BHS Privacy Approach

Terms of use

This mobile application is made available by Bridge Housing Solutions, (“My Social Housing,” “our,” “we,” or “us”) a company registered in England and Wales Company registration number 8436013. Set out below are the terms and conditions (the “Terms”) you are agreeing to when you use the My Social Housing App. You should read, and ensure that you understand, all of the Terms prior to using the My Social Housing App. By using the My Social Housing App, you, the user, accept that you have the right, authority and capacity to enter into and be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to be bound by these Terms, then you should immediately uninstall the My Social Housing app and discontinue its use. These Terms should be read alongside our Privacy Policy.

Use of the app

You must be at least 18 years of age, be in housing need and working with either Local Authority or Homeless Charity who is assisting you with finding a home and resident in the UK to use the App. – CHANGED THIS BIT.

Terms of use

By downloading or using the app, these terms will automatically apply to you. You should make sure therefore that you read them carefully before using the app. We are offering you this app to use for your own personal use without cost, but you should be aware that you are not allowed to copy, or modify any part of the app, or our trademarks in any way. You are not allowed to attempt to extract the source code of the app, and you also should not try to translate the app into other languages or make derivative versions. The app itself, and all the trademarks, copyright, database rights and other intellectual property rights related to it, still belong to Bridge Housing Solutions. You also agree that you will not interfere with, or disrupt, the My Social Housing App or any servers or networks connected to the app, including by transmitting any worms, viruses, malware, spyware or any other code of a destructive, malicious or disruptive nature; inject content or code or otherwise alter or interfere with the way any page of the app is rendered or displayed in a user’s browser or device; or penetrate or attempt to penetrate the app’s security measures and if you do, you may commit a criminal offence. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities, and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them

Prohibitions of use

We prohibit the use of the My Social Housing App for any unlawful purpose. You agree not to use the My Social Housing App in any way that:

is unlawful, illegal or unauthorised;
is defamatory of any other person;
is obscene or offensive;
promotes discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
infringes any copyright, database right or trademark of any other person;
is likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person;
is likely to disrupt our service in any way; or
advocates, promotes or assists any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse
In addition to this, you agree not to use, nor allow any person under your control to
use, the My Social Housing App for the following purposes:
posting any incomplete, false or inaccurate information;
posting any information which is subject to confidentiality provisions (implied or express);
posting any information which, in our reasonable opinion, we consider to be defamatory, offensive, obscene, threatening, racist, sexist or discriminatory;
deleting, amending or in any way altering any material which has not been
posted by you;
posting materials which are not your own work (in whole or in part) without having the consent of the original author;
or making use of the My Social Housing App and/or the materials in a way which infringes the intellectual property rights of any other party

In the event that we consider that you are making any illegal and/or unauthorised use of the My Social Housing App and/or your use of the My Social Housing App is in breach of these Terms, we reserve the right to take any action that we deem fit, including terminating your use of the My Social Housing App without notice and with immediate effect and, in the case of illegality, instigating criminal proceedings.

Notwithstanding any other provision of these Terms, we may, at any time and for any reason, terminate these Terms with you and deny you access to the My Social Housing App.

Accessing the MSH app

We are providing our services on an “as is” basis without any express or implied warranties. My Social Housing is committed to ensuring that the app is as useful and efficient as possible. For that reason, we reserve the right to make changes to the app or to charge for its services, at any time and for any reason. We will never charge you for the app or its services without making it very clear to you exactly what you’re paying for.

The My Social Housing App stores and processes personal data that you have provided to us so that you can use the app. For more details please refer to our Privacy Policy.

It’s your responsibility to keep your phone and access to the app safe and secure.

You must notify us promptly of any unauthorised use or security breach of your account. We therefore recommend that you do not jailbreak or root your phone, which is the process of removing software restrictions and limitations imposed by the official operating system of your device. It could make your phone vulnerable to malware/viruses/malicious programs, compromise your phone’s security features and it could mean that the My Social Housing app won’t work properly or at all. We make no warranty that the contents of the My Social Housing App are free from infection by viruses or anything else which has contaminating or destructive properties and shall have no liability in respect thereof.

Mobile networks

You should be aware that there are certain things that My Social Housing App will not take responsibility for. Certain functions of the app will require an active internet connection. The connection can be Wi-Fi, or provided by your mobile network provider, but My Social Housing App cannot take responsibility for the app not working at full functionality if you don’t have access to Wi-Fi, and you don’t have any of your data allowance left.

If you are using the app outside of an area with Wi-Fi, you should remember that your terms of agreement with your mobile network provider will still apply. As a result, you may be charged by your mobile provider for the cost of data for the duration of the connection while accessing the app, or other third-party charges

You acknowledge that your agreement with your mobile network provider (“Mobile Provider”) will apply to your use of the App. You acknowledge that you may be charged by the Mobile Provider for data services while using certain features of the App or any such third-party charges as may arise, and you accept responsibility for such charges. If you are not the bill payer for the Device being used to access the App, you will be assumed to have received permission from the bill payer for using the App

In using the app, you’re accepting responsibility for any such charges, including roaming data charges if you use the app outside of your home territory (i.e. region or country) without turning off data roaming. If you are not the bill payer for the device on which you’re using the app, please be aware that we assume that you have received permission from the bill payer for using the app

Devices

Please note that the My Social Housing App may not be compatible with all devices or operating systems and we shall not be liable for any failure arising in the app which arises from incompatibility (including, without limitation, minimum storage and memory requirements from time to time)

Content

You acknowledge and agree that any reliance on material contained on the My Social Housing App is at your own risk. We have taken every care in the preparation of the content contained on the My Social Housing App, however we cannot guarantee uninterrupted and totally reliable access to the My Social Housing and therefore cannot guarantee that the information will always be completely up to date and free of mistakes.

It is important to bear in mind that although we endeavour to ensure that it is updated and correct at all times, we do rely on third parties to provide information to us so that we can make it available to you.

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Disclaimers

To the extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials on the Site and will accept no liability for any loss or damage arising as a result of problems with access. We shall not be liable to any person for any loss or damage howsoever caused which may arise from the use of any of the My Social Housing App
Links (properties) in the My Social Housing App may lead to other websites, which are not under our control. When you activate any of the links, you will leave the My Social Housing App and we have no control over and will accept no responsibility or liability for the material on any website which is not under our control
You agree that we shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as a result of any such dealings, or as the result of the presence of such advertisers or trade partners on the My Social Housing App
We may make software owned or operated by third-party companies available to you. You must only use this software in accordance with the terms and conditions imposed by the third-party provider
At some point we may wish to update the app. The app is currently available on Android and iOS – the requirements for both systems (and for any additional systems we decide to extend the availability of the app to) may change, and you’ll need to download the updates if you want to keep using the app
My Social Housing App does not promise that it will always update the app so that it is relevant to you and/or works with the iOS/Android version that you have installed on your device. However, you promise to always accept updates to the application when offered to you
We may also wish to stop providing the app and may terminate use of it at any time without giving notice of termination to you. Unless we tell you otherwise, upon any termination, (a) the rights and licenses granted to you in these terms will end; (b) you must stop using the app, and (if needed) delete it from your device

Privacy policy

For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (including any legislation incorporating it into local law), we are required to explain to you why we ask for personal information about you, how we

intend to use the information you provide and whether we will share this with anyone else.

We are the data controller which means that we are responsible for and control the processing of the personal Information that we collect about you or that you give to us. “Personal information” or “personal data” means information that can be used to identify or contact you.

My Social Housing is a product of Bridge Housing Solutions and is registered with the Information Commissioners Office as a data controller. Our registration number is ZA306081.

Introduction

My Social Housing is a product of Bridge Housing Solutions. Bridge Housing Solutions is a company registered in England under Company number 8436013 whose registered office is at 1 Burwood Place, London, W2 2UT.

This is the My Social Housing App (App) privacy policy and it describes how My Social Housing protects and makes use of the information you give the company over the phone, online, through our mobile applications or if you use any of our websites or interact with us on social media

The purpose of this privacy policy is to let you know the type of information we may gather about you, how we may use it, whether we disclose it to anyone, and the choices you have regarding our use of the information, including how to access and update information.

This privacy policy (together with our User Terms and Conditions) applies to personal information we collect about you

If you are asked to provide information when using the App, it will only be used in the ways described in this privacy policy.

This policy is updated from time to time. The latest version is published on this page.

The App privacy policy was updated on: 01 May 2020.

We gather and use certain information about individuals in order to provide products and services and to enable certain functions on the App.

We also collect information to better understand how visitors use the App and to present timely, relevant information to them.

Under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation, My Social Housing has a legal duty to protect any information we collect from you or have about you from other sources.

There are rules and guidelines we must follow when handling your information. These are referred to as Data Protection Principles.

What data we gather

Name;
Contact information including email address and telephone number;
Demographic information, such as postcode, preferences and interests;
Details of your tenancy, including the name of your landlord, rent account number, weekly / monthly rent amount, frequency of rent payment;
Personal financial information relating to your household income and expenditure;
App usage data - details of your use of our App including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data and other communication data, and the pages and other resources that you access;
Technical information, such as the type of mobile device you use, time zone settings, operating systems and platforms collect for us by a third- party service provider;
Other information relevant to client enquiries;
Other information pertaining to special offers and surveys;
Please note that all third-party information collected on our behalf is not stored or saved on our servers.

How we use this data

Collecting this data helps us understand what you are looking from the company, enabling us to deliver improved products and services.

We use your personal information on the following legal basis for the following purposes:

1. To perform our agreement to provide services to you including:

to verify your identity and manage and operate your account;
to carry out our obligations under our agreement with you including, for example, the allocation of accommodation;
to provide you with information relating to your housing application;
to provide you with information about companies we work with and where you can use their services, including information about new partners of My Social Housing
to provide you with information about our partners
to make automated decisions, using your personal information, such as providing you with notifications on products and services
to provide you with information about products or services that you request from us;
to notify you about changes to our App or Services

2. For our legitimate interest including:

for our own internal records;
to improve the products and services we provide;
to contact you in response to a specific enquiry;
to customise the App for you;
to send you promotional emails, texts and in app communications about products, services, offers and other things we think might be relevant to you if you already use the App (we will give you an opportunity to amend your marketing preferences);
to contact you via email, telephone or mail for market research reasons

3. To comply with our legal obligations including

preventing and prosecuting fraud; and
meeting legal, regulatory, insurance and security requirements

4. Where you have consented including:

We may also use anonymised personal information about you when we prepare aggregated data reports showing anonymised information for the purpose of advising ourselves, the brands we work with, your landlord and our other business partners regarding past and potential future patterns of, fraud, and other insights that may be extracted from this data.

Analyse our app traffic using an analytics package. Aggregated usage data helps us improve the App structure, design, content and functions.
Identify whether you are signed into our App.
Test content on our App. For example, 50% of our users might see one piece of content, the other 50% a different piece of content.
Store information about your preferences. The App can then present you with information you will find more relevant and interesting.
To recognise when you return to our App. We may show you relevant content or provide functionality you used previously.

5. Anonymised information

where you, as a non-user of the App, have provided your express consent, to provide you with information about the products or services of the partners we work with, your landlord and other My Social Housing partners as notified to you at the time of obtaining your consent, which we feel may interest you by post, email SMS;
If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive marketing messages from us, you can opt out at any time. To do so, please follow the unsubscribe instructions provided in any of the marketing messages you receive from us or contact us at info@mysocialhousing.co.uk If you no longer want to receive push notifications from us, you can update your preferences for the App via your device settings

6. Cookies

Our website uses some cookies. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we put on your computer or other device. These cookies allow us to distinguish you from other users of our website, which helps us to provide you with a good experience when you use our website and allows us to improve our services.
We use cookies on our website to recognise a computer when a user visits our website and accepts our cookie permissions.
We use analytical cookies to analyse the use of our website.
We also use a third-party tracking provider to analyse the flow and conversion of new App users through our website.
Cookies do not provide us with access to your computer, mobile phone or any information about you, other than that which you choose to share with us
We processes ‘essential’ cookies (that help us keep the website going) on the basis of our legitimate interest and all ‘non-essential’ cookies (including analytical and advertising cookies) on the basis of your consent which you can provide and remove using the prompt when you visit our website.

To learn more about cookies and how they are used, visit All AboutCookies.org.

Who might we share your personal information with.

We may need to share personal information with third parties. We do this to achieve the purposes as set out in this document. If you do not wish your personal information to be shared in this way, you must not register for the App and you must not use our App

We will share information with your landlord, referring agent and Local Authority to:

Verify your tenancy with them
Assist you with any rent arrears
Help your landlord communicate with you and vice versa
Assist with any budgeting requirements you may have
Support those who may be affected by welfare reform
We may also disclose your personal details, if required to do so, by law or any Government body. Your landlord may use the data we provide to them to prevent and detect tenancy fraud.

Your rights

The GDPR provides the following rights for individuals:
The right to be informed about the information we hold about you;
The right of access to that information;
The right to rectify the information where it is inaccurate or is incomplete;
The right to delete the information we hold about you;
The right to restrict processing of that information;
The right to data portability;
The right to object to our use of your information and ask us to stop that use;
Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling
To exercise any of the rights referred to above, you should contact our Data Protection Officer by emailing Info@mysocialhousing.co.uk or writing to: My Rent Rewards, 1 Burwood Place, London, W2 2UT

Profiling

If we use your personal data for the purposes of automated decision-making and those decisions have a legal (or similarly significant effect) on you, you have the right to challenge such decisions under GDPR, requesting human intervention, expressing your own point of view, and obtaining an explanation of the decision from us.

Currently we do use profiling to help us make use of the data we collect but we do not make any automated decisions about you which have a legal (or similarly significant effect).

We will contact you if this changes to explain how, why and when and to let you know how you can contact us to exercise your rights.

How long do we keep your information?

We will only keep your data for as long as you hold an account with My Social Housing Your account can be ended by sending an email to Info@mysocialhousing.co.uk or deleting your account.