Dotloop, the Zillow-owned transaction management platform, announced changes to its company privacy policy that now requires all users to opt out of third-party sharing. The changes in language are an attempt to make the policy easier to understand for users, according to Zillow.
“Dotloop takes the privacy and security of users’ information very seriously,” a spokesperson for Zillow told Inman. “This is why all of our users are in control of their information and why we are transparent about the way we collect, use, share and protect data.”
“To that end, we have updated our dotloop privacy policy to help make it easier to read and understand,” the spokesperson added. “The updated policy provides clarity on how we use data -—including our commitment that the insights from data are applied at an aggregate level — and further guidance on how users may control their information.”
The privacy policy is updated to fit with the California Consumer Privacy Act, which went into effect in 2020. Zillow and other technology companies made changes to their privacy policy to fit with California Consumer Privacy Act standards.
The biggest change is the requirement for users to opt out of sharing user information with third-party affiliates.
“If you want to opt-out of such Third Party Sharing, please email us with your request at support@dotloop.com,” the updated privacy policy reads. “We use return email addresses to answer the email we receive.”
Data privacy was such a big deal for the companies when Zillow first acquired dotloop, that the companies created the “dotloop Data Privacy Guarantee,” to ease the concerns of some agents that Zillow could use the data the agents provide to dotloop to improve Zillow’s other tools, like the Zestimate.
“Since our acquisition by Zillow Group, there have been some questions from dotloop customers about how their data would now be used,” Austin Allison, the founder and former general manager of dotloop, said in 2015.
“Data privacy has always been a top priority for us; that has not changed. We are introducing the dotloop Data Privacy Guarantee to provide increased transparency on this topic, making it very clear that dotloop customers own their data and that their data will not be used for Zillow Group products or services without their permission.”
That privacy guarantee remains, but only if the agent opts-out of third-party sharing. Zillow confirmed to Inman that all customers were informed of the updates to the privacy policy by email. The new policy will take effect on July 17, 2020.
