Privacy Policy
Draft for legal review. This version will be replaced after legal review, and you'll be asked to accept the final version.
This policy explains how RentHive handles personal information under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.
In short
- Your data and all AI processing stay in Australia.
- AI-written messages are always labelled.
- The AI never sends legal notices or spends money without your approval.
- You can export or delete your data at any time.
What we collect
- Account details: your name, email address, phone number, sign-in methods and device names.
- Property and tenancy records: properties, leases, rent, bonds, maintenance requests, inspections, photos, documents and messages you add or receive.
- Applications: details applicants give when applying for a property, including identity and income documents where they choose to provide them.
- Payments: payment records. Card and bank details are held by our payment partners, not by us.
- Usage and technical data: which features are used, error reports and security events, linked to an account ID rather than your name.
We collect most of this from you. Some comes from the other people in a tenancy (for example, a landlord adds a renter's name and email to send an invite).
Why we use it
We use personal information to run RentHive for you, keep accounts secure, process payments, send the notices and reminders you ask for, meet our legal obligations, and improve the service. We don't sell personal information or use it for third-party advertising.
How we use AI
RentHive uses AI models to draft messages, summarise conversations, read documents and photos, translate chat and suggest next steps.
- All AI processing happens in Australia, through Amazon Web Services in Sydney.
- AI providers process your data only to give you a result. They don't keep it or use it to train their models.
- Anything the AI writes for someone else to read is labelled as AI-written.
- The AI never sends a legal notice, signs anything or spends money without a person's approval.
More detail is in our AI disclosure.
Automated decisions that significantly affect people
RentHive does not make decisions that significantly affect people's rights or interests (for example, whether an applicant is offered a tenancy, or whether a renter's bond is claimed) using only automated processing.
When you apply for a rental, a computer program helps the landlord rank applications. It gives each one a fit score using only the landlord's lawful criteria, which can be your move-in date, how long you'd like to stay, how many people would live there, smoking, your income compared with the rent, whether you gave a rental history or a reference, and whether the furniture and parking suit you. It never uses protected attributes such as age, sex, race, religion, disability or family status, it never scores pets, and it doesn't use what you write about yourself or the checks on your documents. The application form tells you which of these criteria the landlord for that place uses.
A person, usually the landlord, makes the final decision. A landlord can't decline an application without opening it, and every decision is recorded with a reason. If you're not chosen, you can ask "Why wasn't I selected?" in the app and see how your application compared with each criterion.
Where RentHive uses AI or other automated processing to help with any other such decision, such as comparing inspection photos, a person (usually the landlord) makes the decision, and:
- the kinds of personal information used are the ones listed in "What we collect";
- the landlord can see why a suggestion was made and change or ignore it;
- you can ask the landlord, or us at hello@renthive.com.au, how a decision about you was made.
Overseas disclosure
By default we don't disclose personal information to anyone outside Australia. We store it, and run our servers and AI models, in Australia. Our error-monitoring service receives technical error reports with personal information removed, and that service may process them overseas. If a feature you choose ever needs to send personal information overseas, we'll tell you which country and ask first.
Keeping it safe
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Sensitive actions need you to confirm it's you, and staff access is limited and logged.
How long we keep it
We keep records for as long as you have an account, and afterwards for as long as tenancy, tax and anti-money-laundering laws require. Then we delete or de-identify them.
Access, correction and complaints
You can see and correct most of your details in Settings, and export or delete your data there. To ask for anything else, or to make a complaint, email hello@renthive.com.au. We'll respond within 30 days. If you're not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.
Changes to this policy
When we change this policy we publish a new version with the date it takes effect. You'll be asked to accept it the next time you open the app.