1. About this policy
This policy explains how Augur Technologies Limited, trading as August ("August", "we", "us"), collects, uses, shares and protects personal data. It applies when you use our website at www.augustapp.com, our web app at web.augustapp.com, our iOS and Android apps, and when you contact us or take part in our surveys and events.
We are registered in England and Wales with company number 13636887, and our registered office is at 1 Mark Square, London, EC2A 4EG. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under number ZB687040. For Open Banking services, August is an agent of Plaid Financial Ltd, an authorised payment institution regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Firm Reference Number 804718). August's FCA agent reference number is 1016539.
If you have any questions about this policy or how we use your data, email [email protected] or write to us at our registered office.
2. Whose data this covers and our role
Under data protection law, a "controller" decides how and why personal data is used, and a "processor" uses it on a controller's behalf. Our role depends on whose data it is:
Landlords, property managers and Workspace members. We are the controller of the data we hold about you to run your account, such as your contact details, subscription, identity checks and how you use August.
Tenants with an August account. We are the controller of your account data, such as your login, the messages you send and the rent payments you make through August.
People whose details a landlord adds to August, such as tenants, guarantors and contractors. The landlord is the controller of this data, and we process it on their behalf under our data processing terms. If you have questions about how a landlord uses your data, please contact them directly. We will help them respond.
Website visitors, people who contact us, survey respondents and business contacts. We are the controller of this data.
3. The personal data we collect
Data you give us
Account and contact details: name, email address, phone number, postal address, company name and login details.
Property and tenancy information: property addresses, tenancy details, rent amounts, and the names and contact details of tenants, guarantors and contractors you add.
Documents and photos: tenancy agreements, safety certificates, receipts, identity and right to rent documents, and photos of properties and repairs.
Financial and tax information: income and expense records, mileage claims, and the information needed to prepare and send Making Tax Digital (MTD) updates to HMRC, including your National Insurance number or Unique Taxpayer Reference where required.
Messages and reports: messages between landlords and tenants, maintenance reports, and conversations with our support team.
Identity verification: if you are a landlord and choose to receive rent through Open Banking payments, the identity document and selfie you provide through Plaid (see section 5).
Billing details: your subscription and payment history. Card details are collected and held by Stripe, Apple or Google, not by us.
Feedback and surveys: your answers if you take part in our surveys or research, or tell us why you cancelled.
Data we collect automatically
Device and usage data: IP address, device type, operating system, app version, browser, pages and features used, crash reports and error logs.
Cookies and similar technologies: see our Cookie Policy.
Session analytics: on our web app and mobile apps, we may record how the screen is used, such as clicks and scrolling, to find and fix problems. We mask fields such as passwords and payment details.
Data we receive from others
Open Banking: if you connect a bank account, transaction and balance information for the accounts you choose, provided through Plaid (see section 7).
Property data: estimated values, council tax information and Land Registry title details from Sprift, and EPC data from the government's Energy Performance of Buildings Register.
Integrations you connect: for example, expenses imported from your Xero account.
Your landlord or Workspace owner: if you are a tenant or Workspace member, the details they add about you when they invite you.
App stores: confirmation of subscriptions bought through the Apple App Store or Google Play.
We do not collect location data from your device's GPS. Our mileage tool works from the postcodes you enter.
4. How we use your data and our lawful bases
We only use personal data where the law allows. The main purposes and the lawful basis we rely on for each are:
Creating and running your account, and providing August's features, including rent tracking, reminders, documents, messaging and reports
Contract
Taking payment for subscriptions and managing billing
Contract
Preparing and sending MTD updates to HMRC when you ask us to
Contract
Verifying landlords' identity before they can receive Open Banking payments
Contract, and explicit consent for biometric data (section 5)
Providing customer support
Contract and legitimate interests
Sending service messages, such as security alerts, reminders and changes to our terms
Contract and legitimate interests
Keeping August secure, preventing fraud and misuse, and enforcing our terms
Legitimate interests and legal obligation
Analysing how August is used to fix problems and improve it, including asking why customers cancel
Legitimate interests, and consent where cookies or similar technologies require it
Sending marketing about August's own products and features
Legitimate interests, under the rules in section 8
Sending partner offers by email, and advertising measurement cookies
Consent
Running surveys and publishing anonymised research
Legitimate interests
Keeping records for tax, accounting and regulatory purposes, and responding to authorities
Legal obligation
Establishing, exercising or defending legal claims
Legitimate interests
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have balanced our interests against yours. You can ask us for more detail, and you can object at any time (see section 15).
5. Identity verification and biometric data
Before a landlord can receive rent from tenants through Open Banking payments, we need to verify their identity. This helps prevent fraud and protects tenants' money. We do not ask tenants to complete identity verification.
Identity verification is carried out by Plaid. You will be asked to photograph an identity document, such as a passport or driving licence, and take a selfie. Plaid checks that the document is genuine and compares your selfie with the photo on it to confirm the document belongs to you and that you are a real person. Comparing facial features in this way uses biometric data, which is a special category of personal data under the UK GDPR.
Our lawful basis: we only process biometric data with your explicit consent, which we ask for before you start the check. You can choose not to give it. If you do not, you can still use August, including rent tracking, but you will not be able to receive rent through Open Banking payments.
What we receive: the result of the check and the identity details needed to confirm it, such as your name and date of birth. The selfie and the biometric comparison are handled by Plaid as part of its service.
Retention: we keep the result of the check, and any identity details we receive, for 6 years after your account closes, to meet anti-fraud and regulatory requirements. Plaid's retention of the images is explained in Plaid's End User Privacy Policy.
Withdrawing consent: you can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us. This does not affect a check already completed, but you will not be able to receive Open Banking payments until you verify again.
If a check fails: you can contact us to have the outcome reviewed by a person (see section 16).
6. AI features
August Intelligence and our other AI features, such as document scanning, suggested reminders, transaction matching and the AI assistant, use models provided by OpenAI. When you use these features, the relevant content, such as a document you upload, transaction descriptions or your question, is sent to OpenAI to produce the result.
We do not use your data to train AI models, and OpenAI does not use data sent through our account to train its models.
OpenAI processes this data on our behalf under a data processing agreement, and may keep it for a limited period to monitor for abuse.
Please do not include more personal information in AI questions than you need to.
7. Open Banking and rent payments
August's Open Banking services are provided by Plaid. If you are a landlord and connect a bank account, Plaid gives us transaction and balance information for the accounts you choose, so that we can match rent payments to the right tenancy. If you are a tenant and pay rent through August, Plaid initiates the payment from your bank account to your landlord's account after you approve it in your banking app. We see confirmation of the payment, but we never hold or receive the money.
Plaid also uses your data under its own policy. See Plaid's End User Privacy Policy. You can disconnect a bank account at any time in August.
8. Marketing
If you have signed up to August, we may send you emails about August's own products, features and tips that are similar to what you use. We give you the chance to opt out when you sign up, and every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link. You can also opt out at any time in your account settings or by emailing [email protected].
If you join our newsletter from our website, we will only send it with your consent.
We will only email you about other companies' products and offers if you have opted in to receive partner offers. We do not sell your personal data, and we do not upload customer lists to advertising platforms.
Opting out of marketing does not stop service messages, such as security alerts and reminders you have set up.
9. Partner offers and referral links
August may show you offers from partner businesses, for example in the Offers area of the app. If you choose to take up an offer, you click a referral link that takes you to the partner's own website. We do not send your personal data to the partner. The link may contain a referral code so the partner knows you came from August, and we may receive a commission or referral fee if you buy from them. Once you are on the partner's website, the partner's own privacy policy applies to anything you give them.
10. Who we share your data with
We share personal data only where we need to, with:
Other August users you deal with. For example, landlords and tenants see the information shared between them, and Workspace members see what the Workspace owner allows.
Our service providers, who process data on our behalf under contract, including providers of hosting, security, email and text messages, payments, customer support, AI, analytics, address lookup, property data and printing. Our list of sub-processors and service providers names each provider, what it does and where it processes data.
HMRC, when you ask us to send MTD updates on your behalf.
Services you choose to connect, such as Xero. Once data is in another service, that service's privacy policy applies.
Plaid, for Open Banking and identity verification (sections 5 and 7).
Professional advisers, such as lawyers, accountants and insurers, where needed.
Authorities, such as the police, regulators or courts, where the law requires it or to protect the rights, property or safety of August, our users or others.
A buyer or investor, if we sell or restructure our business, under confidentiality, and only to the extent needed. We will tell you if your data is transferred to a new owner.
11. Cookies and analytics
We use cookies and similar technologies on our website and apps. Strictly necessary cookies are always on. We use analytics and advertising cookies on our website only if you agree to them through our cookie banner, and you can change your choice at any time. In our mobile apps, we use analytics to understand how the apps are used, and app install measurement only where your device settings allow it. Our Cookie Policy explains the cookies we use and how to manage them.
12. International transfers
We store August's core data in the United Kingdom. Some of our service providers process data in the European Economic Area or the United States, as shown on our list of sub-processors and service providers. Where data is transferred outside the UK, we make sure it is protected by a recognised safeguard: UK adequacy regulations, including the UK-US data bridge where the provider is certified, or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. You can ask us for more information about these safeguards.
13. How long we keep your data
Financial records, rent and transaction data, MTD submissions, and identity verification results
6 years after your account closes, to meet tax, accounting, anti-fraud and regulatory requirements
Messages, maintenance reports and related documents
6 years after your account closes, as they may be needed as evidence in a dispute between a landlord and tenant
All other account data
Deleted within 90 days of your account closing
Backups
Deleted on a rolling cycle within 14 days
Marketing preferences
Until you unsubscribe, after which we keep a record of your opt-out so that we do not contact you again
Survey responses
Until the research is complete, after which only anonymised results are kept
If a landlord removes a tenant or closes their account, the landlord, as controller, decides how long the tenancy data they added is kept, within the limits above.
14. How we keep your data safe
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, including encryption in transit and at rest, access controls, and regular review of our security. Our staff and service providers are bound by confidentiality. No system is completely secure, so please keep your login details safe and tell us straight away if you think your account has been compromised. You can report a security concern through our security page.
15. Your rights
You have the right to:
ask for a copy of your personal data;
ask us to correct data that is inaccurate or incomplete;
ask us to delete your data;
ask us to restrict how we use your data;
object to our use of your data where we rely on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time;
receive data you have given us in a portable format; and
withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent.
Some rights have limits. For example, we may need to keep certain records by law. To use any of these rights, email [email protected]. We will respond within one month. If your request is about data a landlord added to August, we will pass it to them, because they are the controller.
If you are unhappy with how we have used your data, please tell us first at [email protected] and we will look into it. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.
16. Automated decisions
August uses automated tools to help you, such as matching bank transactions to rent payments, extracting dates from documents and suggesting categories. You can always check and change their results. Plaid's identity check (section 5) is automated. If a check fails and you cannot receive Open Banking payments as a result, you can contact us to have the outcome reviewed by a person and to give your point of view. We do not make any other decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.
17. Children
August is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
18. Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when we change how we use personal data or when the law changes. The version and effective date at the top show when it was last updated. If we make a significant change, we will tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect.
See all our terms and policies.
