Realty Photos SE, Privacy Policy
Realty Photos SE respects the privacy of our clients, property owners, tenants, occupants, real estate professionals, and members of the public.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and manage personal information when you visit our website, contact us, make a booking, or use our photography and property media services.
This policy also explains how we approach privacy when providing photography, videography, drone photography, floor plans, virtual tours and other property marketing services.
1. About Realty Photos SE
Realty Photos SE provides professional real estate photography and property media services across Melbourne and surrounding areas.
Our services may include:
- Real estate photography
- Rental property photography
- Twilight photography
- Day-to-dusk editing
- Drone and aerial photography
- Property videography
- Cinematic property videos
- Floor plans
- 360-degree virtual tours
- Matterport 3D virtual tours
- Virtual staging
- Image editing and retouching
- Property marketing media
- Other related photography and visual media services
For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, references to “Realty Photos SE”, “we”, “our” or “us” mean Realty Photos SE and persons working on our behalf.
2. Our Commitment to Privacy
We aim to handle personal information responsibly, transparently and only for legitimate business purposes.
Where applicable to our operations, we seek to handle personal information consistently with relevant Australian privacy requirements and good privacy practices.
We also recognise that our work regularly takes place at private homes and residential properties. Our photographers are expected to act professionally and make reasonable efforts to respect the privacy of owners, tenants, occupants, neighbours and members of the public.
3. Information We May Collect
Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect information including:
Contact information
This may include:
- Your name
- Business or agency name
- Email address
- Telephone number
- Job title
- Business address
- Billing details
Booking information
When a photography service is booked, we may collect:
- Property address
- Property access instructions
- Booking date and time
- Contact person details
- Real estate agent details
- Vendor, landlord or property manager details where required
- Tenant or occupant contact details where required
- Lockbox or key collection instructions
- Special photography instructions
- Information about property access
We request that clients only provide information reasonably necessary for us to complete the booking.
Property information
We may receive or create information relating to a property, including:
- Property address
- Property photographs
- Videos
- Drone imagery
- Floor plans
- Room layouts
- Exterior and surrounding-property imagery
- 360-degree imagery
- 3D virtual-tour information
- Property features
- Marketing information supplied by an agent or client
Website information
When you visit our website, certain technical information may be collected automatically by our website or third-party service providers.
This may include:
- IP address
- Browser type
- Device type
- Operating system
- Pages visited
- Referring website
- Approximate location
- Date and time of website visits
- Website interaction information
- Cookie or similar technology identifiers
This information may be used to operate, secure and improve our website and to understand how visitors use our services.
4. How We Collect Information
We may collect information:
- Directly from you
- Through our website
- Through online enquiry or booking forms
- By telephone
- By email
- Through text messages or other communications
- From real estate agencies
- From property managers
- From property owners
- From tenants or occupants
- From contractors working with us
- From publicly available sources
- During photography and videography assignments
- Through website analytics and similar technology
In many cases, a real estate agent or property manager books our services on behalf of the property owner, landlord, vendor or occupant.
5. Why We Collect and Use Information
We may collect and use information for purposes including:
- Responding to enquiries
- Providing quotes
- Scheduling photography appointments
- Providing photography and property-media services
- Communicating with clients
- Accessing properties for booked appointments
- Delivering photographs, videos, floor plans and other media
- Issuing invoices and processing payments
- Maintaining business records
- Providing customer support
- Resolving complaints or disputes
- Improving our services
- Managing our website
- Maintaining the security of our systems
- Preventing fraud or misuse
- Managing contractors and photographers
- Promoting our services where permitted and appropriate
- Meeting applicable legal, regulatory, insurance or safety requirements
We do not intentionally collect personal information that we do not reasonably need for our business activities.
6. Property Photography and Privacy
Real estate photography naturally involves photographing private property.
Our photographers are engaged to photograph areas relevant to the commissioned property-marketing assignment.
We make reasonable efforts to avoid unnecessarily capturing personal or sensitive items that are not relevant to the property presentation.
However, clients, property owners, tenants, and occupants are responsible for removing or concealing items they do not want photographed before the scheduled appointment.
This may include:
- Personal photographs
- Family photographs
- Identification documents
- Financial documents
- Computer screens
- Private correspondence
- Children’s information
- Medical information
- Vehicle registration details
- Security codes
- Keys or access information
- Valuables
- Any other sensitive or private material
If something of concern is identified during or after a shoot, please contact us as soon as possible.
Where reasonably possible and where the media has not already been published or distributed, we may be able to remove, obscure or edit an item.
7. People Appearing in Property Images
Our primary purpose is to photograph the property rather than individuals.
We generally seek to avoid identifiable people appearing prominently in real estate photographs unless their inclusion is intentional and appropriate.
People may sometimes appear incidentally in:
- Exterior photographs
- Drone photographs
- Street scenes
- Video footage
- Reflections
- Windows
- Public areas
- Surrounding environments
Where practical, we may crop, retouch, blur or exclude identifiable persons where their appearance is unnecessary for the commissioned work.
8. Children
Our services are not directed towards children, and we do not intentionally collect personal information directly from children through our website.
When photographing occupied homes, clients and occupants should ensure children are appropriately supervised and that personal information relating to children is removed from areas being photographed where appropriate.
9. Drone Photography and Aerial Operations
Realty Photos SE may use remotely piloted aircraft, commonly known as drones, to capture aerial photography and video.
Drone operations are conducted for legitimate commercial photography and property-marketing purposes.
Our drone cameras are intended to capture the commissioned property and relevant surrounding features.
We do not use our drones for the purpose of:
- Monitoring neighbouring residents
- Conducting personal surveillance
- Following individuals
- Secretly recording private activities
- Deliberately looking into neighbouring homes or private areas unrelated to the assignment
Because aerial cameras necessarily have a wide field of view, neighbouring land, buildings, roads, vehicles or members of the public may sometimes appear incidentally.
We make reasonable efforts to minimise unnecessary capture of private areas and identifiable individuals.
Where appropriate, images may be cropped or edited before delivery or publication.
10. Enquiries From Members of the Public During Drone Operations
Our drone operators may be approached by members of the public while conducting authorised photography.
For safety reasons, the operator’s immediate priority while the aircraft is in flight is the safe operation of the drone.
Our operators may provide general information about the purpose of the operation and Realty Photos SE business contact details.
However, to protect privacy and commercial confidentiality, our operators are not expected to disclose private information about:
- Property owners
- Vendors
- Landlords
- Tenants
- Real estate agents
- Agency personnel
- Clients
- Other individuals connected with the assignment
We may also decline to provide an operator’s private residential address, personal telephone number or other unnecessary personal information to members of the public.
This does not prevent our operators or us from providing information where legitimately required by police, CASA or another authorised regulatory or government authority.
11. Neighbouring Properties
Real estate photography, particularly aerial photography, may incidentally capture portions of neighbouring properties.
We aim to keep the commissioned property as the primary subject.
The incidental appearance of a neighbouring roof, garden, driveway, building, street or surrounding landscape does not mean that we are deliberately photographing or monitoring that property.
If you believe an image published or supplied by us creates a genuine privacy concern, you may contact us, and we will consider the circumstances.
12. 360-Degree and 3D Virtual Tours
We may create 360-degree photography and 3D virtual tours.
These technologies may capture substantially more of a room than conventional photographs.
Before a 360-degree or 3D scanning appointment, clients and occupants should remove or conceal sensitive or private information from all areas being captured.
This is particularly important because viewers may be able to look in multiple directions within a virtual tour.
We may use third-party platforms to host or process virtual tours.
The operation of those platforms may also be governed by their own privacy policies and terms.
13. Floor Plans
When producing floor plans, we may record or process information about the layout and dimensions of a property.
Floor plans may show information including:
- Room locations
- Doors
- Windows
- Internal layouts
- Garages
- Outdoor areas
- Site layouts
- Approximate dimensions
Clients should consider the intended publication of a floor plan before commissioning or publishing it.
14. Virtual Staging and Image Editing
We may digitally modify images for services such as:
- Virtual staging
- Object removal
- Decluttering
- Sky replacement
- Day-to-dusk conversion
- Colour correction
- Image retouching
Original and edited images may be temporarily retained as part of our production workflow.
Where third-party software or processing platforms are used, files may be processed through those services subject to appropriate business and technical arrangements.
15. How We Use Property Images
Unless otherwise agreed, images and media created by Realty Photos SE may be provided to the commissioning client for the agreed property-marketing purposes.
Depending on the arrangement with our client, media may subsequently appear on:
- Real estate listing websites
- Agency websites
- Social media
- Digital advertising
- Property portals
- Printed advertising
- Signboards
- Brochures
- Other property-marketing material
Once material has been lawfully published online by a client or third party, Realty Photos SE may not have control over copies subsequently stored, indexed, shared or republished by third parties.
16. Portfolio and Promotional Use
From time to time, Realty Photos SE may display examples of our photography or media to demonstrate the quality and range of our work.
This may include use on:
- Our website
- Our online portfolio
- Social media
- Advertising
- Proposals
- Brochures
- Business presentations
Where appropriate, we take reasonable steps to avoid displaying unnecessary private information.
If you have a specific concern about the promotional use of imagery relating to your property, please contact us.
17. Real Estate Agents and Property Managers
We regularly work with real estate agencies, property managers, developers, builders and other property professionals.
Information supplied by an agency may be used only as reasonably necessary to manage the assignment, communicate about the booking, deliver services, invoice for services and maintain our business relationship.
We do not consider an enquiry from an unrelated member of the public sufficient reason to disclose an agent’s private contact information or confidential booking information.
18. Disclosure of Information
We may disclose information where reasonably necessary to:
- Employees
- Photographers
- Editors
- Contractors
- Service providers
- IT providers
- Website hosting providers
- Cloud-storage providers
- Accounting or payment providers
- Image-processing providers
- Virtual-tour providers
- Professional advisers
- Insurers
- Government agencies or regulators where legally required
We aim to limit disclosure to information reasonably required for the relevant purpose.
We do not sell lists of client personal information.
19. Third-Party Service Providers
We may use third-party technology and service providers to operate our business.
These may include services used for:
- Cloud storage
- File delivery
- Photography processing
- Image editing
- Website hosting
- Analytics
- Customer management
- Bookings
- Accounting
- Payments
- Virtual tours
- Mapping
- Online advertising
Those organisations may process information on our behalf and may have their own privacy policies.
20. Overseas Processing and Storage
Some technology providers used by modern online businesses operate servers, personnel or infrastructure outside Australia.
Accordingly, some information or media may potentially be stored, backed up or processed outside Australia depending on the services we use.
Where reasonably practicable, we take steps to select reputable providers and use appropriate security controls.
21. Website Cookies
Our website may use cookies and similar technologies.
Cookies are small data files stored on or associated with your browser or device.
They may be used to:
- Enable website functionality
- Remember preferences
- Understand website usage
- Measure website traffic
- Improve website performance
- Assist with advertising or marketing
- Detect technical or security issues
You can usually control or delete cookies through your browser settings.
Disabling certain cookies may affect some website functionality.
22. Website Analytics
We may use analytics services to understand how visitors interact with our website.
Analytics information may include:
- Pages viewed
- Time spent on pages
- Approximate geographic area
- Device information
- Browser information
- Referring sources
- Website interactions
We use this information to improve our website, marketing and services.
23. Advertising and Tracking Technologies
We may use advertising, analytics or measurement technologies in connection with our website or online advertising.
Depending on the technology used, these services may use cookies, pixels or similar identifiers to measure advertising performance or display relevant advertising.
Where applicable, users may be able to control certain advertising preferences through their browser, device or the relevant advertising platform.
24. Direct Marketing
If you are an existing or prospective business client, we may occasionally contact you regarding services, offers or information that may reasonably be relevant to your relationship with Realty Photos SE.
Where required, marketing communications will provide an appropriate way to unsubscribe or request that further marketing communications stop.
You can also contact us directly and ask not to receive marketing communications.
We will respect reasonable opt-out requests.
25. Payment Information
Payments may be processed by banks, payment gateways, or other third-party payment providers.
We do not intentionally retain complete payment-card information unless specifically required as part of a secure payment system.
Payment providers may collect and process information according to their own privacy policies and security procedures.
26. Storage of Information
Information may be stored through:
- Business computers
- Mobile devices
- Cloud-storage services
- Photography storage systems
- Backup systems
- Email systems
- Accounting systems
- Website systems
- Customer-management systems
Property media files can be large and may be stored separately from ordinary business records.
27. Security
We take reasonable steps appropriate to our business to protect information against:
- Unauthorised access
- Loss
- Misuse
- Interference
- Unauthorised alteration
- Unauthorised disclosure
Security measures may include password protection, access controls, reputable cloud services, device security, software updates and restricted access to business information.
However, no internet transmission or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
28. Data Retention
We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, our normal business operations, record-keeping requirements, dispute management and any applicable legal obligations.
Photography and property-media files may be retained for a period after delivery to assist clients with replacement downloads, editing requests or other legitimate business purposes.
We may delete older files as part of normal storage management and cannot guarantee permanent archival storage unless separately agreed.
Clients should maintain their own copies of final delivered media.
29. Accessing or Correcting Your Personal Information
If we hold personal information about you and you believe it is incorrect, incomplete or outdated, you may contact us and request that it be corrected.
You may also ask what personal information we hold about you.
We will consider reasonable requests subject to any applicable legal, contractual, security or confidentiality limitations.
We may need to verify your identity before providing access to personal information.
30. Requests Relating to Property Images
If you are the owner, tenant or occupant of a property and have a privacy concern about an image produced by Realty Photos SE, please contact us with sufficient information to identify:
- The property
- The image or media concerned
- Your relationship to the property
- The nature of your concern
We will assess the request and determine what action, if any, is reasonably available to us.
Where photographs have already been supplied to a real estate agency or published by third parties, you may also need to contact the agency or publisher directly.
31. Complaints
If you believe we have handled your personal information inappropriately, please contact us.
Please provide sufficient information for us to understand and investigate your concern.
We will endeavour to review legitimate privacy concerns and respond appropriately.
You can contact us at:
Realty Photos SE
Email: hello@realtyphotosse.com.au
Phone: 0412 375 773
Website: realtyphotosse.com.au
32. Legal and Regulatory Requests
We may disclose information where required or authorised by applicable law or where reasonably necessary to:
- Respond to a lawful court order
- Respond to police
- Respond to CASA
- Respond to another authorised government or regulatory body
- Protect our legal rights
- Protect the safety of our staff, contractors, clients or members of the public
- Investigate suspected fraud, misuse or unlawful conduct
We will not ordinarily disclose confidential client information simply because an unrelated person requests it.
33. External Websites
Our website may contain links to websites operated by third parties.
We do not control the privacy, security or content practices of those websites.
Visitors should review the privacy policies of third-party websites before providing personal information to them.
34. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect:
- Changes to our services
- Changes in technology
- Changes to our business practices
- Changes to applicable legal requirements
The current version will be published on our website.
The effective date shown at the beginning of this policy indicates when this version became effective.
35. Contact Us
Questions, concerns, or requests regarding privacy can be directed to:
Realty Photos SE
Email: hello@realtyphotosse.com.au
Phone: 0412 375 773
Website: realtyphotosse.com.au
We take privacy concerns seriously and aim to deal with genuine enquiries professionally, respectfully, and reasonably.