Knight Frank's External Privacy Policy
1. Application of Policy
Knight Frank is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information in accordance with its obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act) and, in particular, the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
This privacy policy applies to the handling of personal information collected by Knight Frank Australia Pty Ltd (ACN 004 973 684) and its related bodies corporate in Australia (referred to in this policy as Knight Frank, we, us, our). In this policy, the Group means Knight Frank LLP and its related bodies corporate globally.
Knight Frank will regularly review its policies and procedures regarding personal information and may therefore update and amend this privacy policy from time to time. Any updated privacy policy will be made available on the website at https://www.knightfrank.com.au/ or can otherwise be obtained by contacting us and requesting a copy.
Under the Privacy Act, personal information is broadly defined. In simple terms it means any information about an individual (i.e. a natural person) who can be identified from the information, whether the information is true or not and whether recorded in a material form or not.
2. Handling of Personal Information
Knight Frank is committed to observing its obligations under the Privacy Act and APPs.
What personal information do we collect?
Knight Frank collects personal information that is reasonably necessary to provide its services and to manage its relationships with clients and other parties.
The types of personal information collected will depend on the services being provided and the circumstances of collection. For example, for property transactions, we may collect personal information from the parties involved (including vendors, purchasers, landlords, tenants etc.) such as name, contact information (i.e. e-mail address, home and office address, telephone and fax numbers), date of birth, gender, marital status, tax file number, driver’s licence number and expiry date, details of employment and/or occupation, and financial information (including bank account information, information about your assets, occupation and income, account balances and payment history). We also collect credit information, including from credit checks, to assess credit worthiness.
Knight Frank also collects personal information from members of the Group and other parties (such as from its service providers) of the following kinds:
• personal information of current, former and prospective corporate and consumer clients and suppliers, and individual contacts at current, former and prospective corporate and consumer clients and suppliers, including name, contact information, marketing communications subscribed to, wealth category, property requirements, property details (e.g. market value), strategy (e.g. opinions and decisions regarding exploitation of property assets), profile information, notes of previous meetings and viewings;
• in connection with the administration of supplier service matters, including communication with suppliers, evaluation of, and payment for, services, administration of internal systems, and, compliance with company policies and legal requirements, personal information including contact information, notes of previous meetings and telephone calls.
Knight Frank will sometimes need to collect personal information about individuals who are representatives of the organisations receiving Knight Frank’s services (such as business contact details). Knight Frank also collects personal information from job applicants seeking employment with Knight Frank.
Generally, we do not collect sensitive information about individuals. Information about your health, racial or ethnic origin, political persuasions, criminal record and religious or philosophical beliefs are all examples of sensitive information. If we do need to collect sensitive information about you, we will only do so with your consent or where we are required to do so by law. Knight Frank may also hold other kinds of personal information as permitted or required by law or other kinds of personal information that we notify you of at or about the time of collection.
If you do not provide personal information when requested by Knight Frank, Knight Frank may be unable to provide you with its services.
2.2 How is personal information collected and held?
Generally, Knight Frank will collect personal information directly from the individual to whom it relates whenever practicable. This may be done verbally (e.g. in person or over the telephone), in writing (e.g. by letter, fax, email, application or other form) or through contact via our websites.
In circumstances where it is not practicable to collect the information directly from the individual, Knight Frank may collect the information via third parties. This may occur, for example:
(a) from anyone authorised or acting on your behalf;
(b) from the individual’s employer;
(c) from credit reference agencies or other credit reporting bodies and financial institutions or other credit providers;
(d) Knight Frank’s own records about you, from which Knight Frank may internally generate its own scores, assessments or deductions, particularly in relation to credit worthiness;
(e) from other agents and valuers who work with us;
(f) from property owners for whom we market properties or provide other services;
(g) from referees;
(h) from our contractors;
(i) from market research companies contracted by us to obtain information in relation to our services or from which we purchase mailing lists;
(j) from recruitment agencies;
(k) from publicly available information and databases;
(l) from other members of the Group; or
(m) from a publicly maintained record or other publicly available sources of information including social media or similar websites.
Generally, Knight Frank will only collect your personal information from sources other than you if it is unreasonable or impracticable to collect that personal information from you.
From time to time, Knight Frank may include links on its website to the websites of other organisations. Knight Frank is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of those other websites or organisations.
Personal information received by Knight Frank is held securely, either in electronic files on Knight Frank’s computer systems or in physical files held on Knight Frank’s premises.
Cookies (small files placed on a user’s computer when you access a website) are used on our website. Most web browsers allow you to control whether to accept Cookies. Unless you elect not to accept Cookies on your browser, the Knight Frank website will automatically place a Cookie on your computer to enable you to make full use of our website’s functionality.
2.3 How do we use personal information?
Knight Frank generally collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information for the following purposes:
(a) to provide our services to clients;
(b) to conduct our business;
(c) to enable us to supply you with information you request from us;
(d) to manage third party relationships including with contractors and consultants;
(e) for security purposes (e.g. details collected at open inspections);
(f) to assist us to identify and provide you with information about properties or other products, services or opportunities that may be of interest to you and to undertake direct marketing as detailed in section 2.6;
(g) to personalise how we engage and interact with you and the properties or other products, services or opportunities that we contact you regarding;
(h) to conduct marketing activities, including direct marketing as detailed in section 2.6 of this policy and keeping individuals informed about our services and properties we are dealing with;
(i) for the purposes of review and analysis of clients’ property requirements; communicating with clients regarding properties, opportunities and Knight Frank services they may find of value, communicating with clients to set up property viewings and meetings, providing ongoing advice to clients, including buying, selling, letting, management, development, investment and professional consultancy;
(j) for the purposes of the administration of supplier service matters, including communication with suppliers; evaluation of, and payment for, services;
(k) administration of internal systems, and compliance with company policies and legal requirements;
(l) to lawfully obtain credit information and to assess credit worthiness;
and to comply with the obligations of Knight Frank under any applicable laws. In addition to the purposes listed above, Knight Frank may use your personal information for other purposes which we notify you of when we collect the information and for purposes otherwise permitted or required by law.
2.4 Artificial Intelligence
Knight Frank may use artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to undertake our operations, enhance our services, better manage and administer our business and improve your experience with Knight Frank. AI may be used for these purposes for tasks including data analysis, report generation, portfolio and asset management, process automation and assistance with document review. Personal information about you may be processed by us or our third party service providers using AI or other technologies for the purposes described in this privacy policy. However, we do not use your personal information in AI or other automated programs to make decisions that significantly affect your rights or interests. If you have questions about how an AI-based process may have affected you, or if you wish to seek further information or review, you can contact us at privacy@au.knightfrank.com.
2.5 Disclosure of personal information to third parties
Knight Frank may disclose personal information to third parties for the purpose for which the information was collected or related purposes (such as to complete a transaction or provide a requested service). This may include disclosing personal information to, for example, our contractors, customers/clients, franchisees, potential vendors, purchasers, landlords or tenants, media organisations, other agents and their customers/clients, owners’ corporations/bodies corporate, and to parties engaged to evaluate a property.
Personal information may also be disclosed to advisers (including but not limited to solicitors), financial institutions and other credit providers, credit reporting bodies, government and statutory bodies, and to third party contractors engaged by Knight Frank (e.g. valuers, debt collection services, printing and mailing services, payroll and accounting services, auditors and information technology and marketing service providers).
As described in section 2.4, Knight Frank may use AI products and services to assist us to undertake our operations and better manage and administer our products and services. Information relating to you may therefore be disclosed to our technology providers who provide AI products or services to us.
Knight Frank may disclose personal information to other members of the Group (including entities located outside Australia) where such disclosure is necessary for the purpose for which the information was collected or related purposes which would be reasonably expected. In addition, Knight Frank may also disclose personal information for the purposes set out in this policy to third parties with whom Knight Frank or its related companies have a commercial or strategic relationship with (such as McGrath Limited (McGrath) or Bayleys Realty Group Limited (Bayleys) where such disclosure is necessary to support those relationships or the services provided, and where permitted by applicable privacy laws. Such disclosures will be limited to what is reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.
This may, in limited circumstances, include disclosure to franchisees, licensees or other operators within those networks where such disclosure is necessary to facilitate a specific transaction, referral or service, the individual would reasonably expect the disclosure, and appropriate privacy safeguards are in place. If you post information or other content to public sections of our websites or to our social media sites, you acknowledge that the information or content may be viewed by the public and/or users of the relevant website or social media site.
Overseas disclosure
Personal information may be disclosed to overseas recipients, including but not limited to overseas based members of the Group and third-party service providers who may provide us with, for example, data processing or storage services. Overseas recipients are likely to be located in countries including New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Singapore.
Where we disclose personal information to another party, we will require the third party to use the personal information only for the specific purposes for which we supply the information.
We take reasonable steps to ensure that any such overseas recipients do not hold, use or disclose your personal information in a way that is inconsistent with the obligations imposed under the Privacy Act and the APPs.
2.6 Direct marketing, including via social media
Knight Frank may also use and disclose your personal information in order to inform you of promotions, offers, products or services that may be of interest to you, including via social media platforms. This may include disclosing your personal information to our affiliated or related entities, including the Group, our franchisees or licensees or other entities which Knight Frank has a commercial relationship or arrangement for the purpose of Knight Frank or other entity contacting you for such direct marketing purposes. This may include your personal information being disclosed to and used by McGrath, Bayleys or their respective franchisees, licensees or other office or branch operators for referral or prospecting purposes, including to contact you and send you direct marketing messages regarding their services or offerings.
Knight Frank may also collect and use your personal information to undertake data analysis and matching (including with information obtained from other members of the Group, McGrath, Bayleys or their respective franchisees, licensees or other office or branch operators) to better understand you, your requirements, behaviour and preferences and to send you direct marketing messages tailored to you (including based on such data analysis and matching).
In the event you do not wish to receive such communications, you can opt-out by contacting Knight Frank’s Privacy Officer via the contact details set out at section 2.8 and 2.10 below or through any opt-out mechanism contained in a marketing communication to you.
Safeguarding your personal information
Knight Frank holds personal information itself and may also appoint third party service providers to assist it with holding personal information (for example third party hosting or technology providers).
Knight Frank takes all reasonable steps and has technological and operational processes, procedures and policies in place to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss and unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. This includes measures to supervise our personnel and third party service providers who handle or deal with personal information.
Notwithstanding Knight Frank’s commitment to safeguarding your personal information, if an ‘eligible data breach’ occurs (within the meaning of the Privacy Act), we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) that this has occurred. An ‘eligible data breach’ broadly refers to the situation where there has been an unauthorised access to, or unauthorised disclosure of, your personal information held by Knight Frank in circumstances where a reasonable person would conclude that the access or disclosure would likely result in serious harm to you.
2.8 How to request access or correct personal information
Under the Privacy Act, you have the right to seek access to and correction of personal information we hold about you.
To request access to or correction of your personal information, or to obtain more information about Knight Frank’s privacy policy, you can contact Knight Frank’s Privacy Officer:
By telephone: 03 9604 4700
By letter to: The Privacy Officer, Knight Frank, Level 29, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne 3000
By email: privacy@au.knightfrank.com
Knight Frank will endeavour to respond to requests for access to or correction of personal information within a reasonable period of time (which will generally be within 30 days of the request or complaint being received by Knight Frank). Where we refuse access, we will where possible provide you with a written notice setting out our reasons for the refusal and the avenues for complaint about the refusal.
If you are dissatisfied with Knight Frank’s refusal to grant access to or correct your personal information, you may make a complaint to Knight Frank using the process set out in paragraph 2.10 or to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. We may charge a reasonable fee for providing access to personal information. No fee is charged for the making of a request for access or correction.
2.9 How to opt out
If you do not wish to receive any further information from Knight Frank, including direct marketing materials as referred to above at section 2.6, you can contact the person named on the last communication you received from Knight Frank, unsubscribe from our mailing list by following the directions on our emails or you can opt-out by contacting Knight Frank directly via the contact details set out below.
2.10 How to get more information or make a complaint
Please direct any questions about this policy or complaints about a breach of privacy by Knight Frank to Knight Frank’s Privacy Officer who can be contacted:
By telephone: 03 9604 4700
By letter to: The Privacy Officer, Knight Frank, Level 29, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne 3000
By email: privacy@au.knightfrank.com
Any complaint should be made in writing. At all times, privacy complaints:
- will be treated seriously;
- will be dealt with promptly;
- will be dealt with in a confidential manner; and
- will not affect your existing obligations or affect the commercial arrangements between you and Knight Frank.
Knight Frank’s Privacy Officer will investigate your complaint. You will be informed of the outcome of your complaint following completion of that investigation. In the event that you are dissatisfied with the outcome of your complaint, or an extension to the time in which Knight Frank will resolve it, you may refer the complaint to the OAIC.