Texas REALTORS® (“we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This privacy policy informs you of the personal information that we collect, disclose, or use through (i) websites, products, services and software that we operate and in which we post a direct link to this privacy policy (collectively, our “Services”); and (ii) business interactions in person or by phone, email, or mail.

Please read the privacy policy below and if you have any questions, contact us at privacy@texasrealtors.com or by mail addressed to Texas REALTORS®, Attn: General Counsel, 1115 San Jacinto Blvd., Suite 200, Austin, TX, 78701. From time to time, we may change this privacy policy. You should check our website regularly to see any recent changes we may have made.

Please note that our Services may contain links that may take you to sites operated by a third party other than Texas REALTORS®. If you click on one of these links, you understand that this policy no longer applies. We have no control over third-party sites or their operation.

By accessing or using our Services or otherwise actively providing us with your personal information, you agree that we may collect, use and process your personal information as outlined in this privacy policy and as permitted by applicable laws. If you do not agree to the terms of this privacy policy, please do not use our Services or provide us with any personal information.

What is personal information?

Personal information means any information relating to an identifiable individual. Personal information also includes sensitive personal information such as a first name or initial and last name in combination with any of the following:

  • Birth date;
  • Social security number or other government issued identification number;
  • Telecommunication access devices as defined by Section 32.51, Penal Code, including debit or credit card information;
  • Financial institution account number, routing code, or any other financial information; or
  • Account number or credit or debit card number in combination with any required security code, access code, or password that would permit access to an individual’s financial account.

How is personal information collected or obtained?

We may collect your personal information if you:

  • Speak with our staff at meetings or events
  • Become a member
  • Create or update an account or profile
  • Contact us for customer service or for other business purposes
  • Order our products or services
  • Pay member dues or other fees
  • Register for our meetings or events
  • Make PAC contributions
  • Volunteer, are nominated for, or serve on any of our governing or advisory bodies, including committees, working groups, or task forces

In all of these instances, you will know what data is collected, because you will submit it.

We may also collect publicly-available voter registration data and combine with other publicly-available demographic data and/or membership data you have submitted to us, including data about member political contribution.

When you visit our Services, our servers also collect information from or about the computer, phone or other device on which you access our Services, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your device to the Internet; browser type, version, and time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system, and platform; the full Uniform Resource Locator (URL) clickstream to, through, and from our Services, including date and time; cookie number; Services you viewed; your searches on our Services; and the phone number you used to call us if you call us. During some visits, we may use software tools to measure and collect session information, including page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page. Unless you also actively submit personal information to us, any information that is collected this way typically does not allow us to identify you personally.

We, or third party service providers acting on our behalf, may use cookies, and other technologies to collect the information described above. A cookie is information saved by your web browser. When you visit a website, the site may place a cookie on your web browser so it can recognize your device in the future. If you return to that site later on, it can read that cookie to remember you from your last visit and keep track of you over time. We use cookies to remember when you have logged into your account on our Services; to process any transactions you make on our Services; and to gather statistical information about usage of our Services.

Generally, you do not need to have cookies turned on to visit or use our Services. You can refuse cookies by turning them off on your browser. You can set your web browser to limit the type of cookies you allow. For more information, please see the Federal Trade Commission’s guidance on cookies and other forms of online tracking. If you want to access webpages on our Services that require you to sign in, you need to accept a mandatory cookie, which you can delete after you leave our Services by logging out.

How and when is the personal information used?

We use personal information that we collect about you to:

  • Respond to your inquiries
  • Provide requested services and information
  • Customize your experiences while using our Services
  • Inform you of current issues affecting the real estate industry
  • Notify you of updates to our services, products, and upcoming events and programs
  • Process your payments for membership dues, professional standards ethics or arbitration hearing fees, professional development registration, application, or product fees, PAC contributions, or other products or services
  • Complete orders for products and services
  • Assist you with meeting registration and hotel reservations or with our Services
  • Track usage of our Services
  • Discharge our contractual obligations to you
  • Secure and improve the performance of our Services
  • Comply with any legal obligations that apply to us
  • Designate TREPAC Trustees as signers on certain checking accounts

We may use personal information about you collected from publicly-available sources or from the National Association of REALTORS® or local REALTOR® associations, and combine it with other personal information we have collected about you, to complete your membership or account profile. We may also use information about you collected from publicly-available sources to help us identify important political issues, impact public policy (including voter opinions on specified issues or candidates for public office), increase our visibility, and provide information to our members regarding opinions and influencing factors among homeowners and other consumers.

How is personal information protected?

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.

Paper records containing sensitive personal information are protected under lock and key.  Electronic records containing sensitive personal information are protected under an access name and password assigned to our employees.  Additionally, sensitive personal information in electronic records, such as credit card or debit card numbers, is encrypted.

Who has access to the personal information?

Our staff has access to your personal information for the purposes outlined in this privacy policy. We do not sell your personal information. In some situations, we may share your personal information with others as outlined below:

  • We may employ companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf, such as to send email, analyze data, provide marketing assistance, tailor communications, process credit or debit card payments, and provide customer service. They have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes.
  • We may partner with companies and individuals to provide benefits or discounts to our members. They have access to personal information needed to identify and/or market the services to our members, but may not use it for other purposes.
  • We may provide personal information about attendees of our annual conference or winter meeting to major sponsors of the event(s) and to certain hotels as necessary.
  • We disclose personal information when we believe it is appropriate to comply with the law or to cooperate with law enforcement; to comply with or enforce our agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Texas REALTORS®, our members, or others. This may include, but is not limited to, sharing personal information of our members with the National Association of REALTORS®, the Texas Ethics Commission, the Federal Election Commission, and our banking institutions, as necessary.

Other than as set out above, we will obtain your consent as required by law before disclosing your personal information to a third party.

What is the method of disposal of personal information?

Personal information will be retained and disposed of in accordance with our record retention policy, our agreements, and/or applicable law. Typically, this means we retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this policy, unless a longer period is required or permitted by law.

We use reasonable measures to dispose of personal information. Sensitive personal information is usually disposed of by shredding documents, erasing electronic files by means that make the files unreadable or undecipherable, or by eradicating the information from documents or electronic files in ways that make the personal information unreadable. To further ensure that documentation containing sensitive personal information is adequately destroyed, we have retained the following document and record destruction company:  Iron Mountain, 1-800-934-3453.

How Can You Access, Change, or Delete Personal Information, and Exercise Other Rights?

If you have an account or profile on our Services, please note that our Services give you access to update, modify, or remove certain information. You may adjust your email subscription settings by visiting your account profile and settings or by clicking on the preference or unsubscribe link in the communication. If you unsubscribe from communications, please note that we may still contact you for transactional or informational purposes, including but not limited to, customer service issues or any questions regarding a specific inquiry you made to us.

Otherwise, to access, change, or delete other personal information or exercise other rights, please contact us at privacy@texasrealtors.com. Note that we may need to retain certain information as required or authorized by law.

­­­­­­­­This following applies to individuals protected by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) who access our Services or otherwise provide us with personal information.

The Texas Association of REALTORS®, Inc. is the controller of the personal information you provide to us and such information is housed on servers in the United States.

What Are Our Legal Bases for Processing Personal Information?

We process your personal information on several different legal bases, as follows:

  • Consent: If we are required to obtain your consent to process your personal information, we may perform such processing on the basis of your consent. In such cases, you may withdraw your consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing. Providing your consent is voluntary, but we may not be able to provide you with a service for which we require your consent until we obtain it.
  • Contract Performance: We may process your personal information as necessary to comply with or perform our contractual obligations or to take steps requested by a contracting party prior to entering into a contract.
  • Legal Obligations: We may process your personal information as necessary to comply with relevant laws, regulatory requirements, and to respond to lawful requests, court orders, and legal process.
  • Legitimate Interests: We may process your personal information as necessary to pursue our legitimate interests. In these cases, we will ensure that your interests do not override our legitimate interests.

What Data Subject Rights Do You Have?

Under the GDPR, you may have the following rights:

  • The right to obtain from us confirmation as to whether your personal data is being processed, and, where that is the case, to request access to the personal data.
  • The right to have personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • The right to ask us to erase your personal data.
  • The right to request restriction of processing of your personal data.
  • The right to obtain your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine readable form which you have provided to us, and to reuse it for your own purposes across different services.
  • The right to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.

To exercise your rights, please contact us at privacy@texasrealtors.com.

Last updated January 8, 2019