Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy describes how Acuity Real Estate Services, LLC, a Florida limited liability company doing business as EffectiveAgents.com ("EffectiveAgents," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, shares, and protects information when you access or use our websites and services, including the website located at www.effectiveagents.com and any subdomains, along with our agent matching service and related offerings (collectively, the "Platform").
This Privacy Policy is incorporated into our Terms of Service. Capitalized terms not defined here have the meanings given in the Terms of Service.
By using the Platform, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.
1. Scope
This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect from:
(a) Consumers, including prospective home buyers, sellers, and other visitors to the Platform;
(b) Agent Members, meaning licensed real estate agents and brokers who register with the Platform;
(c) Prospects referred into the Agent2Agent Program by an EffectiveAgents Agent Member; and
(d) Other visitors, employees, contractors, and job applicants who interact with the Platform or with EffectiveAgents.
Different sections of this Privacy Policy may apply differently depending on your role.
Notice at Collection. At or before the point where you provide personal information through a form or account flow on the Platform, we display a brief notice summarizing the categories of information we collect and the purposes for which we use it. Full details are set out in Sections 2 and 3 and the California-specific disclosures in Section 11.
2. Information We Collect
2.1 Information You Provide
We collect information you give us directly, including:
(a) Contact information such as your name, email address, phone number, and mailing address;
(b) Transaction-related information such as the city or neighborhood where you plan to buy or sell, the approximate price range, your timeline, and any preferences or requirements you share with us;
(c) Account information if you are an Agent Member, including your real estate license details, brokerage affiliation, years of experience, production history, and profile content;
(d) Communications you send to us, including feedback, inquiries, and support requests. If you communicate with us by phone, text message, or email, we may retain the content of those communications consistent with our retention practices in Section 7.
2.2 Information from Public Sources
We collect information from publicly available sources such as online directories, business filings, and public social media content.
2.3 Information from Third Parties and Verification Services
We receive information about you from third-party providers, including:
(a) Data enrichment providers that supply information drawn from public records, professional networks, and licensed third-party datasets, which we use to verify identity, contact details, and professional history;
(b) Contact validation services that help us confirm email addresses and phone numbers are valid and deliverable;
(c) Fraud prevention and security services that help us detect and prevent automated abuse and fraudulent activity;
(d) Analytics partners that help us measure how the Platform is used.
We do not currently receive consumer financial information from credit bureaus or financial institutions, but we reserve the right to engage additional third-party data sources in the future with appropriate disclosures.
2.4 Information About Real Estate Professionals
We collect information about real estate agents and brokers from several sources, including:
(a) public records;
(b) Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data, which we analyze to measure transaction history and agent performance;
(c) brokerage submissions; and
(d) the agents and brokers themselves, through profile creation and ongoing platform participation.
This information is used to populate agent profiles, power our matching algorithm, and produce analytics that are displayed on city, ZIP code, and neighborhood pages on the Platform.
2.5 Information About A2A Program Prospects
When an Agent Member submits a prospect into our Agent2Agent Program (as described in the Terms of Service), we receive that prospect's contact information and transaction details from the submitting broker (the "Referring Broker"). If you are such a prospect and your information was submitted by a real estate agent, the Referring Broker is the source of the information we hold about you. To exercise the rights described in Sections 10, 11, and 12, contact us at service@effectiveagents.com.
2.6 Automatically Collected Information
When you access the Platform, we automatically collect:
(a) Device and browser information such as IP address, device identifier, operating system, browser type, and the referring website;
(b) Usage information such as pages viewed, time spent, links clicked, search terms entered, and advertising click identifiers (such as the Google "gclid" and Microsoft "msclkid" parameters) that let us attribute visits back to the ad campaign that referred you;
(c) Approximate location derived from your IP address. We do not collect precise GPS-level location data from your device;
(d) Security and anti-abuse information collected through services such as Google reCAPTCHA, which analyzes interaction patterns to detect automated bot activity and protect the Platform.
We collect this information using cookies, pixel tags, web beacons, tag management systems, and similar technologies described in Section 5.
3. How We Use Information
We use the information we collect to:
(a) operate the Platform and provide the Services, including matching Consumers with up to three (3) qualified Agent Members;
(b) communicate with you about your match, your account, or your use of the Platform, including by phone, text message, email, and other channels described in the Terms of Service;
(c) verify identity, validate contact information, prevent fraud, and protect the Platform from abuse;
(d) improve, analyze, and develop the Platform, including evaluating the performance of our matching algorithm;
(e) personalize your experience, such as recommending agents based on your stated preferences and the location of the property;
(f) enforce our Terms of Service, resolve disputes, and comply with legal obligations;
(g) market the Platform and promote our services, including through advertising on third-party websites and social media;
(h) generate aggregated and de-identified data for analytics, research, and reporting.
We do not use Consumer personal information to train generative AI or large language models. We do use aggregated Agent Member performance metrics to improve our matching algorithm and to measure how an agent's performance compares to their peers.
4. How We Share Information
4.1 Matched Real Estate Agents
When you submit a request for a match, we share your name, contact information, and stated preferences with up to three (3) Agent Members selected by our algorithm. Each matched Agent Member may contact you directly in accordance with the consent you provided under the Terms of Service.
4.2 Service Providers
We share information with third-party vendors and service providers that help us operate the Platform. These providers fall into the following categories:
(a) website hosting and infrastructure;
(b) database storage and backup;
(c) email delivery and transactional messaging;
(d) SMS delivery;
(e) customer support and CRM platforms;
(f) data enrichment and contact validation;
(g) fraud prevention, security, and bot detection;
(h) web analytics and product measurement;
(i) advertising and marketing measurement;
(j) payment processing for Agent Member referral fees;
(k) legal, accounting, audit, and professional advisors.
Service providers are authorized to use your information only for the services they provide to us and are contractually required to protect it.
4.3 A2A Program Participants
When a Referring Broker submits a prospect into the Agent2Agent Program, we share that prospect's information with the Receiving Broker we match to the prospect. The Referring Broker and the Receiving Broker may each receive limited updates about the status of the referral.
4.4 Legal and Safety
We may disclose information if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to:
(a) comply with applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request;
(b) enforce our Terms of Service or investigate potential violations;
(c) detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, or technical issues; or
(d) protect the rights, property, or safety of EffectiveAgents, our users, or others.
4.5 Business Transfers
If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you of any such transfer and any changes to this Privacy Policy that result.
4.6 With Your Consent
We may share your information for other purposes if you direct us to do so or otherwise give us your consent.
4.7 What We Do Not Share
We do not currently sell Consumer personal information in exchange for money, and we do not share Consumer personal information with marketing partners (such as mortgage lenders, insurance providers, home warranty companies, or other referral platforms) for their own marketing purposes. We reserve the right to do so in the future with appropriate notice and, where required by law, your opt-out right.
However, our use of third-party analytics and advertising technologies described in Section 5 may constitute "sharing" of personal information under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). This includes the transmission of hashed identifiers (such as hashed email addresses and phone numbers) to advertising partners for conversion measurement, as described in Section 5.2. See Section 10 for your rights.
5. Advertising, Analytics, and Tracking Technologies
5.1 Cookies and Similar Technologies
We and our third-party partners use cookies, pixel tags, web beacons, tag management systems, and similar technologies to understand how you use the Platform, remember your preferences, and deliver relevant advertising. You can control cookies through your browser settings. If you disable cookies, some features of the Platform may not function properly.
5.2 Third-Party Analytics and Advertising
The Platform currently uses the following third-party technologies:
(a) Google Tag Manager, which loads and manages other tracking technologies described in this section;
(b) Google Analytics, for web analytics and product measurement;
(c) Meta Pixel, for advertising measurement and audience targeting on Facebook and Instagram. For conversion measurement, we may also transmit hashed versions of contact identifiers (such as email address and phone number) to Meta through Meta's server-side Conversions API. Hashed identifiers are still considered personal information under applicable law, and Meta may use this data consistent with its own policies;
(d) Microsoft Advertising click-identifier capture, which records the Microsoft Advertising click ID (msclkid) from advertisements you click on Bing so that we can attribute conversions back to Microsoft Advertising through server-side reporting.
These technologies may collect information about your device, browser, IP address, and activity on the Platform and transmit that information to the third-party provider. The providers may use that information for their own purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising.
Under the CPRA and similar state privacy laws, the use of these technologies may be treated as "sharing" of personal information. See Section 10 for your opt-out rights.
5.3 Your Ad Choices
You can opt out of certain third-party advertising networks by visiting:
(a) the Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out page at https://youradchoices.com;
(b) the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page at https://optout.networkadvertising.org;
(c) the Google Ads Settings page at https://adssettings.google.com;
(d) the Meta ad preferences page at https://www.facebook.com/adpreferences;
(e) the Microsoft ad preferences page at https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/ad-settings.
These opt-outs are device-specific and browser-specific.
6. Automated Processing and Agent Matching
Our matching algorithm uses personal information that you provide (such as the location of the property, your timeline, and your stated preferences) together with our agent performance data to recommend up to three (3) Agent Members. This automated processing produces recommendations for your consideration and does not make legal or similarly significant decisions about you. You are always free to decline our recommendations, select a specific agent directly from any city, ZIP code, or neighborhood page on the Platform, or work with an agent outside the Platform.
7. Data Retention
We retain personal information for as long as is reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. Because of the nature of our Services, we retain transaction-related and account information on an ongoing basis to:
(a) support ongoing referral fee obligations, which under our Terms of Service are not subject to a lookback period;
(b) service long-tail referrals, as some real estate transactions take years to close and Prospect relationships may be nurtured over extended periods;
(c) comply with tax, accounting, and audit obligations;
(d) resolve disputes and enforce our agreements; and
(e) meet legal and regulatory record-keeping requirements.
Where none of the above reasons apply, we will retain Consumer contact records for no more than seven (7) years after the last interaction, and we will retain Agent Member records for no more than seven (7) years after account closure.
When we no longer need personal information, we will delete or de-identify it in accordance with applicable law.
8. De-Identified Information
Where we create or receive information that has been de-identified or aggregated so that it can no longer reasonably be used to infer information about, or be linked to, a particular individual or household, we will maintain that information in de-identified form and will not attempt to re-identify it except as required or permitted by law. De-identified and aggregated information is not subject to the restrictions in this Privacy Policy.
9. Security
We employ reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted to or stored on the Platform. You are responsible for protecting your account credentials. If you believe your account or information has been compromised, please contact us immediately at service@effectiveagents.com.
Breach Notification. In the event of a data breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you and relevant authorities without unreasonable delay and in accordance with applicable state and federal breach-notification laws.
10. Your Privacy Choices
10.1 Access, Correction, and Deletion
You may request to access, correct, or delete the personal information we hold about you by contacting us at service@effectiveagents.com. We will respond to verified requests within the timeframes required by applicable law. We may retain certain information as necessary to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, or support ongoing referral fee obligations.
10.2 Right to Appeal
If we decline to act on your privacy request, you may appeal our decision by replying to our decision email with the word "Appeal" in the subject line, or by emailing service@effectiveagents.com with the subject line "Privacy Request Appeal." We will respond to appeals within sixty (60) days, or the period required by your state's privacy law if different. If your appeal is denied and you are a resident of a state that provides a regulatory complaint process, we will provide information on how to escalate to your state's attorney general or consumer protection authority.
10.3 Opt-Out of Sharing for Advertising
To opt out of the "sharing" of your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising (as described in Section 5), email service@effectiveagents.com with the subject line "Privacy Choices" and include:
(a) your full name;
(b) the email address associated with your interactions with the Platform, if any;
(c) a brief description of your request.
We will process verified opt-out requests within fifteen (15) business days and send you a confirmation email once your request is processed. An opt-out applies to the identifiers you provide and the device and browser you used to submit the request; you may need to repeat the opt-out if you use a different device or browser, or if you clear cookies.
You may also exercise this right through the "Your Privacy Choices" link in the footer of our website.
10.4 Global Privacy Control
We are working to support the Global Privacy Control (GPC) browser signal as an automatic opt-out mechanism. Until that implementation is complete, please use the email method described in Section 10.3.
10.5 Promotional Communications
You may unsubscribe from marketing emails by using the unsubscribe link in any marketing message, or by emailing service@effectiveagents.com. You may opt out of marketing text messages by replying STOP. You may still receive non-promotional communications related to your account, your match, or your use of the Services.
10.6 Do Not Track
Our Platform does not currently respond to "Do Not Track" signals sent by browsers. See Section 10.4 regarding our planned support for the Global Privacy Control signal.
11. California Privacy Rights (CCPA/CPRA)
If you are a California resident, you have the following rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):
Right to Know. You have the right to request that we disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the sources, purposes, and categories of third parties with whom we have shared it, during the preceding twelve (12) months.
Right to Delete. You have the right to request that we delete personal information we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions (such as completing a transaction, complying with legal obligations, or exercising legal rights).
Right to Correct. You have the right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information.
Right to Opt-Out of Sale or Sharing. You have the right to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of your personal information. As described in Section 4.7, we do not currently sell personal information for monetary consideration, but our use of advertising and analytics technologies may constitute "sharing" under the CPRA. To exercise your opt-out right, follow the instructions in Section 10.3.
Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information. We do not intentionally collect sensitive personal information for purposes that require additional notice or opt-out under CCPA/CPRA. Agent Member onboarding may involve the collection of government-issued identifiers such as real estate license numbers, which we use solely for verification and compliance purposes. If you believe we have collected sensitive personal information from you and wish to limit its use or disclosure, contact service@effectiveagents.com.
Right to Non-Discrimination. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.
Right to Appeal. See Section 10.2.
Authorized Agents. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. We may require the agent to provide proof of authorization and may require you to verify your identity directly with us.
Categories of Personal Information Collected. In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have collected the following categories of personal information (as defined by CCPA/CPRA): identifiers (name, email, phone, IP address); customer records; commercial information (transaction preferences); internet or other electronic network activity (browsing and usage data); geolocation information (approximate location derived from IP); professional or employment-related information (for Agent Members); and inferences drawn from the above.
Categories of Sources. Directly from you; from publicly available sources; from third-party data enrichment, validation, and verification services; from MLS data feeds; from brokerages; and automatically through the Platform.
Categories of Third Parties with Whom Information Is Shared. Matched Agent Members; A2A Program participants; service providers listed in Section 4.2; advertising and analytics partners listed in Section 5.2; and legal, regulatory, or governmental authorities where required.
How to Submit a Request. Email service@effectiveagents.com with the subject line "California Privacy Request" and the category of request. We will verify your identity before processing and will respond within forty-five (45) days, with one extension of up to forty-five (45) additional days where necessary.
Minors. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of California residents under sixteen (16) years of age without affirmative authorization. See Section 14 for our broader policy regarding minors.
12. Other State Privacy Rights
If you are a resident of Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Utah, Oregon, Montana, Delaware, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nebraska, Tennessee, Maryland, Minnesota, Indiana, Kentucky, Rhode Island, or any other U.S. state with a comprehensive consumer privacy law, you may have rights similar to those described in Section 11, including the right to access, correct, delete, or obtain a copy of your personal data, and the right to opt out of targeted advertising. To exercise these rights, email service@effectiveagents.com with the subject line "State Privacy Request" and identify your state of residence. We will respond within the timeframe required by your state's law. You also have a right to appeal under Section 10.2.
13. Links to Other Sites
The Platform may contain links to third-party websites and services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit.
14. Children's Privacy
The Platform is not directed to children under the age of thirteen (13), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under thirteen. For California residents between the ages of thirteen (13) and sixteen (16), we do not sell or share personal information without affirmative authorization. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under thirteen, or have sold or shared the personal information of a California resident between thirteen and sixteen without authorization, we will delete or cure that information. If you believe a child has provided personal information to us, please contact service@effectiveagents.com.
15. International Users
The Platform is operated in the United States and is intended for users in the United States. We do not actively target residents of the European Union, the United Kingdom, or other jurisdictions outside the United States, and we are not subject to the General Data Protection Regulation or the UK General Data Protection Regulation. If you access the Platform from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those in your country. By using the Platform from outside the United States, you consent to that transfer and processing.
16. Accessibility
We are committed to making this Privacy Policy accessible to all users. If you need this Privacy Policy in an alternate format, please contact service@effectiveagents.com.
17. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by posting a notice on the Platform, sending you an email, or by other reasonable means at least thirty (30) days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of the Platform after the effective date of any update constitutes acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.
18. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at:
Acuity Real Estate Services, LLC
d/b/a EffectiveAgents.com
360 Central Avenue, Suite 800
Saint Petersburg, FL 33701
service@effectiveagents.com
855-472-9275
Real Estate Agent