Privacy Policy

Privacy policy highlights

This section gives you a quick summary of the key points. The full details are set out in the sections below.

• We collect personal data you give us (name, email, phone, salary, pets, right to rent) and data generated by your use of the Platform (searches, property interactions, device information)
• If you sign in using Facebook, Apple, or Google, we receive an account identifier from that provider
• We use your data to provide property search, matching, and rental management services
• We share data with letting agents and landlords only when you choose to interact with them
• We do not sell your personal data
• You have rights under UK GDPR including access, rectification, erasure, and portability

1. Who we are

Flatsed Ltd is the data controller responsible for your personal data. We are a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17137188) with our registered office at 28 Shelgate Road, London, England, SW11 1BG, United Kingdom.

This privacy policy applies to all personal data collected through flatsed.com and any associated mobile applications (together, the “Platform”).

2. Introduction

Flatsed Ltd (“we”, “our”, “us”) is committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, and your rights in relation to it.

We process personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Where we refer to “personal data” or “personal information” in this policy, we mean any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual.

This policy should be read alongside our Terms of Use and Cookie Policy.

3. Contacting us

If you have any questions about this policy, your personal data, or wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact us:

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: +44 7961 005559
• Post: Flatsed Ltd, 28 Shelgate Road, London, England, SW11 1BG

If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.

4. Personal information we collect

We collect different types of personal data depending on how you interact with the Platform.

4.1 Information you provide to us

• Account registration: full name, email address, phone number, and password (stored in hashed form)
• Tenant profile: salary or income details, pet ownership (type, breed, number), right to rent status and supporting documentation, household composition, move-in date preferences
• Communications: messages you send to agents or landlords through the Platform, maintenance requests, enquiries submitted through our contact form
• Reviews and ratings: property reviews, agent reviews, neighbourhood ratings, and any photos or text you upload
• Viewing bookings: properties you have requested viewings for, preferred dates and times

4.2 Information from third-party authentication

If you choose to register or sign in using a third-party provider, we receive:

• Facebook: your Facebook account identifier, name, and email address
• Apple: your Apple account identifier and, if you choose to share it, your name and email address
• Google: your Google account identifier, name, email address, and profile picture

Third-party authentication is managed through Google Firebase Authentication. When you sign in via a social provider, Firebase processes the authentication flow and provides us with the minimal information listed above. We store only the account identifier from each provider to link your social login to your Flatsed account. We do not access your contacts, posts, or other social media content.

4.3 Information we collect automatically

• Usage data: properties viewed, saved, hidden, and liked through the swipe game; search queries, filters, and location preferences; pages visited and time spent; navigation patterns and click interactions
• Device and technical data: IP address and approximate geolocation (city level), browser type, version, and operating system, device identifiers and screen resolution, mobile platform (iOS or Android)
• Cookies and similar technologies: we use cookies, local storage, and session storage as described in our Cookie Policy

5. Properties advertised on the Platform

Property listings displayed on the Platform are sourced from letting agents, landlords, and third-party aggregators. These listings may contain personal data of landlords or agents (such as names and contact details) which is provided to us by those parties for the purpose of advertising their properties. If you are a landlord or agent and wish to have your information removed from a listing, please contact the agent who manages the listing or email us at [email protected].

6. Purpose and lawful basis for processing

We process your personal data on the following lawful bases under UK GDPR:

Performance of a contract — processing necessary to provide our services to you:

• Creating and managing your account
• Providing property search, matching, and recommendation services
• Facilitating viewing bookings and communications with agents
• Processing tenancy applications and referencing
• Authenticating your identity via email/password or social login providers

Legitimate interests — processing necessary for our legitimate business interests, balanced against your rights:

• Improving the Platform and developing new features
• Computing preference vectors and delivering personalised property recommendations
• Analysing usage patterns to understand how the Platform is used
• Detecting and preventing fraud, abuse, and security incidents
• Maintaining the integrity of property reviews

Consent — where you have given specific consent:

• Sending marketing communications (emails, push notifications)
• Setting non-essential cookies and tracking technologies
• Sharing your extended profile information with agents beyond what is needed for a specific viewing

Legal obligation — processing required to comply with the law:

• Right to rent verification as required by UK immigration law
• Responding to lawful requests from law enforcement and regulatory authorities
• Tax record keeping as required by HMRC

7. How long we keep your data

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. Specific retention periods:

• Account data: retained while your account is active and for 30 days after deletion to allow recovery
• Right to rent documentation: retained for the duration required by UK immigration law (currently up to 2 years after the relevant tenancy ends)
• Financial and tax records: retained for up to 6 years as required by HMRC
• Usage and behavioural data: anonymised or deleted within 24 months of your last activity
• Reviews: retained for as long as they remain relevant; anonymised upon account deletion or upon request
• Communication records: retained for 12 months after the last interaction, then deleted
• Third-party authentication identifiers: deleted upon account deletion or when you unlink the provider

After the applicable retention period, personal data is securely deleted or irreversibly anonymised.

8. Sharing of your personal data

We share your personal data only with the following categories of recipients, and only to the extent necessary:

• Letting agents and landlords: when you book a viewing, submit an enquiry, or apply for a tenancy, we share your name, email, phone number, and where applicable, salary range, pet information, and right to rent status. We only share this information with the specific agent or landlord you have chosen to interact with
• Service providers: we engage third-party providers for cloud hosting and data storage, email delivery, analytics, and payment processing. These providers process data solely on our instructions and are bound by data processing agreements. We follow a principle of minimal data sharing — we provide only the information strictly necessary for each provider to perform its function
• Google Firebase: we use Google Firebase for authentication services and push notifications. Firebase processes the minimum data required for authentication (account identifiers, email address) and does not receive your tenant profile, salary, pet, or right to rent information. Firebase’s data processing terms are available at firebase.google.com/terms/data-processing-terms
• Authentication providers (Facebook, Apple, Google): when you use social sign-in, the authentication flow is managed through Firebase. We exchange only the minimal technical data required to verify your identity. We do not share your Flatsed usage data, property preferences, or profile information with these providers
• Law enforcement and regulators: we may disclose personal data where required by law, court order, or regulatory obligation, or where necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of Flatsed Ltd, our users, or others

We do not sell your personal data to any third party. We do not share your salary, income, or right to rent information with anyone other than agents and landlords with whom you have initiated contact through the Platform.

9. Storing your personal data

Your personal data is primarily stored and processed within the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area. Our hosting infrastructure is provided by cloud service providers with data centres in these regions.

Where we transfer data outside the UK and EEA (for example, to service providers located in other jurisdictions), we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place. These include Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, transfers to countries with an adequacy decision, or other mechanisms permitted under UK GDPR.

We implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures including encryption of data in transit (TLS) and at rest, hashing of passwords, access controls and role-based permissions, regular security assessments, and pseudonymisation of user identifiers in analytics systems.

10. Profiling and automated decision making

We use automated processing to personalise your experience on the Platform. This includes:

• Property recommendations: we analyse your search behaviour, saved properties, swipe game interactions, and stated preferences to compute a preference vector. This vector is used to rank and recommend properties that may interest you. This profiling does not produce legal effects or similarly significantly affect you
• Search personalisation: search results may be ordered or filtered based on your prior activity and preferences
• Tenant matching: when you apply for a property, agents may see a compatibility indicator based on the property requirements and your profile (salary range, pet ownership, right to rent). This is provided as guidance to agents and does not constitute an automated decision

We do not make any decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you. All tenancy decisions are made by agents and landlords, not by the Platform.

You have the right to object to profiling. To do so, contact us at [email protected].

11. Use of AI

We use artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in the following ways:

• Property embeddings: we generate vector representations of property characteristics to power similarity search and recommendations
• User preference vectors: we compute and update mathematical representations of your preferences based on your interactions with the Platform
• Property description enrichment: we may use AI to standardise and enhance property descriptions sourced from third-party listings

AI-generated outputs are used to assist and enhance, not replace, human decision making. We do not use AI to make decisions about tenancy applications or to determine your eligibility for any service.

12. Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access: you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you. We will provide this within one month of your request
• Right to rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data. You can also update most of your information directly through your account settings
• Right to erasure: you can ask us to delete your personal data (“right to be forgotten”). We will do so unless we have a legal obligation to retain it (such as right to rent records)
• Right to restrict processing: you can ask us to restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances, such as while we verify the accuracy of contested data
• Right to object: you can object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes. We will stop processing unless we have compelling legitimate grounds
• Right to data portability: you can request your data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format (JSON) and have it transmitted to another controller
• Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal
• Rights related to automated decision making: you have the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal effects concerning you

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected]. We will respond within one month. In complex cases, we may extend this by a further two months, but we will inform you within the first month if this is necessary.

13. Direct marketing

We will only send you marketing communications if you have given us your explicit consent. Marketing communications include emails about new features, property alerts, and promotional offers.

You can opt out of marketing at any time by:

• Clicking the “unsubscribe” link in any marketing email
• Adjusting your notification preferences in your account settings
• Emailing [email protected]

Opting out of marketing will not affect service-related communications (such as viewing confirmations, account security alerts, and tenancy updates), which we send based on our contractual relationship with you.

14. Photos, images, and videos

Property listings on the Platform may contain photographs, floorplans, and videos provided by agents and landlords. These images may incidentally capture personal data (such as images of individuals or personal belongings). If you appear in a property image and wish to have it removed, please contact the listing agent directly or email [email protected].

If you upload photos as part of a review or maintenance request, you are responsible for ensuring that any individuals depicted have consented to the image being shared publicly or with the relevant parties.

15. Special category data

We do not intentionally collect special category data (also known as sensitive personal data), which includes information about racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, health data, sex life, or sexual orientation.

If you include any such information in free-text fields (such as reviews or messages to agents), it will be processed as part of the text you have provided, but we do not extract, categorise, or use it for any purpose.

16. Children’s privacy

The Platform is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected data from a person under 18, please contact us immediately at [email protected] and we will take steps to delete it promptly.

17. Cookies and tracking

We use cookies and similar technologies (local storage, session storage) to operate the Platform, remember your preferences, and understand how you use our services. Full details of the cookies we use, their purposes, and how to manage them are set out in our Cookie Policy.

18. Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us. You can update most of your information through your account settings, or contact us for assistance.

19. How to report a suspected data breach

If you believe that your personal data has been compromised or that there has been a security incident affecting the Platform, please report it immediately to [email protected]. We take all reports seriously and will investigate promptly.

In the event of a personal data breach that poses a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify the ICO within 72 hours and will inform you directly without undue delay where the breach is likely to result in a high risk to you.

20. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. We will notify registered users of material changes by email or through the Platform. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page indicates when this policy was last revised.

We encourage you to review this page periodically. Your continued use of the Platform after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

21. Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your rights, or have a concern about how we handle your data, please contact us:

• Flatsed Ltd
• 28 Shelgate Road, London, England, SW11 1BG
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: +44 7961 005559