Privacy Policy

Effective Date: Aug 17, 2023

1. Introduction

Welcome to Department of Interest ("we," "our," or "us"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website, deptofinterest.com, or use our real estate trading services in Vancouver, British Columbia.

By using our website, you consent to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not access the site.

2. Information Collection

We collect personal information such as your name, email address, and phone number when you sign up or request an appraisal. This information is essential for providing our services and enhancing your experience on our site.

3. Information Usage

We use the information collected for the following purposes: a. Providing services related to real estate trading. b. Marketing and promotional efforts.

4. Information Sharing

We may share your name and email address with selected third-party vendors that provide MLS listing data and email marketing services to create personalized features and content on the site.

5. Cookies and User Authentication

We use cookies in conjunction with NextAuth.js for user authentication. NextAuth.js is an open-source authentication library designed to integrate various login strategies with Next.js applications. It allows us to manage user sessions securely, using signed and encrypted cookies. By leveraging NextAuth.js, we ensure that only authorized users can access certain parts of the website, enhancing both privacy and security. It also ensures that your personal information is protected and handled according to best practices. We do not use tracking technologies or other cookies for marketing or analytics purposes, limiting our use of cookies strictly to authentication.

6. Security Measures

We prioritize the security of your personal information and have implemented robust measures to ensure its protection:

a. Encryption of Data in Transit and at Rest:

• In Transit: All data transmitted between our servers and your devices is encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS), the standard technology for keeping an internet connection secure. This prevents unauthorized access to or manipulation of your data during transfer.
• At Rest: The information stored in our databases is encrypted using industry-standard encryption algorithms. This means that even if the underlying storage is compromised, the data remains unintelligible without the appropriate decryption keys.

b. AES Encryption Throughout the PlanetScale Platform:

• PlanetScale is our chosen database provider known for its strong security features. It uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption for all data within the platform, including:
  • At Rest: Data is encrypted on the underlying storage media that serves database branches and hosts backups. This helps mitigate the risk of unintentional or malicious access to user data.
  • In Transit: Encrypted data is transmitted through various paths within the PlanetScale ecosystem, including through Mutual TLS when using the PlanetScale CLI and requiring TLS sessions for SQL commands.
  • Secure Connection: We utilize PlanetScale Connect, which leverages Mutual TLS to secure all data transmitted between PlanetScale and other components.

c. Compliance with Security Standards:

• We adhere to widely recognized security best practices and regulations. Our database provider, PlanetScale, maintains compliance with various industry security standards, ensuring that your data is handled and stored according to the highest security protocols.

d. Regular Security Reviews and Monitoring:

• We continually monitor and assess our security measures to ensure they remain effective against emerging threats. Regular security audits, vulnerability scanning, and threat detection are integral to our proactive approach to safeguarding your personal information.

These measures collectively provide a comprehensive and robust security framework that safeguards your information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. We remain committed to investing in cutting-edge technologies and best practices to maintain and enhance the privacy and security of your data.

7. User Rights

You can access and delete your information from our databases and our third-party vendor through your user account page.

8. Compliance with Children's Privacy Laws

We do not knowingly collect information from children.

9. International Data Transfers

Some of our vendor services are located in the USA. All communications between our servers and these vendors are encrypted and secure. We use Next.js for server-side rendering and API fetching, which ensures that all data transferred between the client and server is done over HTTPS, employing Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt the data in transit. Additionally, our application is hosted on Vercel, a cloud platform known for its strong security measures, including automatic HTTPS, protection against DDoS attacks, and compliance with key security standards. By employing these technologies, we ensure that your data is transmitted securely, even when crossing international boundaries, and that it is protected from unauthorized access and potential threats.

10. Contact Information

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at info@deptofinterest.com.

11. Changes to Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time. We will notify you of any changes by sending an email and updating the "Effective Date" at the top of this Policy.