Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice explains how the National Housing Trust (NHT) collects, processes and discloses your personal information, the type of information which we collect, process and disclose and the reasons we do so.

 

About the NHT

The NHT was established pursuant to the National Housing Trust Act, 1979. We are entrusted with the mandate of adding to and improving the existing supply of housing in Jamaica as well as providing financial assistance to qualified Contributors who wish to build, to buy or to repair their homes.

 

COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY 

The privacy of your data is of utmost importance to us and we want to make your experience doing business with us satisfying and safe. As we gather certain types of information about our customers, it is important that you fully understand our policy and the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. 

  

INFORMATION GATHERED AND UTILISED 

Types of Personal Data We Collect 

We collect information from you depending on your inquiries, requests for our services and for other purposes permitted by statute. This information will be used for the sole purpose for which the information was provided to us and/or in instances where you have provided consent as may be applicable. The information may include: 

  1. Contact details, such as your name, aliases, address, email address, phone number;
  2. Government identifiers, such as your Taxpayer Registration Number, Passport, Voter Registration Card, National Insurance Number (NIS) and Driver’s Licence;
  3. Demographic information, such as date of birth, gender, age, nationality/citizenship, marital status;
  4. Financial information, such as bank account details;
  5. Employment information, such as employment status, occupation and employer/place of employment, income; or
  6. Other information necessary and relevant to the services you request.

If you fail to provide us with the aforementioned information, this may affect or delay the processing of your request.

 

PURPOSES FOR PROCESSING

 The purposes for which you may be required to provide personal and / or financial data may include the following:

  1. verifying identity; 
  2. completing electronic transactions; 
  3. creating accounts; 
  4. creating and updating customer records;
  5. generating and accessing loan eligibility information;
  6. managing, accounting for and refunding contributions;
  7. processing loan applications;
  8. tracing persons who owe outstanding mortgage loan amounts and contributions for recovering those amounts;
  9. ensuring compliance with our legal and regulatory obligations;
  10. conducting surveys and analyzing trends to inform new loan policies and initiatives; and
  11. conducting business analysis and improve our services.

The company also gathers and utilizes user information in the following processes: 

  

Email 

If you choose to correspond with us through our website or email, we may retain the content together with your email address and our responses. Also should you choose to use the company’s “Email this page” feature on our website to forward website content to someone else, neither your email address nor that of the recipient will be used by the company for any other purpose or be disclosed to any third party. 

  

Log Files 

We use IP addresses to analyse trends, administer the site, track user’s movement, and gather other information.  These IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.  Additionally, for systems administration, detecting usage patterns and troubleshooting purposes, our web servers automatically log standard access information including browser type, access times, URL requested, and referral URL. This information is not shared with third parties and is used only within the company.  Any individually identifiable information related to this data will never be used in any way other than that stated above without your explicit written permission. 

  

Cookies 

A Cookie is a small text file that a website server may issue to your computer whenever you visit a website. The company’s website use cookies as this enables us to identity users’ device and automatically log in registered users of certain services without them having to provide registration details each time they visit our website. We also use cookies in conjunction with our web server’s log files to calculate the total number of visits to our website and the most used/viewed web pages. 

Cookies do not allow us to access your computer or to gather any personal information about you, other than data you would have chosen to share with us, for example, your registration details. Additionally, users have the option to accept or decline cookies, as, while most browsers automatically accept cookies, users can modify their browser settings to refuse cookies. However, users must be mindful that the disabling of their browser cookie setting may hinder them from taking full advantage of all the website features. 

Overall, cookies provide us with useful information that enables us to constantly monitor and improve our website in order to better serve our customers. 

 

RETENTION OF INFORMATION  

The company will preserve, retain and maintain personal information as long as is necessary in keeping with legal requirements.  The removal and disposal of personal and sensitive information will be done in keeping with relevant legislation, industry standards and best practices in order to uphold the rights of data subjects and to safeguard against unauthorized access and use of the data. 

 

LEGAL BASES FOR PROCESSING

The lawful bases we rely on for processing your personal data are where we have: 

  1. A Legal Obligation: We may process your personal data in order to comply with the law or any contractual obligation. 
  2. To Perform a Public Task: We may process your personal data in order to perform any function conferred upon us by law or any functions of a public nature exercised in the public interest.

 

YOUR RIGHTS 

You have rights under the Jamaica Data Protection Act, 2020 in relation to your Personal Data. Subject to the provisions of the Act, these include, where applicable: 

  1. Right to be informed – you have the right to be informed of how your personal data is being processed by the Trust.
  2. Right of access – you have the right to be provided with information concerning your personal data that is being processed by the Trust, as well as to be provided with a copy of such personal data.
  3. Right to consent – where applicable, you have the right to consent to the processing of your personal data. This also includes the right to withdraw consent at any time. Full details will be provided in these instances.
  4. Right to rectification – you have the right to have any inaccuracies related to your personal data rectified. Additionally, you have a responsibility to notify the NHT in relation to changes in your personal circumstances to ensure that your data remains up-to-date.
  5. Right to object – you have the right to object to certain processing, upon which the processing shall cease. You may only object to processing where:
    1. the processing of your personal data is likely to cause to you substantial and unwarranted damage or distress;
    2. your personal data is incomplete or irrelevant, having regard to the purposes for which the personal data is, or is to be, processed;
    3. the processing of your personal data is prohibited under any law; or
    4. your personal data has been retained longer than the period of time for which it may be retained under any law.
  6. Right to complain to the Information Commissioner - you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) if you believe that we are processing your personal data in a manner that does not comply with the Jamaica Data Protection Act, 2020.
  7. Right to data portability – you have the right to require your personal data be provided to you in an intelligible form; or to have your personal data transmitted to another data controller in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
  8. Rights in relation to automated decision-making – you have the right to not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which may significantly affect your rights and interest. 

If you wish to exercise or seek clarification on any of the rights set out above, you may contact our Data Protection Officer at dataprotectionofficer@nht.gov.jm .

 

SHARING OF THE INFORMATION 
The NHT will not share, reveal, disclose or disseminate your personal details and/or financial information to any third party, except in the course of delivering or processing the service you have requested, having either received your written permission to do so, or under the following circumstances: 

  • In compliance with court orders or other legal actions necessary to defend or initiate legal claim;
  • For the purposes of External Auditing;
  • Pursuant to a request made under and in accordance with the Access to Information Act;
  • Where there are potential threats to the physical safety of persons and/or national security safeguards;
  • Law enforcement-prevention or detection of crime, apprehension or prosecution of offenders,
  • Assessment or collection of any tax or duty or of any imposition of a similar nature;
  • Social work (by order of the Minister) information for the purpose of carrying out social work in relation to a data subject or other individuals;
  • Research, history, statistics;
  • Disclosure required by law or in connection with legal proceedings or criminal investigation including regulatory activities

In instances where you make a request which may require disclosure of information related to another individual, NHT will not be obliged to comply with that request unless:

  • The other individual consents to the disclosure of the information; and
  • It is reasonable in circumstances to comply with the request without the consent of the other individual and the NHT has notified that other individual of its intention to comply with the request. The NHT shall have particular regard to:
    • The type of information that would be disclosed;
    • Any duty of confidentiality owed to the other individual;
    • Any steps taken with a view to seeking the consent of the other individual;
    • Whether the other individual is capable of giving consent, and;
    • Any expressed refusal of consent by the other individual.

 

ONLINE SECURITY 
The NHT operates secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our customers. 

Controls used across our online infrastructure include: 

  1. Robust and multi-layered security of servers and applications;
     
  2. Internal and external firewalls with monitoring and management systems;
     
  3. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption to protect information in transmission;
     
  4. Automated session time-out after an extended period of inactivity is detected.

  

Transaction Security 

This website uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to provide the necessary assurance that the transmission of personal data is secure.  This can be identified by the visual display of the padlock symbol in the status bar on the bottom right hand corner of your web browser and the URL address starting with https://.  SSL applies encryption of data in transmission between two points such as your computer and the connecting web server. 

  

Links to other Websites 

To enhance the effectiveness of our services this site facilitates links to other websites. The Privacy Notice of NHT and its related guarantees are not transferable and will not be applicable to any other website to which you may link. 

  

PHYSICAL SECURITY

The NHT is committed to protecting your personal data through comprehensive physical security measures (e.g. surveillance systems and access control mechanisms). Our facilities are secured to prevent unauthorized access, and only authorized personnel are permitted in areas where personal data is stored. We regularly review and update our security practices to ensure the ongoing protection of your information.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND CHANGES TO PRIVACY NOTICE 
You acknowledge and accept that personal data provided by you in support of the services you request , will be processed in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

We reserve the right to amend this Notice from time to time to ensure it accurately reflects the way we collect and use personal data. If changes are made to our Privacy Notice, we will notify of material changes by, for example, posting a notice on our home page or sending an email advising you of updates.

You can see when this Privacy Notice was last updated by checking the date at the bottom of this page. You are encouraged to periodically review this Notice.

 

DISCLAIMER 
The NHT has implemented industry standard measures to ensure the security of all personal data in our possession. However, no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. In the event of a data breach, we will notify affected individuals as required by law and take appropriate steps to investigate and mitigate the incident.

We recommend that users take steps to protect their personal information, such as using strong passwords and being cautious of phishing attempts. If you believe your personal data has been compromised or that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please contact us immediately. 

 

 

INDEMNITY
Whilst we have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the information you provide will be kept secure from unauthorised access and use, the internet is not a secure environment, therefore, we cannot absolutely guarantee that information will be secure at all times during transmission to our web-server.

You agree to fully indemnify and hold the NHT, its officers, agents and employees harmless from any claim or demand, made by any third party due to and arising out of the use of the on-line payment facility.

 

 

 CONTACT US 

If you have questions, requests or concerns regarding your privacy and rights, please let us know how we can help by contacting us using the information below. 

 

Data Protection Officer 

Name: Donald Smith

Telephone Number: (876) 929-6500 ext. 7560

Email Address: dataprotectionofficer@nht.gov.jm

 

CONTACT THE OIC

If you have any complaints or concerns regarding your privacy and rights, you may contact the Office of the Information Commission using the information below.

Information Commissioner’s Office

Telephone Number: (876) 929-8568, (876) 929-6952, (876) 960-0874, (876) 968-5622

E-mail address: info@oic.gov.jm

Last updated:  March 2025

 

END OF NOTICE