Privacy Policy
Key Realty ("we", "us", "our") respects the privacy of everyone who visits our website or contacts us about a property. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, and the rights you have under Canadian privacy law — specifically the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
1. Who We Are
Key Realty is a property acquisition business operating in Ontario, Canada. We buy residential properties directly from homeowners — including situations involving power of sale, inherited property, tenanted properties, tax arrears, and properties sold as-is. This policy applies to personal information collected through mecrealty.ca, by phone, or through any other channel by which you contact us.
2. The Privacy Officer
We have designated a Privacy Officer who is accountable for our compliance with this policy and with PIPEDA. The Privacy Officer oversees how personal information is collected, used, stored, and disclosed, and is the point of contact for any privacy-related question, concern, or complaint.
You can reach our Privacy Officer at: info@keyrealty.ca or by phone at 416-371-4416.
3. What Personal Information We Collect
When you submit an inquiry through our website or contact us directly, we may collect:
- Your name and contact information (phone number, email address)
- The property address and basic details about the property
- Information about your situation as it relates to the property (for example, whether you are dealing with power of sale, an inherited property, a tenancy, tax arrears, or simply want to sell as-is)
- Your preferred method and timing of contact
- Basic technical and referral information about how you reached our website (such as the page you visited or the source of your inquiry), collected through standard website analytics
We do not currently request or collect government identification numbers (such as a Social Insurance Number), banking or financial account details, or copies of identity documents through our website or initial inquiry process. If a transaction proceeds toward a closing, additional information may be required at a later stage as part of standard real estate closing and identity verification practices — and any such collection will be subject to its own clear disclosure to you at that time.
4. How We Use Your Personal Information
We use the personal information you provide to:
- Review and respond to your property inquiry
- Assess the property and determine whether we are able to make an offer
- Contact you to discuss your situation, answer questions, and present an offer if applicable
- Follow up on inquiries where no decision has yet been made
- Operate, maintain, and improve our website and inquiry process
- Detect, investigate, and prevent fraud or misuse of our website
- Measure website performance and understand how visitors find and use our site, using aggregated or de-identified data where possible
- Meet legal, regulatory, or record-keeping obligations that apply to real estate transactions in Ontario
Submitting a property inquiry does not sign you up for marketing communications. We do not send promotional or marketing content based solely on a property inquiry submission.
5. How We Share Your Personal Information
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes.
We may share personal information in the following limited circumstances:
- With professionals directly involved in evaluating or completing a transaction with you, such as real estate lawyers, title or land registry services, or other parties reasonably necessary to assess or close a sale
- With service providers who help us operate our business (such as website hosting, data storage, and form processing providers), under obligations to protect your information and use it only for the purposes we specify
- Where required by law, court order, or to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation
- To protect the rights, property, or safety of Key Realty, our clients, or others, including investigating suspected fraud
6. Where Your Information Is Stored
Personal information submitted through our website is stored using secure, access-controlled systems, including a primary database hosted in Canada (Canada Central region). A limited number of authorized team members may also hold copies of inquiry information in internal email and record-keeping tools used to operate the business. We restrict access to personal information to those who need it to respond to your inquiry or complete a transaction.
7. How Long We Keep Your Information
If your inquiry does not result in a completed transaction, we retain your information for 24 months from the date of your last contact with us, after which it is securely deleted, unless you ask us to delete it sooner.
If a transaction is completed, we retain transaction-related records for the period required by applicable law and professional record-keeping obligations, which may extend beyond the general retention period above.
8. How We Protect Your Information
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These include access controls limiting who within our organization can view your information, and secure, encrypted storage for information submitted through our website.
No method of storage or transmission over the internet is completely secure. While we take reasonable steps to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.
9. Your Rights
Under PIPEDA, you have the right to:
- Know what personal information we hold about you and why
- Access the personal information we hold about you, subject to limited legal exceptions
- Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information
- Withdraw consent for our use of your information, subject to legal or contractual restrictions, and understand that withdrawing consent may affect our ability to respond to your inquiry
- Request that we delete your information, where we are not required to retain it for legal, regulatory, or legitimate business reasons
- Make a complaint about how we have handled your personal information
To exercise any of these rights, contact our Privacy Officer using the details in Section 2. We will respond to your request within a reasonable time and in accordance with PIPEDA's requirements.
10. Cookies and Website Analytics
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to improve your browsing experience, analyze site traffic, and personalize content. When you first visit our site, you are presented with a cookie consent banner that lets you accept or decline non-essential cookies. Your choice is stored in your browser and respected on future visits.
What cookies we use
- Essential cookies — Required for the website to function properly (for example, maintaining your cookie preference). These cannot be disabled.
- Analytics cookies — Help us understand how visitors find and use our site, including which pages are viewed most often and how users move through the site. We use Google Analytics for this purpose.
- Personalization cookies — Allow us to remember choices you make and deliver a more tailored experience.
How to manage or withdraw consent
You can update your cookie preference at any time by clearing your browser's local storage for mecrealty.ca and refreshing the page — the consent banner will reappear so you can choose again.
You can also control or disable cookies through your browser settings:
Analytics opt-out
To opt out of Google Analytics tracking across all websites, you can install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
Analytics data is used only in aggregate form to understand website performance and is not used to personally identify you for marketing purposes.
11. Contacting Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, contact our Privacy Officer at info@keyrealty.ca or by phone at 416-371-4416.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
30 Victoria Street, Gatineau, Quebec K1A 1H3
1-800-282-1376 | priv.gc.ca
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. The "Last Updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.