Privacy policy

1. If you are an agent

We keep what you give us to run your account and your links:

• Your email address and a hashed password, or the id of the Google or Facebook account you sign in with.
• Your card: name, BRN, agency name and RERA number (ORN), WhatsApp number, languages, photo and logo.
• Your links: the building, apartment details, prices, notes, photos and the settings you choose.
• Your plan and how many reports and live links you have used.

Your card and your links are shown to the people you send them to. Your photos are never shown to other agents.

2. If you opened a link from an agent

We tell the agent who sent it how the link was used, so they know when to follow up: when it was opened, which sections were read and for how long, and whether the PDF was saved or the WhatsApp button tapped. To tell a return visit from a new person, your browser gets a random id in a cookie; we keep only a scrambled (hashed) form of it. We do not ask for your name, and we do not know who you are unless you contact the agent. These pages do not use Google Analytics.

3. Cookies and analytics

Our own cookies keep the service working:

• mahalla_session: keeps you signed in (agents, and visitors who start a link before signing up).
• mahalla_v: the random visitor id described above, kept for a year.
• mahalla_oauth: for a few minutes while you sign in with Google or Facebook.
• mahalla_consent: remembers whether you accepted or declined analytics, for about six months.
• mahalla_event: for up to a minute after you sign in, if you accepted analytics, so that the sign-in can be counted.

Google Analytics runs only if you accept it. We use it, through Google Tag Manager, to see how the site is used and what to improve. On your first visit we ask. Until you accept, Google's code is not loaded at all, and it is never loaded on the pages agents send to clients. If you accept:

• _ga and _ga_673JKPZ7FD are set. These Google cookies tell one browser from another and keep track of a visit. They last up to two years, less in some browsers.
• Google receives the addresses and titles of the pages you open (which can include a building's name), where you came from, how far you scroll, the links and forms you use, your type of device and browser, and your approximate location, worked out from your IP address.
• We also count steps in the service: searching for a building (not what you typed), each step of making a link, the area, deal type and bedrooms of a finished link, sharing it, signing up and in, your plan, and reaching its limits.
• We do not send Google Analytics your name, email address, WhatsApp number, BRN, prices, notes or photos, and its advertising features are switched off.
• Google may handle this data outside the UAE. Accepting includes agreeing to that.

You can change your mind at any time: Cookie settings. If you decline later, we remove the Google Analytics cookies from your browser. Declining changes nothing else about how Mahalla works.

4. Who else handles data

• Google Maps Platform finds the places, travel times and maps around a building. We send it the building's location, not your personal details.
• Google and Facebook, only if you choose to sign in with them.
• Google Analytics, only if you accept it (see section 3).
• Our hosting, storage and email providers, which keep the service running and send our emails.

We do not sell personal data or use it for advertising.

5. How long we keep it

• Your account and links, until you delete them.
• A visitor who starts a link but never creates an account: 14 days, then everything is deleted.
• After you delete your account, we keep only a scrambled form of your email with the dates of the reports you made, so the limits of the plans can't be reset by signing up again.
• Server logs, which include IP addresses, for a short time for security and fixing faults.
• Google Analytics data tied to a browser, at most 14 months, if you accepted it.

6. Your choices and deleting your data

• You can see and change your card and links at any time in Mahalla.
• To delete your account and everything in it, open your profile and choose "Delete my account". Links you sent stop working.
• If you signed in with Facebook or Google and want your data deleted, use the same option, or write to us from the email of your account.
• For a copy of your data, or any other request under the UAE's data protection law, write to [email protected].

7. Changes and contact

We may update this policy; the date above shows the latest version, and we will tell agents by email about important changes. Mahalla is for professionals and is not meant for anyone under 18. Questions: [email protected]. See also our terms and conditions.