Overview
Housing.com is a leading Indian proptech platform connecting property seekers with brokers and developers. When users search for properties, they reveal some of their most personal financial and life-stage information: budget range (income indicator), property size (family composition), location preferences (lifestyle and community), and whether they’re renting or buying (financial status).
DPDP Readiness: Section-by-Section Analysis
Section 6 — Consent & Notice 🔴
Property search consent covers broad data sharing. When a user clicks “Contact Agent” or submits an inquiry:
- Name and phone number go to the broker/developer
- Search history (budget, location, property type) may be accessible
- Financial pre-qualification data (if submitted) goes to loan partners
DPDP concern: A single property inquiry sends your phone number and life-stage data to individual brokers who will call repeatedly. No granular consent.
Section 9 — Data Retention 🔴
No retention for:
- Property search patterns (2BHK in South Mumbai = specific income/lifestyle inference)
- Broker inquiry data (how many brokers have your number now?)
- Financial pre-qualification submissions
- Wishlist and saved properties
Section 11 — Rights of Data Principal 🔴
- Can users force brokers to delete their contact information?
- No mechanism to retract data from multiple agents who received it
- No data portability
- No nomination rights
Risk Assessment
| Category | Risk Level | Potential Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Broker data dissemination | Critical | Phone numbers distributed to uncontrolled agents |
| Financial inference | High | Budget searches reveal income |
| Life stage inference | High | Property type reveals family status |
| Data retention | High | Search history indefinitely stored |
Recommendations
- Implement broker data agreements — Require agents to delete data if user requests
- Mask phone numbers — Route communications through platform instead of sharing direct numbers
- Add search data retention limits — “Property searches: 6 months; broker inquiries: 90 days after last interaction”
- Build inquiry transparency — Show users which brokers received their data