Debunking Privacy Myths for Property Management Companies with Hans Skillrud and Donata Kalnenaite of Termageddon

Privacy is suddenly something everyone is talking about, and as a small or medium-sized property management company, you might not think you have to worry too much about it. After all, you’re not Facebook. You’re not Google. Why would privacy for property management companies be important for you?

But, you do collect information from people, and those people deserve to know what you’re doing with that information.

Our guests today are privacy policy experts from Termageddon. They’re here to give us some information on what you need to do in terms of addressing privacy concerns and data collection.

Introducing Atty. Donata Kalnenaite and Hans Skillrud

Atty. Donata Kalnenaite and Hans Skillrud can be trusted to talk about privacy policies on websites.

As the company’s president, Donata is an attorney who practices privacy law and contract law. She’s a Certified Information Privacy Professional through the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and she wrote Termageddon’s policies to keep them up to date with the current and coming laws. Her job is to follow the different laws in each state and analyze what they’re proposing and what they’re passing. She’s also an expert in federal and international privacy laws.

Hans is the Vice President and co-founder of Termageddon, and works in sales and marketing. With a background in software and website creation, he has a unique ability to translate some of the complex legal content that people need to know when they’re thinking about online privacy statements.

Privacy for Property Management Companies:

Why Should Property Managers Care About Privacy Laws?

Privacy can be a confusing topic. It’s easy to see why large companies like Google and Apple and Facebook have to be careful about privacy, but why does it matter to a small or mid-sized property management company?

Most privacy bills and laws don’t have a revenue cap, which means you’re bound to the same rules and laws as companies that earn hundreds of millions in revenue. It doesn’t matter how much information you collect on people or how many people are sharing their information.

If you have a contact form on your website, you’re gathering personal data. That means these laws will apply to you.

Think about your tenants. You know where they live. You know how much money they earn. You probably have their bank account information, and you know if they have a dog.

This is sensitive information. So, you need to take privacy seriously.

Additionally, property management is a service-based industry. People care about privacy. Your tenants care and your owners care, and that means you need to care.

Personally identifiable information includes names, email addresses, and phone numbers. Laws protect people from taking that information from others without the proper disclosures. With all of the inquiries you’re getting from people all over the country and even all over the world, you need to disclose what kind of data you’re collecting and what you’re going to do with it.

You want your website to be viewed by a lot of people. So, you need a strategy for staying up to date with website privacy laws.

Privacy Policies and Different State Laws

You might have been on a website where you notice there’s a different privacy policy stated for residents in different states. It’s hard to combine the privacy laws and requirements from different states into one blanket policy. Consumers from different states currently have different rights.

There’s a lot of debate about how to word everything. Your privacy policy has to make sense and it has to include all the required disclosures, and that can take some time to put together. It takes time and training.

A lot of people want to know when they need to begin including a privacy policy on t...