on our Sites, and information regarding interaction with our Sites and our advertisements. Service providers that provide: customer relationship management (CRM) services; internet, IT, and telecommunications services; analytics information; advertising and marketing services.
Audio or Visual information: CCTV recordings of you in the public areas on those properties on which we or our clients operate security cameras; voice recordings of calls made to our customer service line.  Service providers that provide: customer relationship management (CRM) services; legal services.


Business Purposes for Such Disclosures
We disclosed the aforementioned categories of personal information to the categories of third parties identified above for the following purposes: to manage customer, supplier and vendor accounts and relationships; process payments; fulfill orders and transactions; engage in advertising and marketing; operate our IT systems and secure our systems; prevent fraud and other illegal activities; and to obtain professional advice about legal and accounting matters.  
 
Additional Information About How We May Disclose Personal Information
With respect to each of the categories of personal information we collect as noted above, we may also collect and share personal information with third parties to comply with legal obligations; when we believe in good faith that an applicable law requires it; at the request of governmental authorities or other third parties conducting an investigation; to detect and protect against fraud, or any technical or security vulnerabilities; to respond to an emergency; or otherwise to protect the rights, property, safety, or security of our business, third parties, visitors to the Sites, or the public.  We may also share personal information with any person to whom we transfer any of our rights or obligations under any agreement, or in connection with an actual or contemplated sale, merger, or consolidation of our business or other transfer of our assets, whether voluntarily or by operation of law, or who is otherwise deemed to be our successor or transferee.

Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

Cookies are small, sometimes encrypted text files that are stored on computer hard drives by websites that you visit. They are used to help users navigate websites efficiently as well as to provide information to the owner of the websites. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

When you visit our Sites, we may place a “cookie” or other online tracking devices (e.g., web beacons) that recognizes you. The cookies and other tracking technologies may also collect information about your IP address or actions taken in connection with the Sites.  We may use cookies or similar tracking technologies to capture information about the use of our Sites, including to improve your user experience. Accordingly, we may store and retrieve information on your device through the use of cookies and similar technologies.

We use Google Analytics to evaluate the use of our Sites. Google Analytics uses cookies and other identifiers to collect information, such as how often users visit a website, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other websites they visited prior to visiting a website. To learn more about how Google Analytics collects personal information, review Google’s Privacy Policy

Additionally, we also allow third parties to set cookies and other trackers when you visit our Sites which may collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites, applications, or other online platforms. These third parties may use such information to, for example, provide analytics information or to offer products or services in which you may be interested, and they may combine information about your activities across different websites, applications, or other online platforms to do so. 

Personal Information of Minors

Our Sites are not directed to minors under the age of 13. Additionally, we do not knowingly collect or sell personal information of minors under 16.

Do Not Track

“Do Not Track” is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers.  We do not comply with automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, which may include "do not track" instructions.

Security

We implement and maintain reasonable security appropriate to the nature of the personal information that we collect, use, retain, transfer or otherwise process.  Our reasonable security program is implemented and maintained in accordance with applicable law and relevant standards.  However, there is no perfect security, and reasonable security is a process that involves risk management rather than risk elimination.  While we are committed to developing, implementing, maintaining, monitoring, and updating a reasonable information security program, no such program can be perfect; in other words, all risk cannot reasonably be eliminated. Data security incidents and breaches can occur due to vulnerabilities, criminal exploits or other factors that cannot reasonably be prevented.  Accordingly, while our reasonable security program is designed to manage data security risks and thus help prevent data security incidents and breaches, it cannot be assumed that the occurrence of any given incident or breach results from our failure to implement and maintain reasonable security.

Third Party Sites / Social Media Buttons

From time to time, we may advertise certain third party services through the Company’s Websites which we feel will be helpful or relevant to you (collectively, “Third Party Services”).  Third Party Services may include, but are not limited to, banking and financial services, insurance-related services, payment processing services and property management-related services. 

When you click on a link for a Third Party Service, your Web browser will be re-directed to the third party provider of the Third Party Service that you selected.  Third party providers may have privacy policies that are different than this Policy, and you should carefully read the privacy policies of those vendors prior to releasing any of your information to them, financial or otherwise.

We do not endorse, warrant, or guaranty the nature, scope, quantity, availability, or quality of any Third Party Services.  We make you aware of such services for your convenience.  If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about any Third Party Service, you are instructed to contact directly the vendor offering the service.
Additionally, our Site may direct a user to other third parties that assist us in providing services to our clients, such as by operating a website to process payments.  It also includes social media buttons.  When you navigate to third-party websites or social media platforms through our Sites, the privacy policies and terms of use for those websites and platforms exclusively govern the personal information you may disclose to those third parties.  

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to amend, alter, or otherwise change this Privacy Policy in our sole and absolute discretion. If we make material changes to the Privacy Policy, we will post notice on the Sites. Further use of the Sites following any such notification constitutes your agreement to follow and to be bound by the amended Privacy Policy.

Accessibility Policy

The Company is committed to ensuring that our communications, including our Sites, are accessible to people with disabilities.  To make accessibility-related requests or report barriers, please contact us [email protected]

Contact Us

 If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, or to request a copy of this Privacy Policy in another format, you may email us at [email protected] or at the following address:
ATTN: Privacy Officer
c/o FirstService Residential
1855 Griffin Rd.
Suite A-330
Dania Beach, FL 33004
888-247-2381
 
When contacting the Privacy Officer please be sure to provide your name, your physical address, your email address, your phone number (if you wish to be contacted by telephone) and a description of the question or issue that you wish to have resolved.
 

US State Data Privacy Rights

Laws in certain US states give residents of those states specific rights with respect to the personal information collected about them.  See below for more information. 

California Residents

If you are a California resident, you may have certain rights with respect to personal information as set forth under California law and explained below.

Shine the Light
California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the “Shine the Light” law, permits California residents to annually request, free of charge, information about the personal information (if any) disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year.  To make such a request, please contact us at
[email protected].
CCPA Rights of Individuals

This section addresses rights provided to California residents under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) regarding the personal information we collect.  Those rights include the right to know about the personal information we collect, the right to request that we delete it and the right to request that we refrain from selling any personal information (the “CCPA Rights”).  The CCPA Rights are described in greater detail below.

Your Right To Request Disclosure of Information We Collect and Share About You
You can request the following information from us, with respect to the personal information that we have collected about you since January 1, 2022:
  • The specific pieces of personal information we collected
  • The categories of personal information we have collected about you.
  • The categories of sources from which we collected your personal information
  • The categories of personal information we have disclosed or shared for a business purpose
  • The categories of third parties with which we shared the information
  • The business or commercial purposes for which we collected the personal information
Your Right To Request Deletion of Personal Information We Have Collected From You
Upon request and subject to exceptions in the law, we will delete the personal information we have collected about you that is covered by the CCPA.

Your Right to Request the Correction of Your Personal Information
You have the right to request that we correct personal information we hold that you believe is not accurate.  We will take steps to determine the accuracy of the personal information that is the subject of your request to correct, and in doing so will consider the totality of the circumstances relating to the personal information you have identified as being incorrect.  We may ask that you provide documentation regarding your request to correct to assist us in evaluating the request.

Your Right to Opt Out of the Sale of Personal Information
You can direct us not to sell your personal information or share it for the purpose of engaging in cross-context behavioral marketing by clicking here. If you have further questions  you may also send an email to [email protected] or contact us at 888-247-2381.  We will act on your request within the timeframes set forth below. 

We Are Service Providers to Our Clients                                                                                          
When we collect and process personal information on our clients, we act as their “service provider,” as that term is defined in the CCPA.  We do not disclose, use, or retain any of the personal information we collect when collecting or processing Personal information on behalf of our clients for any purpose other than the specific purpose of performing the services specified in our contracts with our clients. 

This means that the Company does not own the personal information we collect on behalf of our clients (i.e., your homeowners’ or condominium association).  Please be advised that homeowners/condominium associations are not subject to CCPA (and therefore are not required to provide these rights), as they are not-for-profit entities. Nevertheless, you may always review the information in your Resident Portal. 

Exercising Your Rights and How We Will Respond
To exercise any of the rights above, or to ask a question, contact us at 888-247-2381 click here, or use the contact details set out at the end of this Policy.

For requests for access or deletion, we will first acknowledge receipt of your request within 10 days of our receipt of your request.  We provide a substantive response to your request as soon as we can, generally within 45 days from when we receive your request, although we may be allowed to take longer to process your request in certain jurisdictions or under certain circumstances.  If we expect your request is going to take us longer than normal to fulfill, we will let you know.

We usually act on requests and provide information free of charge, but we may charge a reasonable fee to cover our administrative costs of providing the information in certain situations.  In some cases, the law may allow us to refuse to act on certain requests.  When this is the case, we will endeavor to provide you with an explanation as to why.

Verification of Identity – Access or Deletion Requests
We will ask you for identifying information and attempt to match it to information that we maintain about you. 
If we are unable to verify your identity with the degree of certainty required based on the type of information or action you are requesting, we will not be able to respond to the request.  We will notify you to explain the basis of the denial.

Authorized Agents
You may designate an agent to submit requests on your behalf.  The agent can be a natural person or a business entity.

If you would like to designate an agent to act on your behalf, you and the agent will need to comply with our agent verification process. 
  • Requests to Know, Delete or Correct Personal Information: If the agent submits a request, the agent will need to provide us with your signed permission indicating the agent has been authorized to submit the request on your behalf.  We will also require that you verify your identity directly with us or confirm with us that you provided the agent with permission to submit the request.
  • Requests to Opt Out of Sale or Sharing: If the agent submits a request to opt out of the sale of your personal information or the sharing of your personal information for purposes of cross-context behavioral marketing, the agent will need to provide us with your signed permission indicating the agent has been authorized to submit the opt-out request on your behalf. 
Please note that this subsection does not apply when an agent is authorized to act on your behalf pursuant to a valid power of attorney.  Any such requests will be processed in accordance with California law pertaining to powers of attorney.

Virginia Residents

If you are a Virginia resident, you may have certain rights with respect to your personal information as provided by the Virginia Consumer Data Privacy Act (“VCDPA”) and explained below.  Please note that if we only process your personal information only as a vendor/service provider of an entity to which you provide your personal information, these rights may not apply.
  • Right to Know: The right to confirm whether or not we are processing your personal information and the associated right to access such data, including by obtaining a copy of data that you previously provided to us.
  • Right to a Copy:  The right to a portable copy of the personal information we have collected from you. 
  • Right to Delete: The right to request deletion of personal information that we have collected about you and to have such information deleted, subject to certain exceptions. 
  • Right to Correct: The right to ask that we correct inaccuracies in your personal information, taking into account the nature of the personal information and purposes for processing such information.
  • Right to Opt Out of Targeted Advertising: We engage in targeted advertising.  You have the right to ask us to stop processing your personal information for targeted advertising under the Virginia Consumer Data Privacy Act.
While Virginia law provides the right to opt out of the sale of personal information, we do not sell personal information consistent with the definition of “sale” under Virginia law.

Please note that for purpose of this section of this Policy, we consider “personal information” to have the same meaning as “personal data” as defined under the VCDPA.

Exercising Your Rights and How We Will Respond

To exercise your rights to know, obtain a portable copy of, delete, or correct your personal information, submit a request here or contact us at [email protected] or 888-247-2381.  We will respond to such requests within 45 days from when we receive your request, although we may be allowed to take longer to process your request under certain circumstances.  If we expect your request is going to take us longer than normal to fulfill, we will let you know.

You can direct us not to process your personal information for purposes of targeted advertising. (This will allow you to opt out of all targeted advertising/marketing cookies)

We usually act on requests and provide information free of charge, but we may charge a reasonable fee to cover our administrative costs of providing the information in certain situations. 

Verification of Identity – Requests to Know, Delete, Correct
We will ask you for two pieces of personal information and attempt to match those to information that we maintain about you.

If we are unable to verify your identity with the degree of certainty required, we will not be able to respond to the request.  We will notify you to explain the basis of the denial.

When We Do Not Act on a Request – Appeal Process
In some cases, we may not act on your requests (e.g., if we cannot do so under other laws that apply). When this is the case, we will explain our reasons for not providing you with the information or taking the action (e.g., correcting data) you requested.   

Additionally, you have the right to appeal our decision by contacting us at https://preferences.fsresidential.com/privacy or by email at [email protected] within 30 days after your receipt of our decision.  Please provide us with the email address used to make the request or simply reply to the message in question.  We will respond to your appeal within 60 days of our receipt of the request. 

Our Commitment to Honoring Your Rights

If you exercise any of your rights described in this Privacy Policy, we will continue to treat you fairly and you will not be denied or charged different prices or rates for goods or services, or provided a different level or quality of goods or services than others.