We are serious about protecting the privacy of our users, which comprise travellers (who are seeking a property to rent) and members (who offer such properties on the Site). We use information collected about you only as permitted in this Privacy Policy. This is our privacy policy, but please be aware that should you follow a link to another Web site, you are no longer covered by this policy. It's a good idea to understand the privacy policy of any Web site before sharing personal information with it. Words and phrases used in this policy have the same meaning as in the Terms and Conditions of Use - available at www.ownersdirect.co.uk/termsandconditions.htm

1. Who processes your personal data?
Your personal data (also referred to as personal information) - that is, data that identifies you, or from which you are identifiable - will be collected, processed, stored and used by us, and passed to and processed by our subsidiary and/or affiliated companies and other data processors acting under contract with us. Personal data contributed by or collected from users on our Site may be stored and processed in the UK, United States or any other country in which we or our affiliates, subsidiaries or agents maintain facilities, and by using our Site, you acknowledge and agree that you may be transferring your personal data outside of the country in which you have contributed it, and that you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to those that apply in the European Union (EU). However, if we transfer your personal data outside of the EU in this way, we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected in compliance with applicable data protection law and this Privacy Policy.

2. The information we gather
At various times you may contribute your personal data to us. For example, in order to process a request or enquiry you may make concerning a property or transaction, we need to know all or some of the following: your full name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and, in the case of a member's (advertising) listing, a method of payment. You may also contribute personal data to us at other times, such as when registering on the Site.

For further detail on our gathering of personal data, see Surveys and Newsletters below.

3. How we use your personal data
Your personal data will be used to provide and promote the Site, to process payments members make to us, to provide user support, and for other purposes referred to in this Privacy Policy and the Terms and Conditions.

We will also use the personal data users provide to us to contact the user from time to time with critical user or service updates, and to send other messages that are integral to the service we provide on the Site. If you have an account on the Site, we must always be able to e-mail you operational information about your account and your use of our services.

Your personal information is not shared with third parties, except: 1) in the case of special promotions by us, or one of our partners, about which you've requested to be notified; 2) where a third party performs services on our behalf and has agreed to keep such information confidential (such as the processing of your credit card payment or the conduct of an online survey for example); and 3) our Affiliates, but only for the purpose of performing this Agreement.

In the event that we or the Site are acquired by a third party, your personal information may be transferred to any such acquirer.

4. Newsletters
As a member of the Site, you will receive our "Owner" newsletter, which is an integral part of the service we provide. Traveller users of the Site will be given the option to receive our "Traveller" newsletter when they registered with us. Users may cancel their subscription to these newsletters at any time.

5. Surveys
Surveys are another method by which we gather information about our users. From time to time, we request users' input in order to evaluate potential features and services. The decision to answer a survey is completely yours. We use information gathered from surveys to improve our service.

6. Enquiries
Site users may send enquiries to members via clickable links on Site listings. If you choose to send an enquiry through these links, your personal information, including your e-mail address and any other information you supply, will be visible to the member in question so that they might reply directly to you. If you call the member, you may be asked to leave a return telephone number. Do not share information in the e-mail or phone call that you are not prepared to allow them to have, including, but not limited to, credit card and bank account information. These enquiries are both sent to the individual member you selected and retained by us. The resulting enquiry is available for review only by the member to whom they were initially addressed and to our customer service employees, who may be asked by members for their past enquiry information. While the content of these enquiries is not shared with any other party, the Site may, from time to time, use third party e-mail servers to send and track receipt of the enquiry e-mails, and analyze the pattern of enquiry usage reported by these third party tracking systems; the resulting information is used and stored only in an anonymised form.

7. How Do We Protect Your Personal Information Once We Have It?
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to guard against unauthorised or unlawful processing of your personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, your personal data. While no computer system is completely secure, we believe the measures implemented by our site reduce the likelihood of security problems to a level appropriate to the type of data involved. We have security measures in place to protect our user database and access to this database is restricted internally. However, it remains each user's responsibility:
a. to protect against unauthorised access to your use of the Site;
b. to ensure no-one else uses the Site while the user's machine is "logged on" to the Site service;
c. to log off or exit from the Site when not using it; and
d. where relevant, to keep his/her password or other access information secret.
All personal information is stored on a secure server. We do not store credit card numbers or related identifying information on any Site server. All such information is stored by our credit card processing partner, on their secured servers, and is protected via its proprietary methods. Please remember that many services and transactions are performed by our business partners. Our privacy policy and our security or common practices do not apply to other companies.

8. What is a Cookie and Why Do We Use Them?
A "cookie" is a small piece of information sent by a Web server to store in a Web browser so that it can later be read back from that browser. We may use cookies to store some personal preferences for your future visits. Cookies allow us to recognize you more quickly; therefore, your time spent on our site can be more personalized and productive. You'll find that cookies are an industry standard and are used at most major Web sites in much the same way we use them here at our Site.

We use third-party site usage tracking companies to analyze your Site visit or to conduct surveys. In the course of serving our pages, these third parties may place or recognize a unique "cookie" on your browser. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, e-mail address or telephone number) about your visits to the Site and other Web sites in order to help us understand how to serve you better.

We also use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Site. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. When you view a web page on our Site that contains advertising provided by one of these third parties, the service provider may place a cookie on or retrieve a cookie from your computer if you have not disabled your browser from receiving cookies.

If you wish, you can prevent cookie files from using (non-personal) information about you by either deleting the cookie folder in your browser or by putting your browser's Privacy setting higher, but doing so will mean that (a) your use of the Site will be adversely affected (and quite possibly entirely prevented), (b) your experience of this and other sites that use cookies to enhance or personalize your experience will be adversely affected, and (c) you will not be presented with advertising that reflects the way that you use our, and other, sites. You find out how to make these changes to your browser at this site: www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/.

9. Web Beacons and Clear GIFs
We gather and share anonymised information concerning the usage of the Site by members and travellers with one or more third-party tracking companies for the purpose of reporting statistics. In this connection, some of the pages you visit on our Site use electronic images placed in the web page code, called pixel tags (also called a "clear GIFs" or "Web Beacons") that can serve many of the same purposes as cookies.

Web beacons may be used to track the traffic patterns of users from one page to another in order to maximize web traffic flow.

The Site's third-party advertising service providers may also use Web Beacons to recognize you when you visit the Site and to help determine how you found the Site. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here: http://networkadvertising.org/consumer/opt_out.asp

10. How we protect your privacy with third parties
As indicated above, we may work with other companies who place cookies or web beacons on our Site. These companies help operate our Site and provide you with additional products and services. They are subject to confidentiality agreements with us and other legal restrictions. We do not permit any of these companies to collect personal information using cookies or web beacons on our Site.
Some of these companies - such as DoubleClick - are our service providers who place cookies that help us serve our own content and compile anonymous site metrics and analytics. We require these companies to use the information they collect only to provide us with these services under contract.
We participate in cookie-based ad networks operated by Exelate, Revenue Science and Tacoda. This means that these companies may use some anonymous information about you (based on a cookie on your computer) to display ads. We do not permit these companies to collect any personal information about you. Tacoda collects anonymous information using cookies to tailor the advertising you see on our Site or elsewhere on the web. Click these links to learn more about Exelate's, Revenue Science's, and Tacoda's ad-serving business practices and privacy policies, including how to decline participation in these programs. business practices and privacy policies, including how to decline participation in these programs.

11. How do I correct or update my information?
We allow our users the option to change or modify information previously provided. This may be done through the following methods:
a. e-mail the request to support@ownersdirect.co.uk or
b. mail the request to us at Owners Direct Holiday Rentals Ltd, 58 The Street, Ashtead, Surrey, KT21 1AW

12. How do I opt-out of receiving marketing communications from you?
You may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us by the following means:
1. send an e-mail to support@ownersdirect.co.uk
2. follow the instructions included in each communication or newsletter
3. post the request to us at Owners Direct Holiday Rentals Ltd, 58 The Street, Ashtead, Surrey KT21 1AW
4. on-line via the following link: www.ownersdirect.co.uk/unsubscribe.asp

13. Changes to this Privacy Policy
a. We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time, and post the new version on the Site. When we do so, we will notify you of the fact on the main screen of the Site, and the new version of this Privacy Policy will take effect, and will govern all Site services and your relationship with us:
a. commencing one month after the date of posting;
b. if earlier, when (following posting of the new Privacy Policy) you make an enquiry or otherwise interact with us or another user; or
c. immediately upon the date of posting, if the changes are not to operative provisions, or not capable of adversely affecting you - examples of which would include, without limitation, changes to contact details referred to, or the refinement of provisions that are already included, in this Privacy Policy.

14. How long will we keep your personal data?
We will retain your personal data only as long as is necessary for the purposes to which you consent under the Terms and Conditions and this Privacy Policy, or as is required by applicable law, and then we will delete it.

15. Disclosure for legal reasons
Your personal data may be disclosed if we or an entity processing your data on our behalf are compelled to do so by law, or receive a valid, legally compliant request by a law enforcement or governmental authority.

16. How do I contact you?
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this Site, or your dealings with this Site, we encourage you to contact us at support@ownersdirect.co.uk