Who we are
PlaceNest is an Australian property platform for rentals, house sharing, lease transfers, parking and local property services. It is operated by Md Mominul Islam (ABN 60 139 980 806) ("PlaceNest", "we", "us").
This policy explains what personal information PlaceNest collects, why, who it is shared with, how long it is kept and the choices you have. It is written to meet the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). It takes effect on 1 November 2026.
Some features described in other PlaceNest pages are not available yet. Section "Features that are not available yet" lists them; we will update this policy before any of them collects personal information.
The personal information we collect
We collect only what each feature needs. Depending on how you use PlaceNest, this can include:
- Account: your e-mail address (verified by our sign-in provider), a display name, an optional short biography, what you are using PlaceNest for, and your sign-in security settings such as an authenticator-app second factor. We do not see or store your password.
- Listings you publish: the property or space, its address, price, photos and description, and the contact details you choose to give. The exact address, your contact details and your name are hidden unless you choose to show them, and then only to signed-in members.
- Housing requirements you publish: what you are looking for and, if you choose, a short description and photos, with the visibility you select.
- Service provider profiles: the business or trading name, ABN, contact person, phone number, e-mail and service area a provider publishes. For a provider registered as an individual we show only that an ABN is held, not the number.
- Enquiries and messages: what you write to other members through PlaceNest, and who you wrote to.
- Rental applications: your name and contact details, household details (including the names of other adults applying with you), your current suburb, an income band and employment status, up to three referees' names and contact details, notes, your declarations, and any supporting documents you upload.
- Applications you review: the decisions, requests for information and notes recorded by you and others in the review.
- Meetings arranged between members: who was invited and when the meeting takes place. Where video calls are available they connect the participants directly and are never recorded.
- Support requests and reports: what you tell us, and the content you report.
- Agency workspace (for agencies and their staff): contacts, leads, activities and tasks your organisation records.
- Contact sharing: if you choose to show your phone number or e-mail to another member in an enquiry, that choice and when you made or withdrew it.
- Communication preferences: whether you receive product news and meeting e-mails.
- Security and audit records: a record of significant actions (for example administrative changes, application decisions and account security events) so that we can investigate problems and misuse.
Photos are re-encoded when you upload them and their hidden metadata, including GPS location, is removed. We do not ask for or store identity documents for identity verification, dates of birth, tax file numbers, bank or card details.
Information about other people: if you give us someone else's details (for example referees or other adults on an application), please make sure they know you are sharing them with PlaceNest and the people you apply to, and why. PlaceNest does not contact referees.
How we collect it
Mostly from you, when you create an account, publish, apply, message, upload or contact us. Some comes from other members (for example an agent inviting you to review an application, or an applicant naming you as a referee). Our sign-in provider tells us your verified e-mail address when you sign in.
When you use the website our servers necessarily receive technical information such as your IP address and browser details to deliver and protect the service. PlaceNest does not store your IP address with your account; rate limiting uses a one-way scrambled form of it.
Why we use it
- To provide the features you use: showing listings and requirements, passing enquiries and messages, running applications and their review, and arranging meetings.
- To keep accounts and the platform secure, prevent fraud, spam and misuse, and investigate reports.
- To send you service e-mails (for example sign-in, application and meeting notices).
- To answer your support requests.
- To meet our legal obligations and to establish or defend legal claims.
- To report how PlaceNest is used — for example how many accounts and advertisements are created, how many enquiries, rental applications and service requests are made and how many lead to an outcome — as totals counted from those records, including for people who have not chosen "Allow analytics". These totals are never shown for an individual and involve no visit tracking, cookies or campaign attribution.
We do not sell personal information, we do not use it for third-party advertising, and PlaceNest does not make automated decisions about rental applications: decisions are made by the people reviewing them.
Who can see your information on PlaceNest
- Listings and housing requirements are public, except the details you keep private (exact address, contact details and name are hidden by default).
- Messages are visible to the people in the conversation.
- A rental application is visible to the person or agency you applied to. Others invited into the review (for example an owner) see the full application only after you consent to that named person; a current tenant screening a room sees a summary only.
- Agency workspace records are visible only within that agency.
- PlaceNest staff do not have standing access to application content. Support and moderation staff see what is needed to answer a request or review a report, and their access is recorded.
Service providers we use
We use a small number of providers to run PlaceNest. They process personal information only to provide their service to us:
- Amazon Web Services (Sydney region, Australia): hosting, databases, file storage, sign-in (Amazon Cognito), service e-mails (Amazon SES) and protected storage of system credentials.
- Geoscape Australia: suggests addresses while a lister types a property address (the typed address text is sent; no account details).
- Map tiles: OpenFreeMap (openfreemap.org). Your browser requests map images directly, so the provider receives your IP address and the map area shown.
- Support mailbox: VentraIP, our e-mail hosting provider.
- Let's Encrypt issues the website's security certificates (no personal information is shared).
PlaceNest does not use third-party analytics, advertising pixels or tracking scripts, and our e-mails contain no open or click tracking.
Statistics about PlaceNest's own Facebook Page and Instagram account
PlaceNest is preparing a connection, for PlaceNest's own administrators only, that shows statistics about PlaceNest's own Facebook Page and Instagram account. It is being prepared on PlaceNest's separate test service and is not available in the public PlaceNest service; members cannot use it. Publishing to social networks is not available through PlaceNest (see "Features that are not available yet"): posts on PlaceNest's own accounts are made in Meta's own tools.
When the connection is used, a PlaceNest administrator authorises it through Meta's Facebook Login for Business. It asks Meta only for permission to read PlaceNest's own Page and Instagram account and their statistics; it does not include permission to publish, to read or send messages, or to manage advertising. Facebook Login is not a way for members to sign in to PlaceNest.
What PlaceNest keeps: an access token for PlaceNest's Page, held in protected credential storage and never in the database, and the identifiers of PlaceNest's own Page and Instagram account. The administrator's own Facebook sign-in token is used only while connecting and is not kept. When the platform owner refreshes the statistics, PlaceNest receives from Meta totals about its own accounts and about its posts from the last 90 days — for example views, reach, engagement and the numbers of reactions, comments, shares, saves and followers — and a minimal reference to each post (Meta's identifier for it, when it was published, its type and its link). These are totals only: PlaceNest does not import profiles of individual followers or commenters, comment content or messages, and it does not use this connection to contact people.
What Meta does: when you follow, react to, comment on or message PlaceNest's Facebook Page or Instagram account, or when an administrator signs in to Facebook, Meta processes that information under its own privacy policy. PlaceNest does not import it.
Disconnecting: when the connection is removed, PlaceNest stops using the access token at once and removes it from the current and previous versions held in its credential storage. An encrypted copy can remain in that storage's version history, which is managed by our cloud provider, and the token stays valid at Meta until PlaceNest is removed in Facebook (Settings & privacy → Settings → Business integrations). A record of who connected or disconnected is kept with our security records. The statistics are totals about PlaceNest's own accounts, not about any person, and are kept as described under "How long we keep information". Questions about this connection can be sent to support@placenest.com.au.
Overseas disclosure
PlaceNest's services and data are hosted in Australia (Amazon Web Services, Sydney). Personal information may be disclosed overseas in these cases:
- Map images are served by the map-tile provider named above, which may be located outside Australia.
- E-mails you send to our support mailbox are held by our e-mail hosting provider (VentraIP) and may be processed or stored outside Australia.
- If the Facebook and Instagram statistics connection described above is used, PlaceNest's requests go to Meta Platforms, a provider based outside Australia, and may be processed or stored outside Australia. These requests contain only PlaceNest's own account identifiers and access token, not information about members.
- If you e-mail us from an overseas e-mail service, or use PlaceNest while outside Australia, your information passes through the networks you use.
If PlaceNest expands outside Australia or adds a provider that stores personal information overseas, we will update this section first and, where the law of your country requires it, explain the legal basis and safeguards for the transfer.
How long we keep information
- Rental applications: an application becomes due for erasure 14 days after a decision or withdrawal, 60 days after submission if no decision is made, and a draft after 30 days of inactivity (a draft you discard is erased immediately). Erasure is carried out by a PlaceNest administrator, so information can be kept for some time after the date it becomes due. A minimal record that an application existed is kept.
- Video meeting connection details (which include network addresses) are deleted within five minutes. Our video relay server's logs, which record network addresses, are kept for 7 days.
- Server logs, including our load balancer's access logs (which record network addresses, the web addresses requested and browser details), are kept for 30 days.
- Backups: automatic database backups are kept for up to 35 days, and photos and files you delete or replace can be kept in storage history for about 30 days. A copy of the database taken before a software update, or when a database is replaced, is kept with no set end date; we will publish a period once it is set. Deleted information can therefore remain in a backup until it expires or is removed.
- Account, profile, listing, message and support information: we have not yet set a fixed period. We keep it while your account is open; if you ask us to close your account we remove or de-identify it by hand as described under "Access, correction, deletion and your choices". We will publish fixed periods here when we set them.
- Security and audit records are kept with no set end date; we will publish a period once it is set.
- Measurement records (only if you chose "Allow analytics"): visit records and feature-use records are kept for 395 days (about 13 months) and then deleted automatically.
- Campaign records attached to an account, advertisement, enquiry, rental application or service request are kept for as long as that record and are deleted with it, or earlier when you choose "Stop measuring" while signed in.
- Copies held by our providers: our e-mail and sign-in providers keep copies under their own retention; we ask them to delete what we can.
- Statistics about PlaceNest's own Facebook Page and Instagram account (totals only, no information about individual people), and post references no statistic still uses, become due for deletion 24 months after they are recorded. They are deleted at the next statistics refresh after that, so they can be kept longer if the statistics are not refreshed.
How we protect it
Information is encrypted in transit and stored with access limited to the people and systems that need it. Administrators must use a second factor and re-confirm before sensitive actions. Credentials for connected services are kept in protected credential storage, never in the database. No system is perfectly secure; if a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as the law requires.
Access, correction, deletion and your choices
- You can view and correct your profile, listings, requirements and preferences in your account at any time.
- You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct or delete it, by e-mailing support@placenest.com.au. We may need to confirm your identity first. We respond within 30 days.
- Closing your account is not self-service, and PlaceNest does not yet have tools that delete an account automatically. When you ask us to close your account, we handle it by hand: we remove or de-identify your personal information where we can, and tell you what we have kept and why. This can be partial — we cannot promise to erase everything. Some information cannot be deleted on request — for example records other members rely on, records we must keep by law, information needed for an open report or dispute, and security records — and deleted information remains in backups until they expire.
- PlaceNest does not send product news today. If it starts, it will only be with your consent and with an unsubscribe link in every such e-mail. Service e-mails about your account, applications and meetings continue while you use PlaceNest.
- You can withdraw a contact-sharing choice at any time; the other member stops seeing your details.
- Where PlaceNest offers measurement, you can choose "Allow analytics" or "Stop measuring" at any time on the Measurement choices page (see "Cookies and similar storage").
- Our page "How to delete your information" explains what you can remove yourself and how to ask us to delete information or close your account.
We may decline a request where the law allows (for example where it would reveal another person's information); we will tell you why and how to complain.
Children
PlaceNest is not intended for children. You must be at least 18 to create an account.
Features that are not available yet
These features are being prepared and do not collect personal information today. This policy will be updated before any of them is switched on:
- Paid plans and payments (a payment provider would handle card details; PlaceNest would not store them).
- Identity verification by an external provider.
- Connections to property portals and agency CRM systems.
- Signed-in device management and device limits.
- Home energy guidance and introductions to energy providers.
- Tenancy documents and condition reports (preparing and signing leases through PlaceNest).
- Publishing PlaceNest announcements to social networks.
Questions and complaints
Contact our privacy contact at support@placenest.com.au. Please describe your concern; we will acknowledge it promptly and respond within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when our practices change and show the date it takes effect at the top. If a change materially affects how we use information you have already given us, we will tell you by e-mail or in PlaceNest before it applies.