Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Mbt Realty Inc., operating under the trading name MBT Real (hereinafter referred to as MBT Real, we, us, or our), is committed to protecting the privacy and security of personal information entrusted to us by our clients, website visitors, and business partners. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you interact with our website at mbtreal.buzz or engage our real estate services.

MBT Real is a Canadian real estate firm headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, providing residential sales, commercial leasing, property management, investment advisory, valuation, and development consulting services across the Greater Toronto Area and Southern Ontario. This policy applies to all personal information collected through our website, in-person consultations, telephone communications, email correspondence, and electronic transactions.

By using our website or engaging our services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the practices described herein, please refrain from providing your personal information or using our services.

2. Information We Collect

We collect various types of information depending on the nature of your interaction with us. This information falls into the following categories:

Contact Information: Your full name, email address, telephone number, and mailing address. This information is collected when you fill out our contact form, subscribe to our newsletter, request a property valuation, or initiate a real estate transaction with our team.

Property and Financial Information: Details about properties you own, wish to purchase, or are interested in leasing, including property addresses, lot dimensions, property tax information, mortgage pre-approval details, financial statements for commercial transactions, and investment portfolio information. This information is necessary to provide accurate real estate advisory services.

Identification Information: Government-issued identification documents such as passports, drivers licenses, or provincial identification cards when required for verification purposes in connection with real estate transactions or anti-money laundering compliance obligations under Canadian law.

Technical Information: When you visit our website, we automatically collect certain technical data including your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, referring website URLs, pages viewed, time and date of access, and other standard web analytics data collected through cookies and similar tracking technologies.

Communication Records: Records of your communications with us including emails, telephone call logs, text messages, and in-person meeting notes, which we maintain for service continuity and quality assurance purposes.

3. How We Use Your Information

MBT Real uses the information we collect for the following purposes:

• To provide real estate brokerage, property management, investment advisory, valuation, and development consulting services as requested by you.
• To process and respond to inquiries submitted through our website contact form, email, telephone, or in-person consultations.
• To facilitate property showings, prepare comparative market analyses, draft listing agreements, and execute purchase or lease contracts on your behalf.
• To communicate with you regarding property listings, market updates, industry news, and service announcements relevant to your real estate interests.
• To comply with legal and regulatory obligations including anti-money laundering requirements, real estate regulatory reporting, and tax compliance under Canadian and Ontario laws.
• To improve our website functionality, user experience, and service offerings through analytics and user behaviour analysis.
• To detect, prevent, and address fraud, security incidents, and other potentially prohibited or illegal activities.
• To send marketing communications about our services, industry events, and educational content, subject to your communication preferences and applicable consent requirements.
• To maintain accurate client records for ongoing service delivery and historical reference.
• To coordinate with third-party service providers including mortgage brokers, home inspectors, appraisers, lawyers, and notaries who are involved in your real estate transaction.

4. Data Sharing and Disclosure

MBT Real does not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes. However, we may share your information in the following circumstances:

Service Providers and Subcontractors: We engage trusted third-party service providers who assist us in delivering our services, including website hosting providers, email communication platforms, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, property listing syndication networks, document management platforms, and payment processing services. These providers are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of your information and may only use it for the purposes we specify.

Real Estate Transaction Participants: In the course of a real estate transaction, it is necessary to share your information with other parties including seller brokerage firms, buyer brokerage firms, mortgage lenders, home inspectors, appraisers, legal representatives, title insurance companies, land registry offices, and municipal property assessment departments. This sharing is essential for the completion of the transaction.

Regulatory and Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information when required by law, court order, or governmental regulation, including compliance with the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act (REBBA), the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), or requests from law enforcement authorities.

Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or business restructuring, your personal information may be transferred to the acquiring entity as part of the business assets, subject to the same or greater privacy protections as set forth in this policy.

5. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Our website uses cookies, web beacons, and similar tracking technologies to enhance your browsing experience, analyse website traffic, and understand how visitors interact with our content.

Essential Cookies: These cookies are necessary for the basic functionality of our website, enabling features such as page navigation, form submission, and secure access to restricted areas. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.

Analytics Cookies: We use analytics cookies to collect information about how visitors use our website, including which pages are visited most frequently, how users navigate between pages, and whether users encounter any errors. This data helps us improve our website structure and content. We may use services such as Google Analytics for this purpose; Google Analytics uses cookies to generate aggregated, anonymised reports about website traffic and usage patterns.

Functional Cookies: These cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your preferred language or region, and provide enhanced, personalised features. The information these cookies collect is anonymised and cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.

You can manage your cookie preferences through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies, although this may affect the functionality of certain features on our website. For detailed instructions on managing cookies, please consult your browser help documentation.

6. Data Security

MBT Real implements robust security measures to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Our security practices include:

• Encryption of personal data transmitted over the internet using Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 or higher protocols, ensuring that information exchanged between your browser and our servers remains confidential.
• Secure data storage on protected servers maintained in access-controlled facilities with multi-factor authentication, firewall protection, and intrusion detection systems.
• Role-based access controls that restrict employee access to personal information strictly on a need-to-know basis relevant to their job responsibilities.
• Regular security awareness training for all employees covering data handling procedures, phishing identification, password management, and incident reporting protocols.
• Annual security audits and vulnerability assessments to identify and remediate potential weaknesses in our systems and processes.
• Secure disposal of personal information that is no longer required using industry-standard data destruction methods, including electronic shredding for digital records and cross-cut shredding for physical documents.
• Written information security policies and incident response procedures that are reviewed and updated annually to address emerging threats and regulatory changes.
• Background checks and confidentiality agreements for all employees, contractors, and agents who handle personal information on behalf of MBT Real.

While we strive to protect your personal information, no method of electronic storage or transmission is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, and we encourage you to take precautions when transmitting sensitive information over the internet.

7. Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by applicable laws and regulations. Real estate transaction records are generally retained for a minimum of seven years following the completion of the transaction, in accordance with requirements under the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act (REBBA) and applicable statutory limitation periods.

Website analytics data and marketing communications preferences are retained for up to two years following your last interaction with our website or communications. When information is no longer required, we securely delete or anonymise it to prevent unauthorised access or re-identification.

8. Your Rights and Choices

Under applicable Canadian privacy legislation, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and the Ontario Personal Health Information Protection Act where applicable, you have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Right of Access: You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you and to receive a copy of that information in a commonly used electronic format.
• Right to Rectification: You have the right to request correction of any inaccurate or incomplete personal information we hold about you.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: You have the right to withdraw your consent to our collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice.
• Right to Erasure: You have the right to request deletion of your personal information where it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, subject to legal retention requirements.
• Right to Restrict Processing: You have the right to request restriction of processing of your personal information in certain circumstances, such as while a correction request is being evaluated.
• Right to Data Portability: You have the right to receive your personal information in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to transmit that data to another service provider where technically feasible.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information provided in Section 13 of this policy. We will respond to your request within 30 days, or as otherwise required by applicable law. If we are unable to fulfil your request, we will provide a written explanation of the reasons.

9. Childrens Privacy

Our services are not directed to individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors. If we become aware that a minor has provided us with personal information without parental consent, we will take steps to delete that information promptly. If you believe that a minor has provided us with personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer immediately so we can address the situation.

10. Third-Party Links

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, including those of real estate listing portals, financial institutions, government agencies, and professional service providers. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these third-party websites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party websites you visit, as their practices may differ from ours. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by MBT Real through our website and direct service interactions.

11. Changes to This Policy

We reserve the right to update or modify this Privacy Policy at any time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or industry standards. When we make material changes, we will post the updated policy on this page and update the Last Updated date at the top of the policy. For significant changes that affect how we use or disclose your personal information, we may provide additional notice through our website or direct communication. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.

12. Governing Law

This Privacy Policy is governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein. Any disputes arising out of or related to this Privacy Policy shall be resolved in the courts of the Province of Ontario. If you are accessing our website or services from outside Canada, please note that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in Canada where our servers and central databases are located. By using our services, you consent to the transfer of your information to Canada and the application of Canadian privacy laws.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our handling of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details below:

We will acknowledge receipt of your privacy-related inquiry within five business days and will work to resolve your concern promptly. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, as applicable.

This Privacy Policy was developed by MBT Real, a Canadian real estate services firm providing residential and commercial property solutions across Ontario since 2001.