Information collected by Shuk

When you use  Shuk, we collect a variety of information from and about you and your devices.  Some of this information identifies you directly (like an email address) while some of it is associated with you through your account, profile, or device (like the homes you choose to save or your location data).

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The kind of data we collect about you depends on how you use Shuk.  Even if you don’t have an account with us, we may still collect some data about you, like your email address and phone number if you choose to contact a landlord through our platform, or your IP address and other device information when you browse our sites or use our apps.

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Information you give us or create using our services

When you access or use Shuk, we often ask you for information about yourself.  This usually includes basic things like your name, email address, and phone number.  If you use transaction services, we might ask you for more sensitive data like your income, housing history, and credit score.  If you contribute information, such as landlord or tenant reviews, we’ll store that as well.

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You may also provide information about other people through our services. For example, if you share a home listing with someone, we will collect that person’s email address as part of your account information.

Below are some examples of what information we collect for our main products and services and how we collect it.

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Home Search

When you use Shuk to find a home to rent, we give you lots of tools to find your next home.  If you tell us what you’re looking for, such as the type of home or number of bedrooms, we save that information so that we can tailor your search results. You can also claim your home on Shuk and edit home facts such as the square footage, number of bathrooms, and most recent renovation year.  We link the information you provide to your account.

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Rental Tools

You can use Shuk to apply for rental housing and pay your rent.  When you choose to use these features, we collect information from you to process your transaction.

 

When you pay your rent through Shuk, we collect your transaction information, but we don’t store your payment account details.  Instead, we use a third-party service to collect and store that data.  If you use your bank account to pay your rent, the third-party service will collect personal and financial information from your bank or other financial institution. By using Shuk to make your rent payments, you are granting Shuk and the third-party service the right, power, and authority to act on your behalf to access and transmit your personal and financial information from the relevant financial institution. Your information will be transferred, stored, and processed by the third-party service in accordance with their privacy policy.

We also collect your contact and payment details, along with professional information such as brokerage affiliation, associated listings and sales, and licensing history.

Information from Public Sources and Third Parties

Shuk collects information from public sources, such as county and state tax and property records, government agencies, and multiple listing services (or MLS).  Most of this information is about properties, not people.  But some information we collect, like the identity of a property’s owner or real estate license information, may relate to individuals.

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We also collect information about you from various third parties in order to provide better service to you.  This may include demographic information and other attributes about you.

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Information we collect as you use Shuk

Along with the information you give us directly or we obtain from public sources, we collect a variety of information automatically as you use Shuk.

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Activity information

We collect information about how you use Shuk.  This includes things like your home search history, homes you view, what you’ve clicked on and other uses of our features, and the amount of time you spend looking at different parts of our websites.  When you call or text Shuk, we collect data about your call or text, including the date and time of the call or text, your phone number, and the content of the call or text.

 

Device information

Like other websites and apps, we collect data about the browsers and devices you use to access Shuk.  The data we collect includes browser or device model and settings, operating system, unique identifiers, and the version of the app you’re using. We also collect data about how your browsers and devices interact with our services, including IP address, crash reports, system activity, and the date, time, and the URL of the site you visited before Shuk.

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You can control our collection of certain data, such as your mobile device model or the language your mobile device uses, by adjusting the privacy and security settings on your mobile device.

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Location Information

If you enable location services on your mobile device, Shuk collects the location of your device.  We use that information to provide you with location-based information and ads.  If you don’t want to use these features, you can turn off location services on your device.

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We also collect location information for similar purposes from your browser if you enable it.  You can disable access through your browser settings. Information is collected using the following: cookies, pixel tags, and other tracking technologies

 

We use various tools to collect data when you visit the Shuk, including cookies, pixel tags, and other similar technologies. Cookies are bits of electronic data that can be transferred to your computer or other device to identify your browser.

 

When you use Shuk, we may use cookies and other tools to gather information about how you view and use our services and content, and to connect your activity with other data we store about you. The use of cookies helps us serve you better by understanding what you’re interested in, tracking trends, measuring the effectiveness of ads, saving your preferences, and storing information you may want to retrieve on a regular basis, such as your favorite homes. We also allow specific, approved partners to collect data from your browser or device for advertising and measurement purposes using their own cookies or similar tools.

 

At any time, you can use our cookie preference tools to manage what kinds of cookies and other tracking technologies you’re comfortable with.  Contact support@theshuk.app for information about how to access these tools.  You can also disable cookies altogether by adjusting the settings on your browser. However, if you choose to disable some or all cookies, many parts of our services may no longer work.  

 

In addition, if you give your email address to us, we may use a scrambled, unreadable form (called a “hashed” version) of your email address to deliver tailored ads to you on Shuk or on other websites, including via Facebook’s Custom Audience Feature or other similar tools. Click here to learn about how you can control the ads you see on Facebook.

 

For information about how you can manage your cookie preferences, check out the section of this policy called “Your privacy tools and choices.”

 

Social networks

If you use social media logins (like Google and Facebook) to log in to Shuk, we may access your public social media profile information.  You can always limit this sharing using your social media service settings.

Inferences

 

To improve our services and make them more useful to you, we use data about your activity to understand and infer your preferences.  For example, if you usually search for homes for rent in a certain location or size, we may assume that you are not looking for other areas or  types of homes.

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Commercial Information

We collect information about the products and services you purchase or consider purchasing from us.  This includes products for professionals, such as our advertising products, as well as consumer services like Shuk Offers.

 

Why Shuk uses your information

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Providing and improving our services

We use your information to provide our services to you. We also use your information to improve our existing services and develop new ones.  For example, we track how you use our websites and apps and use that information to troubleshoot issues and adjust things to improve your experience.

 

Communicating with you and connecting you with others

We use the contact information you provide us, like your phone number and email address, to communicate with you about our services.  This includes things like responding to comments, questions, and requests you send us. It also includes notifying you about our services, offers, promotions, news, and other updates we think may be of interest to you.

 

Personalizing your experience

We use the information we collect about you and your activity on our services to personalize the services we offer.  We also use it to show advertising, content, or features that we think you might like.  This includes things like customized search results that match your preferences and prior search criteria.

 

Other uses of your information

Occasionally, there may be a reason we’d like to use your information in a way that isn’t described here.  If that happens, we’ll let you know so you can decide if you’re comfortable with it.

 

Sharing your information

We understand that sharing information with third parties is a big responsibility.  We’re committed to sharing information only when needed for a legitimate business or legal purpose, and then only with recipients who will protect it.

 

Service providers

When Shuk hires a service provider to help operate our business, we may need to give them access to information to provide their service.  We allow them to use the information only to perform the service we’ve asked them to perform.  We vet all service providers carefully, and Shuk always remains responsible for the privacy of your information that is shared with our service providers.

 

When Shuk partners with other third-party services to offer products and services to you, we may share information with those partners only as needed to provide those products and services and only subject to the terms of this privacy policy.

 

Legal and compliance transfers

When Shuk needs to share data to satisfy a legal or regulatory requirement, including responding to a subpoena or other lawful government request for data, we will share information only as necessary to comply with that requirement.  We’ll tell you before sharing your information in these situations unless we’re prohibited from doing so.  We may also share information if needed to enforce our legal rights, detect or prevent fraud or security concerns, and protect public safety.

 

If Shuk is involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of transfer or sale of some or all of its business, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, we may share your information in connection with that transaction.

 

Public and deidentified data

We may share information that is collected from public sources or that you choose to share publicly (such as public reviews and home facts) with third parties.  We may also share aggregated and/or deidentified information that cannot reasonably be used to identify you.

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Data retention

We understand the importance of protecting our users' privacy and their control over their data. However, due to the nature of our app's services, we are required by law and regulation to retain certain user data, including transaction history and other relevant data, for a specific period of time. As such, we are unable to provide users with the ability to delete their account and all associated data. However, we have implemented a deactivation feature ("Deletion Request") that allows users to deactivate their account while retaining their transaction history and other relevant data for legal and regulatory purposes. We want to assure our users that we are committed to protecting their data and complying with applicable laws and regulations. If you have any questions or concerns about our data retention practices, please contact us at support@theshuk.app.

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Sales of personal information

Shuk allows certain companies to place tracking technologies like cookies and pixels on our sites, which allow those companies to receive information about your activity on Shuk that is associated with your browser or device.  The companies may use that data to serve you more relevant ads on our sites or others.  Under some state laws, sharing data for online advertising like this may be considered a “sale” of information.  Except for this kind of sharing, Shuk doesn’t sell any of your information.

You always have full control over whether these technologies work on your devices.  You can disable them entirely using our cookie consent preference tools (see the Shuk Privacy Center for instructions), or by clicking the “Do Not Sell My Information” link on our websites.

 

Privacy tools and choices

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Accessing and deleting your information

We’ve made a variety of privacy tools available on our sites.  Using Shuk Privacy Center, you can see what kind of data we’ve collected about you and the types of third parties we share it with.  You can also download a copy of your Shuk data and take it with you to a service outside of Shuk. If you’d like to delete your Shuk, data or close your account, you can do that using Shuk Privacy Center as well.

We provide these tools for your benefit and we will never discriminate against you for using them. But if you choose to delete your data or close your account, we won’t be able to offer you services that require us to use your data.

 

Managing cookie preferences

The Shuk Privacy Center has information about how to use tools on our websites and apps to manage what kinds of cookies are allowed to load when you use Shuk.

Shuk’s third-party ad servers, ad network providers, and third-party advertisers provide ad content that appears on Shuk. To measure how effective those ads are and to make them more relevant, ad providers may use their own tracking technologies to collect your information. These are used to record users’ activity, such as the pages visited, and to learn what types of information are of most interest to the users. For more information regarding the choices you have about these technologies (such as opting out), visit the Network Advertising Initiative, Digital Advertising Alliance, Omniture, and PrivacyChoice.

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Managing communications preferences

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Email subscriptions

Shuk may send you email for a variety of reasons.  For example, if you save a search, we’ll send you emails with new homes on the market that match your search.  If you save a home, we’ll keep you posted on status updates like when that home has an opening.  When you use our transaction services, we’ll send you status updates and other information about your transaction.  If you have an account with Shuk, you can select your preferences through your account settings. Also, you can manage the types of email you receive by following the instructions included in each email we send you. Even if you unsubscribe from some email subscriptions, we may still need to email you with important transactional or other non-advertising information.

 

Calls and texts​

Some of our services allow you to provide your phone number to us.  If you give us your number, we may call or text you, for example, to give you information about a tenant interested in your home. We will contact you through these methods only in accordance with applicable legal requirements, and you always have the ability to opt out of further calls or texts.

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Protecting your information

We understand that no matter how we collect your information, we have a responsibility to protect it.  We take that responsibility seriously.  We build security into our products and features from the ground up to help protect data from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.

 

We’re always looking for threats and take reasonable steps to respond to those threats, protecting the information users share with us.  Of course, no method of

Internet transmission or data storage can provide guaranteed protection to your information.  If anything should ever happen to your information, we’ll let you know as soon as we can and try our best to make it right.

 

Shuk is based in the United States and the information we collect is governed primarily by U.S. law.  If you access or use our services or provide information to us, your information will be processed and stored in the United States, where you may not have the same rights and protections as you do under your local law.

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Applicability of this policy

This policy applies to every service of ours that links to it, including Shuk, Inc. 

Our apps and services may link to other companies’ websites. Some features may also involve the sharing of your information with third-party websites. These third-party websites may collect information about users on those websites.  Shuk doesn’t control those sites, and this privacy policy does not apply to these external websites and third parties.

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Legal Disclosures

In this section, we’ve provided some legally required disclosures under state privacy laws.  There shouldn’t be anything surprising in this section, and we’ve tried to explain our privacy practices in plain English throughout the rest of the policy.

 

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act or CCPA, California residents have certain rights regarding their data, including:

The right to know the categories of personal information we’ve collected and the categories of sources from which we got the information (see Information collected by Shuk and the chart just below)

The right to know the business purposes for sharing personal information (see Why Shuk uses your information)

The right to know the categories of third parties with whom we’ve shared personal information (see Sharing your information)

The right to access the specific pieces of personal information we’ve collected and the right to delete your information (see Privacy tools and choices)

California residents also have the right to not be discriminated against if they choose to exercise their privacy rights.