Privacy Policy

Who we are

byer is run by LX Launch, Lda. (NIPC 518742024), Rua Nova do Til, 17-A, 9050-052 Funchal, Portugal (“we”). This policy covers the website byer.pt and the byer app; the rules for using byer are in the Terms of Service. byer is for professionals and adult home buyers, not for anyone under 18. For anything about your data, write to contacto@byer.pt.

We are the controller of most of the data in this policy. Buyer data is different:

• A buyer's private file (name, contact details, the agent's notes and what is typed or said while a demand is prepared) belongs to the buyer's agency. The agency is the controller, and we are its processor.
• For the shared version of a published demand, the agency and byer are joint controllers. The agency decides to publish it and informs its client; we run the network and answer buyers' requests.
• Once an introduction is accepted, each agency is a separate controller of the contact details and messages it receives.

What we collect and why

• Visitors: the technical data your browser or phone sends (IP address, device, the page requested), to deliver and protect the service. Google Analytics only if you accept analytics cookies. Legal basis: our legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR); for analytics, your consent (Article 6(1)(a)).
• Applicants: your name and work email, your agency's name, legal name, NIPC and AMI licence number, your city if you give it, and a hash of your IP address to limit repeated requests. A person at byer checks the licence on the IMPIC public register. Legal basis: steps before an agreement (Article 6(1)(b)) and our legitimate interest in admitting only licensed agencies (Article 6(1)(f)).
• Members: your name, email, agency, role and language; your password, kept only as a hash; your licence number and any copy you send; your phone and photo, if you add them; your work on byer (buyer demands, buyer links, invitations, introduction requests, messages, reports and blocks); sign-in records; and the version of the terms you accepted. Legal basis: our agreement (Article 6(1)(b)) and our legitimate interest in running a closed, secure network (Article 6(1)(f)).
• Reports: if you report content, your name, email and report, to decide on it and tell the people involved. Legal basis: our duties under the Digital Services Act (Article 6(1)(c)) and our legitimate interest in keeping byer safe (Article 6(1)(f)).
• Emails to us: your address and message, to reply.

We email members about introduction requests, unread messages, answers from a buyer link and demands about to lapse. These emails never contain message text or contact details, we do not track whether you open them, and you can turn them off in your profile.

If you are a buyer

byer never contacts buyers. Your agent may record your search, or send you a buyer link where you describe the home you want, typed or spoken. You do not need to give your name or contact details.

• An AI system writes the questions and turns your answers into a draft demand (see How we use AI). Each answer is saved as you go, even if you never send it.
• The page uses your microphone only while you hold the button. Your words come back as text for you to check, and we do not keep the recording.
• Your agency sees everything you write. Other agencies see your demand only after your agency publishes it, and never see your name, email or phone.
• Please leave out health, religion and other sensitive details. If something matters for the home, describe the need (for example, step-free access), not the reason.
• We set no cookies on the link and do not keep your IP address with your answers.

Legal basis: your agency's own basis, usually its contract with you (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR), and, for the shared demand, our legitimate interest in running a closed network where licensed agencies share buyer demand (Article 6(1)(f)). For questions, ask your agency or write to contacto@byer.pt.

Who sees what

• Other agencies see the shared part of a published demand: the area (a map point at its centre, never an address), type, budget, size, rooms, timeframe and features, a one-line description of the buyer without their name, a note on what matters, any checks the agency recorded, and the agency and agent who posted it.
• They never see the buyer's name, contact details or the agent's private notes. Drafts, and paused, archived or lapsed demands, stay inside the agency.
• An introduction request shows the asking agent's name, photo, agency and note. Email and phone pass between the two agencies only after a yes, and a yes opens a conversation that every member of both agencies can read.
• Inside an agency, every member sees all of its demands, including the private part, its buyer links, invitations, introductions and conversations, and colleagues' profiles.
• Every member can see your profile photo. Anyone who opens a buyer link you send sees your full name.
• byer staff see applications, licences and member details to run the service, and open an agency's buyer files or conversations only when the agency asks or the law requires it.

How we use AI

On buyer links, and when an agent describes a buyer's search, AI writes the questions, reads the answers, turns speech into text and writes the one-line description and the note on what matters. It is told to leave out anything that identifies the buyer, and nothing is shared until a person at the agency publishes the demand. The AI makes no decisions about anyone.

It runs on Microsoft Azure OpenAI, in Sweden. Microsoft does not use the requests to train AI models. It may keep them in the EU for up to 30 days to detect misuse, and authorised Microsoft staff in the EEA may review a flagged request. We do not use your words to train AI either.

If you sign in with Google

When Google sign-in is available in the app, Google sends us your name, your email address and whether it is verified, your profile picture link, your Google Account ID and, for a Workspace account, your organisation's domain: nothing else, no contacts, files or calendar. We use them only to sign you in. If the email matches a member's, you enter that account; if not, you see nothing from the network and we delete the account within 30 days.

We keep this data with Supabase, in Ireland. We never sell it, use it for advertising or use it to train AI, and our use complies with the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements. You can remove byer's access in your Google Account.

Who else receives data

We do not sell personal data or share it for advertising. These providers run byer for us, under data processing agreements:

• Vercel: hosting, in its Dublin region
• Supabase: database, sign-in and file storage, in Ireland, behind Cloudflare's network
• Microsoft (Azure OpenAI): the AI features, in Sweden
• Resend: our emails
• Google: Google Analytics, only with your consent, and the mailbox for the emails you send us

Maps load straight from CARTO (on the website) and the OpenStreetMap Foundation (in the app), which receive your IP address and the area shown, under their own terms. For Google sign-in, Google is a separate controller. We disclose data to authorities when the law requires it, and our professional advisers may see it under confidentiality.

Where data leaves the European Economic Area, we rely on the EU adequacy decision for the United Kingdom, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (Google and Resend) and the European Commission's standard contractual clauses (Vercel, Resend, Supabase and Microsoft). You can ask us for a copy.

How long we keep data

• Applications we do not accept: 12 months (the IP hash, 30 days).
• Licence copies: 30 days after we check the licence.
• Accounts: while you are a member (see Deleting your account).
• Buyer demands: on the network for 90 days from creation or the last confirmation, and kept by the agency until it deletes them.
• Buyer links: open for up to 7 days; the record of what was written is deleted 30 days after the link closes.
• Invitations: valid for 14 days, deleted 30 days later.
• Email and sign-in records: 90 days. Microsoft: up to 30 days. Google Analytics: up to 14 months.
• When an agency leaves byer, its demands, buyer files and the conversations about them are deleted after 30 days.

Automatic deletion for some of these periods is still being set up; until then, we delete on request. We keep data longer only where the law requires it or for a legal dispute.

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of your data, and to correct it, delete it, limit how we use it or give it to you in a common format. You can withdraw your consent to analytics cookies at any time. Write to contacto@byer.pt: it is free, and we answer within one month (up to three for a complex request).

Your right to object: where we rely on our legitimate interest, you can object at any time, on grounds relating to your situation. We then stop, unless we have compelling legitimate grounds or need the data for a legal claim.

Buyers can write to their agency or to us; tell us which agency you deal with and we pass the request on. You can also complain to the CNPD, Portugal's data protection authority, or to the authority where you live or work.

Deleting your account

Delete your account yourself at any time, under Profile, then Delete account, on the website (byer.pt/delete-account) or in the app. Or write to contacto@byer.pt from your byer email, and we do it within 30 days. We close the account and delete your email, phone, photo, licence copy, application and any link to your Google Account. Your name stays only on the work you did for your agency, such as its buyer demands and the messages you sent, which the agency can delete.

Cookies

On the website we set only these cookies:

• sb-…-auth-token and …-code-verifier: keep you signed in and protect sign-in links. Strictly necessary; up to 400 days.
• byer_lang: the language you chose with the language switch. 1 year.
• byer_analytics: your answer to the cookie question. Strictly necessary; 180 days.
• _ga and _ga_Q08B0TSV4T: Google Analytics, only if you accept, and only on our information pages. Up to 2 years. After a click on a Google ad, Google may also store _gcl_ls.
• __cf_bm: Cloudflare's check against automated traffic when photos or data load. Strictly necessary; 30 minutes.

You can change your choice at any time with the cookie settings link at the foot of our information pages. The app has no analytics or advertising tools; it keeps your session and your saved buyers on your phone.

Security

Connections and stored data are encrypted, database rules decide what each account can read, passwords are kept only as a hash, and licence copies and photos sit in private storage behind links that expire after an hour. Buyer links and invitations work for whoever has them, so send them only to the person they are for. If a data breach is likely to put people at risk, we notify the CNPD, within 72 hours where feasible, and tell anyone at high risk; for buyer files, we tell the agency.

Changes to this policy

We update this policy when byer or the law changes. The date at the top shows the current version, and we email members before a change in how we use their data applies.