Privacy Policy

Keller Williams Realty, Inc. Privacy Policy

LAST UPDATED: May 9, 2023

Keller Williams Realty, Inc. and its affiliates (collectively, “Keller Williams”, "Fendig Group",  “we,” “us,” or “our”) want you to be familiar with how we collect, use, and disclose information.  This Privacy Policy describes our practices in connection with information that we collect about you through:

• Our website at https://www.fendiggroup.com, and other websites and Keller Williams-branded web-based applications we operate from which you are accessing this Privacy Policy
• Our Keller Williams Command and Consumer mobile applications, and other Keller Williams-branded mobile applications made available by us on or through mobile devices that link to this Privacy Policy (each, a “KW App” and collectively, the “KW Apps”),
• Online contact or survey forms that we send to you by email, or that you access from KW Websites or KW Apps,
• HTML-formatted email messages that we send to you that link to this Privacy Policy, and
• Offline interactions you have with us.

Keller Williams is a real estate franchisor. Fendig Group is an independent contractor of Keller Williams. We license the use of our name to independently owned franchisees to operate real estate brokerage offices called market centers. These independently owned and operated brokerages enter relationships with real estate agents who are independent contractors. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the privacy practices of any market center or their real estate agents, or to any websites or applications they operate. Please consult with our market centers and their real estate agents to learn more about their privacy practices.

Collectively, we refer to the KW Websites, the KW Apps, our online contact and survey forms, our emails to you, and any offline interactions we have with you as the “Services.”  All references to “including” in this Privacy Policy shall be construed as meaning “including without limitation.”

PERSONAL INFORMATION

“Personal Information” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual. We may collect Personal Information from you via the Services when you choose to share it with us, including the following categories:

• Identifiers, such as a real name, postal address, Internet Protocol address (“IP Address”), date of birth, email address, telephone number, account name, or other similar identifiers.  This also includes any other Personal Information you share with us while using our Services.
• Protected classification characteristics and sensitive Personal Information, such as your Social Security number, veteran or military status, gender identity, ethnicity and primary language.
• Commercial information, such as your real estate buying/selling interests, when you choose to share them with us.
• Professional or employment-related information, such as your current occupation, level of completed education, and realtor license number.
• Geolocation data, which may be derived from your IP address or mobile device.
• Information from your device, such as your device’s contacts, photos, and location, when you choose to share them with us.
• Account information, including your account log-in information for third-party websites, services, or applications, like Facebook and Google, when you choose to link these accounts to KW Websites or KW Apps.
• Other Information (as defined below), to the extent we are required to treat such information as Personal Information under applicable law.

COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We and our service providers collect Personal Information in a variety of ways, including: 

• Directly through the Services when you provide it to us
  • We collect Personal Information through the Services, for example, when you fill out a user profile when using our Services, register an account to access the Services, request a market analysis of your home, or contact us by telephone.
• Automatically when you use the Services
  • We may automatically collect Personal Information through the Services, for example, through our use of cookies, pixel tags, and other similar technologies as further described in the “Other Information” section of this Privacy Policy.
• From other sources
  • We may receive your Personal Information from other sources, for example:
    • publicly available databases;
    • joint marketing partners, when they share the information with us.

We collect Personal Information in order to provide the requested Services to you, improve upon our existing Services, and develop new products or services.  If you do not provide the Personal Information requested, we may not be able to provide you with the Services you requested. 

USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We and our service providers use Personal Information for the following legitimate business purposes:

• Providing the functionality of the Services and fulfilling your requests, including:
  • To provide the Services’ functionality to you, such as arranging access to your registered account and providing you with related user support services.
  • To respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests, when you contact us via one of our online contact forms or otherwise, for example, when you send us questions or comments, or when you request other information about our Services.
  • To send administrative information to you, such as changes to our terms, conditions and policies.
  • To allow you to send messages to another person through the Services if you choose to do so.

We will engage in these activities to manage our contractual relationship with you and comply with a legal obligation.

• Providing you with marketing materials and facilitating social sharing, including:
  • To send you marketing related emails and serve you advertisements with information about our Services, new products, and other news about us.
  • To facilitate social sharing functionality that you choose to use.

We will engage in this activity with your consent to the extent required by applicable law or where we have a legitimate interest.

• Analyzing Personal Information for business reporting and providing personalized services, including:
  • To analyze or predict our users’ preferences in order to prepare aggregated trend reports, so we can improve our Services.
  • To better understand your interests and preferences, so that we can personalize our interactions with you and provide you with information and/or offers tailored to your interests.
  • To better understand your preferences so that we can deliver content via our Services that we believe will be relevant and interesting to you.

We will provide personalized services based on our legitimate interests, and with your consent to the extent required by applicable law.

• Allowing you to participate in sweepstakes, contests or other promotions.
  • We may offer you the opportunity to participate in a sweepstakes, contest or other promotion.
  • Some of these promotions have additional rules containing information about how we will use and disclose your Personal Information.  Please read those additional rules before choosing to participate.

We use this information to manage our contractual relationship with you.

• Aggregating and/or anonymizing Personal Information.
  • We may aggregate and/or anonymize Personal Information so that it will no longer be considered Personal Information. We do so to generate other data for our legitimate use, which we may use and disclose for any purpose, as it no longer identifies you or any other individual. We may use non-personally identifiable information, such as anonymized and/or aggregated Services usage data, in any manner that does not identify individual users for the purpose of improving the operation and management of the Services, including to develop new features, functionality, and services, to conduct internal research, to better understand usage patterns, to resolve disputes, to troubleshoot problems, to fulfill user requests, or for security and compliance purposes. Any non-personally identifiable information that is combined with Personal Information will be treated by us as Personal Information.
• Accomplishing our business purposes.
  • For data analysis, for example, to improve the efficiency of our Services.
  • For audits, to verify that our internal processes function as intended and to address legal, regulatory or contractual requirements.
  • For fraud and security monitoring purposes, for example, to detect and prevent cyberattacks or attempts to commit identity theft.
  • For developing new products and services.
  • For enhancing, improving, or modifying our current products and services
  • For identifying usage trends, for example, understanding which parts of our Services are of most interest to users.
  • For determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, so that we can adapt our campaigns to the needs and interests of our users.
  • For operating and expanding our business activities, for example, understanding which parts of our Services are of most interest to our users so we can focus our energies on meeting our users’ interests.

We engage in these activities to manage our contractual relationship with you, comply with a legal obligation, and promote our legitimate interests.

SHARING AND SALE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may disclose all Personal Information categories identified in the “Personal Information” section above to the following groups:

• To our affiliates for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
• To our third-party service providers and business partners to perform functions on our behalf (for example, to support the delivery of KW Websites and KW Apps).
  • These can include providers of services such as data analysis, payment processing, order fulfillment, information technology and related infrastructure provision, user support service, email delivery, auditing, and other services.
• To our Keller Williams market centers and their agents and brokers where you have requested such sharing or inquired about a property or when we have a legitimate interest.
• To our Keller Williams regional representatives where we have a legitimate interest.
• To third-party sponsors of sweepstakes, contests, and other similar promotions.
• To our third-party business partners for marketing purposes.
  • Consistent with applicable law, we may share your Personal Information with selected third-party business partners for our partners’ own business purposes, including to enable them to send information about products and services that may be of interest to you, consistent with your choices.  Please refer to “Choices and Access” section below, for information about the choices we offer concerning such sharing.
• By using the Services, you may elect to disclose Personal Information.
  • On message boards, chat, blogs, and other services to which you are able to post information and content.  Please note that any information you post or disclose through these services will become public and may be available to other users and the general public.

OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES

We also use and disclose your Personal Information as necessary or appropriate, in particular when we have a legal obligation or legitimate interest to do so:

• To comply with applicable law and regulations.
  • This may include laws outside your country of residence.
• To cooperate with public and government authorities.
  • To respond to a request or to provide information we believe is important.
  • These can include authorities outside your country of residence.
• To cooperate with law enforcement.
  • For example, when we respond to law enforcement requests and orders or provide information we believe is necessary or appropriate.
• For other legal reasons.
  • To enforce our terms and conditions.
  • To protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you or others.
• In connection with a sale or business transaction.
  • We have a legitimate interest in disclosing or transferring your Personal Information to a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).

OTHER INFORMATION

“Other Information” is any information that does not reveal your specific identity.  The Services may collect Other Information, including:

• Browser and device information,
• App usage data,
• Information collected through cookies, clear gifs, pixel tags, single-pixel gifs, and other similar technologies,
• Demographic information and other information provided by you that does not reveal your specific identity,
• Information that has been aggregated in a manner such that it no longer reveals your specific identity.

COLLECTION OF OTHER INFORMATION

We and our service providers may collect Other Information in a variety of ways, including:

• Through your browser or device
  • Certain information is collected by most browsers or automatically through your device, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type (Windows or Mac), screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, Internet browser type and version and the name and version of the Services (such as a KW App) you are using.  We use this information to ensure that the Services function properly. 
  • We may use third party tools to automatically collect information about how you use our Services. This information includes any actions you take on KW Websites or KW Apps, including links visited, session details and duration, and what you type into the KW Websites or KW Apps. This information is collected to help us identify how our users use our Services, to ensure our Services are working properly, and to improve how and what we offer on our Services.
• Through your use of KW Apps
  • When you download and use KW Apps, we and our service providers may track and collect the KW App usage data, such as the date and time the KW App on your device accesses our servers and what information and files have been downloaded to the KW App based on your device number.
• Using cookies
  • Cookies are pieces of information stored directly on the computer that you are using.  Cookies allow us to collect information such as browser type, time spent on the Services, pages visited, language preferences, and other traffic data.  We and our service providers use the information for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, to display information more effectively, and to personalize your experience.  We also gather statistical information about use of the Services in order to continually improve their design and functionality, understand how they are used and assist us with resolving questions regarding them.  Cookies further allow us to select which of our advertisements or offers are most likely to appeal to you and display them while you are on the Services.  We may also use cookies or other technologies in online advertising to track responses to our ads.  Relatedly, advertising networks may collect Personal Information by using cookies, and most advertising networks offer you a way to opt-out of targeted advertising.  If you would like to find out more information, please visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s online resources at http://www.networkadvertising.org and follow the opt-out instructions there.  We do not currently respond to browser do-not-track signals.  If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, most browsers allow you to automatically decline cookies or be given the choice of declining or accepting a particular cookie (or cookies) from a particular website.  Please refer to your web browser’s documentation for information on how to receive notification when you are receiving a new cookie and how to turn cookies off.  You may also wish to refer to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html.  If, however, you do not accept cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of the Services.  You also may not receive advertising or other offers from us that are relevant to your interests and needs. You can learn more about our cookie policy here: http://www.kw.com/kw/cookie-policy.html.
• Using pixel tags and other similar technologies 
  • Pixel tags. Pixel tags (also known as web beacons and clear GIFs) may be used to, among other things, track the actions of users of the Services (including email recipients), measure the success of our marketing campaigns, serve you with advertisements, and compile statistics about usage of the Services and response rates. 
  • Analytics. We may use Google Analytics, which uses cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the Services and report on activities and trends.  This service may also collect information regarding the use of other websites, apps and online resources.  You can learn about Google’s practices by going to https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and exercise the opt-out provided by Google by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
•  Physical Location
  • We may collect the physical location of your device by, for example, using satellite, cell phone tower or WiFi signals.  We may use your device’s physical location to provide you with personalized location-based services and content.  We may also share your device’s physical location, combined with information about what advertisements you viewed and other information we collect, with our marketing partners to enable them to provide you with more personalized content and to study the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.  In some instances, you may be permitted to allow or deny such uses and/or sharing of your device’s location, but if you do, we and/or our marketing partners may not be able to provide you with the applicable personalized services and content.

USES AND DISCLOSURES OF OTHER INFORMATION

We may use and disclose Other Information for any purpose, except where otherwise required under applicable law.  If we are required to treat Other Information as Personal Information under applicable law, then we may use and disclose it for the purposes for which we use and disclose Personal Information as detailed in this Policy.  In some instances, we may combine Other Information with Personal Information.  If we do, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information as long as it is combined.

SECURITY

We seek to use reasonable organizational, technical and administrative measures to protect Personal Information within our organization.  Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, or if you believe you have identified a security vulnerability, please immediately notify us in accordance with the “Contacting Us” section below.

CHOICES AND ACCESS OPTING OUT OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

We give you choices regarding our use of your Personal Information for marketing purposes.  You may opt-out from receiving marketing-related emails from us.  If you no longer want to receive marketing-related emails from us on a going-forward basis, you may opt-out via the opt-out link in the message itself.

HOW YOU CAN ACCESS, CHANGE, OR DELETE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION 

State consumer privacy laws may provide their residents with additional rights regarding our use of Personal Information. The following section applies to individuals who reside in specific jurisdictions that provide additional privacy rights, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Virginia. 

Right to Access Specific Information and Data Portability Right. You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of Personal Information over the past twelve (12) months. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will disclose to you:

• The categories of Personal Information we collected about you.
• The categories of sources for the Personal Information we collected about you.
• Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling that Personal Information.
• The categories of third parties with whom we share that Personal Information.
• The specific pieces of Personal Information we collected about you (also called a data portability request).
• If we disclosed Personal Information for a business purpose, the business purpose for which Personal Information was disclosed, and the Personal Information categories that each category of recipient obtained.

Right to Correct Information. You have the right to request we update Personal Information about you that is incorrect in our systems.

Right to Delete. You have the right to request that we delete any Personal Information about you that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) the Personal Information from our records, unless an exception applies.

Right to Opt-out of the sale of Personal Information or sharing of Personal Information for Cross-Contextual Behavioral Advertising. To opt-out of personal information sales or sharing, send an email to DSAR-KW@kw.com. Please clearly state in the subject line or the body of the email that you are requesting that we do not sell or share your Personal Information.

Right to Limit Sensitive Personal Information Use. You have the right to limit the use of sensitive Personal Information regarding you.

Non-Discrimination. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights.

HOW TO EXERCISE THESE RIGHTS

To submit a request to exercise these rights you may use one of the following methods:

• Email: tfendig@fendiggroup.com
• Phone: (904) 753-3572

For all requests, please clearly state that the request is related to “Your Privacy Rights,” indicate which type of request you are making, and provide your name, street address, city, state, zip code and an e-mail address or phone number where we may contact you. We are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly or that do not include complete information.

To appeal a decision regarding a consumer rights request, please submit your appeal using one of the methods above. Your appeal should include an explanation of the reason you disagree with our decision. Within 60 days of receipt of an appeal, we will inform you in writing of any action taken or not taken in response to the appeal, including a written explanation of the reasons for the decisions.

Only you, or a person registered with an applicable Secretary of State that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to Personal Information about you. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.

You may only make such a request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected Personal Information or an authorized representative, and describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate and respond to it.

We cannot respond to your request or provide you with Personal Information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the Personal Information relates to you. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. We will only use Personal Information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.

We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. We will deliver our written response electronically. Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the receipt of the verifiable consumer request. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide the Personal Information that is readily usable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

PHONE CALLS AND TEXT MESSAGES

If you are a United States resident using the Services, you represent and warrant that:

• you are at least 18 years old;
• you live in the United States;
• you are the account holder for the telephone numbers you provide, or you have authorization from the account holder(s) to provide consent; and
• the telephone numbers you provide are accurate, and you will let us know if you release them to another.

Do Not Call Policy. This notice is our Do Not Call Policy under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Unless applicable law allows or you provide consent, we do not solicit via telephone numbers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry or a state Do Not Call list.

Call Monitoring and Recording. If you communicate with us by telephone, we may monitor or record the call in accordance with applicable law.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS CAREFULLY. DO NOT SHARE YOUR TELPEHONE NUMBER WITH US OR USE THE SERVICES IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO PROVIDE CONSENT.

Express Written Consent. By sharing your telephone number with us, you are providing your express written consent to receive calls or text messages from us even if you are registered on the National Do Not Call Registry or a state Do Not Call list, to receive calls or text messages from an automated system or automated telephone dialing system, and to receive artificial or pre-recorded voice messages. Your carrier’s standard rates and charges may apply. We are not responsible for such charges.

No Purchase Necessary. You do not need to provide consent in order to make a purchase from us.

Changes to Consent and Opting Out. You may revoke your consent to receive calls and text messages from us at any time by emailing us at legal@kw.com. To opt out of receiving text messages from us, please follow the opt-out instructions in a text message sent by us. Please allow up to thirty (30) days for us to process such changes or opt-out requests.

It is possible that our independently owned and operated market centers and their real estate agents may have your contact information and that you may continue to receive calls and texts from them despite submitting an opt-out request to us. To the extent you wish to opt out of receiving calls or text messages from one of our market centers or their real estate agents, you must contact them directly. We are not responsible for unwanted communications from our market centers and their real estate agents.

RETENTION PERIOD

We retain Personal Information for as long as needed or permitted in light of the purpose(s) for which it was obtained and consistent with applicable law.

To determine the appropriate retention period for Personal Information, we consider the following: 

• The amount, nature, and sensitivity of the Personal Information we maintain about you;
• The length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you and provide the Services to you (for example, for as long as you have an account with us or keep using the Services);
• The potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your Personal Information;
• The purposes for which we process your Personal Information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means;
• Whether there is a legal obligation to which we are subject (for example, certain laws require us to keep records of your transactions for a certain period of time before we can delete them); or
• Whether retention is advisable in light of our legal position (such as in regard to applicable statutes of limitations, litigation or regulatory investigations). 

THIRD PARTY SERVICES

This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any website or service to which the Services link.  The inclusion of a link on the Services does not imply endorsement of the linked site or service by us or by our affiliates.

In addition, we are not responsible for the information collection, use, disclosure or security policies or practices of other organizations, such as Apple, Meta, Instagram, Google, Microsoft, RIM or any other app developer, app provider, operating system provider, wireless service provider or device manufacturer, including with respect to any Personal Information you disclose to other organizations through or in connection with the Services. With respect to our Command mobile application, a KW App, use and transfer to any other application of information received from Google APIs will adhere to Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

USE OF SERVICES BY MINORS

The Services are not directed towards or intended for use by individuals under the age of 16, and we do not knowingly collect or solicit Personal Information from individuals under the age of 16. Please email us at legal@kw.com if you believe we collected Personal Information from an individual under the age of sixteen (16).

JURISDICTION AND CROSS-BORDER TRANSFER

Your Personal Information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers, including potentially being transferred to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have data protection rules that are different from those of your country.  In certain circumstances, courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies or security authorities in those other countries may be entitled to access your Personal Information.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REGARDING THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA (EEA): Some of the non-EEA countries are recognized by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of data protection according to EEA standards (the full list of these countries is available here: https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/data-protection/international-dimension-data-protection/adequacy-decisions_en.

SENSITIVE INFORMATION

Unless we request it, we ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any sensitive Personal Information (e.g., social security numbers, payment card or account information, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, criminal background or trade union membership) on or through the Services or otherwise to us.

UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

The “Last Updated” legend at the top of this Privacy Policy indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised.  Any changes will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Services.  You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date, active, and deliverable email address for you and for periodically visiting this Privacy Policy to check for any changes. Your continued use of the Services following any changes means that you accept the revised Privacy Policy.  If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is to discontinue use of the Services. 

CONTACTING US

Keller Williams Realty, Inc., located at 1221 S. MoPac Expressway, Suite 400, Austin, TX 78746 USA, is the company responsible for collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information under this Privacy Policy.  To the extent this Privacy Policy is linked from a website hosted by Keller Williams Realty, Inc. and operated by a market center or one of their real estate agents, this Privacy Policy applies only to the extent your Personal Information is provided or made available to Keller Williams Realty, Inc. If you provided your Personal Information to a market center or one of their real estate agents, please contact the applicable market center or their agent directly to learn more about their privacy practices.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at legal@kw.com or:

1221 S. MoPac Expressway, Suite 400
Austin, TX 78746 USA

Because email communications are not always secure, please do not include your social security number, bank account number, credit card number or other sensitive information in your emails to us.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REGARDING THE EEA

You may lodge a complaint with an EU/EEA data protection authority for your country or region or where an alleged infringement of applicable data protection law occurs.  A list of data protection authorities is available at: https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en.