Privacy Policy

Last Updated Date: December 26, 2024

Essex Property Trust, Inc. is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that, along with our affiliates (“Essex,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) acquires, develops, redevelops, and manages multifamily apartment communities in California and Washington. This Privacy Policy describes our data practices regarding information that could be used to identify you or that is associated with information that identifies you (“Personally Identifiable Information” or “PII”). This Privacy Policy applies to PII that we gather or collect via any online service (e.g., website, software, mobile app, certain e-mails we send, and customer services tools we offer) that posts this Privacy Policy (“Service”). It does not apply to any PII collected by Third-Party Services (defined below) or other online service not operated by Essex. It also does not apply to our collection of information in a human resources or business-to-business context.

California Consumers: For details on your privacy rights, and how to exercise them, please click here.

Washington Consumer Health Data: For details on our consumer health data practices, please click here.

What Information Does ESSEX Gather About Me?

General

We and our Service Providers collect certain PII you voluntarily provide in order to deliver services, or that is automatically collected via our Services.

PII You Provide

For example, you may be asked to provide PII such as name, email address, and phone number when requesting a tour of an Essex apartment community. If you do not provide this PII, we may not be able to assist you in scheduling a tour of an Essex apartment community or consider you for residence in an Essex apartment community. We may collect your email address so that we can send you information you have requested. We may also use your email address to inform you about current events or to send you updates regarding information that was previously sent to you.

Automatically Collected Data

When you visit our Services, we or our Service Providers, may collect information to administer the Services and analyze its usage.

Examples of this information include:

Your IP address and/or device ID.
The kind of browser or computer you use.
Number of links you click within the Services.
State or country from which you accessed the Services.
Date and time of your visit.
Name of your Internet service provider.
Web page you linked to our Services from.
Pages you viewed on the Services.
Other usage activities information.

This information is collected to help us administer and operate the Services, better understand how users interact with and access the Services, and understand the types of users that access the Services.

How Does ESSEX Use PII?

Business Purposes

We collect and use PII for the following purposes:

to provide you with Services or process transactions that you have requested;
to communicate with you regarding information, features or offers that we believe will be of interest to you;
to respond to your questions or other requests;
to contact you with regard to the Services;
to process any applications, payments or changes to your account information;
to process other information or PII that you submit through the Services;
to conduct user surveys;
to contact you regarding a sweepstakes, contest or promotion in which you have participated,
to evaluate your application for employment; and
to fulfill other purposes disclosed at the time you provide your PII.

We may also use the information you provide to improve the Services, to customize your experience on the Services, to serve you specific content, or for other purposes subject to applicable law.

We may use the contact information you provide to communicate with you through email and other means, including mobile text messages, telephone calls, and push notifications. If you provide your telephone number, you agree that doing so is request to be contacted and we may contact that number even if it is registered on a corporate, state, or national Do Not Call Registry.

Sharing with Third Parties

We may share your PII with third parties who perform services on our behalf or on behalf of our many affiliates (e.g., the legal owner of one of our properties), including sending advertising to you. This includes, without limitation, third parties that send communications, process payments, analyze data, assist with utility billing or renter's insurance, provide credit checks, resident screening, or collection services, manage package deliveries, provide marketing and advertising services, including marketing and analytics, to Essex, or create, host and/or provide customer service on our behalf. These third parties may have access to certain PII in order to provide these services to us or on our and our affiliates’ behalf. We and our service providers may convert PII to aggregate or deidentified data and use and share with except as may be limited by applicable law.

For more information about Essex’s third-party service providers, please contact us via email at privacy@essex.com.

Essex may also disclose PII we collect from you to third parties in order to:

Fulfill your service requests for services,
Facilitate your directions,
Protect ourselves from liability,
Protect the safety and security of Essex and its users,
Respond to legal process or comply with law,
Provide information in connection with a merger, acquisition, or liquidation of our company; and/or
As permitted or required by applicable law.

Affiliated and Subsidiary Companies

We may share PII with our affiliated or subsidiary companies who use PII for business purposes related to your tenancy or to process any application, request, inquiry, or as otherwise permitted bay applicable law This includes the owner of any community where you submit an application or where you lease, as well as the management company for such community.

Parcel Locker Providers

Essex has partnered with various parcel locker providers in some of Essex’s apartment communities. These universal lockers allow for deliveries and returns of packages from and to third parties in a dedicated storage unit. Essex may share the names, addresses, and email addresses of residents in those apartment communities with parcel locker vendors to facilitate the registration process for the universal locker. You will be contacted to register for the universal locker when you first receive a package, and as such your direct us to share your PII with these shippers. If your community has a parcel locker provider, we encourage you to read that provider’s privacy notice and as well as their terms and conditions prior to registering.

Cookies

Essex may engage and work with Service Providers and other third parties to serve advertisements on the Service and/or on other online services. Some of these ads may be tailored to your interests based on your browsing of the Service and elsewhere on the Internet, which may include use of precise location and/or Cross-device Data, sometimes referred to as “interest-based advertising” and “online behavioral advertising” (“Interest-based Advertising”), which may include sending you an ad on another online service after you have left the Service (i.e., “retargeting”).

Essex may use Google Analytics or other Service Providers for analytics services. These analytics services may use cookies and other Tracking Technologies to help Essex analyze Service users and how they use the Service. Information generated by these analytics services (e.g., your IP address and other Usage Information) may be transmitted to and stored by these Service Providers on servers in the U.S. (or elsewhere) and these Service Providers may use this information for purposes such as evaluating your use of the Service, compiling statistic reports on the Service’s activity, and providing other services relating to Service activity and other Internet usage.

Essex is not responsible for, and makes no representations regarding, the policies or business practices of any third parties, including, without limitation, analytics Service Providers and Third-Party Services associated with the Service, and encourages you to familiarize yourself with and consult their privacy policies and terms of use. See the following sections for more on certain choices offered by some third parties regarding their data collection and use, including regarding Interest-based Advertising and analytics.

Tracking Technologies Generally

Essex, its Service Providers, and/or Third-Party Services may also automatically collect certain information about you when you access or use the Service (“Usage Information”). Usage Information may include IP address, device identifier, browser type, operating system, information about your use of the Service, and data regarding network connected hardware (e.g., computer or mobile device). Except to the extent required by applicable law, or to the extent Usage Information is combined by or on behalf of Essex with information collected by Essex, Essex does not consider Usage Information (including, without limitation, unique device identifiers) to be PII.

The methods that may be used on the Service to collect Usage Information include:

Log Information: Log information is data about your use of the Service, such as IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamps, and related data, and may be stored in log files.
Information Collected by Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies: Cookies, web beacons (also known as “tracking pixels”), embedded scripts, location-identifying technologies, fingerprinting, device recognition technologies, in-app tracking methods, device and activity monitoring and other tracking technologies now and hereafter developed (“Tracking Technologies”) may be used to collect information about interactions with the Service or e-mails, including information about your browsing and purchasing behavior.
Cookies: A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s device, which may be session ID cookies or tracking cookies. Session cookies make it easier for you to navigate the Service and expire when you close your browser. Tracking cookies remain longer and help in understanding how you use the Service and enhance your user experience. Cookies may remain on your hard drive for an extended period of time. If you use your browser’s method of blocking or removing cookies, some but not all types of cookies may be deleted and/or blocked and as a result some features, and functionalities of the Service may not work. To identify certain types of local shared objects on your device and adjust your settings, please visit: https://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/
settings_manager.html. The Service may associate some or all of these types of cookies with your devices.
Web Beacons (“Tracking Pixels”): Web beacons are small graphic images, also known as “Internet tags” or “clear gifs,” embedded in web pages and e-mail messages. Web beacons may be used, without limitation, to count the number of visitors to the Service, to monitor how users navigate the Service, and to count content views.
Embedded Scripts: An embedded script is programming code designed to collect information about your interactions with the Service. It is temporarily downloaded onto your computer from Essex’s web server, or from a third party with which Essex works and is active only while you are connected to the Service and deleted or deactivated thereafter.
Device Recognition Technologies: Technologies, including application of statistical probability to data sets, as well as linking a common unique identifier to different device use (e.g., Facebook ID), which attempt to recognize or make assumptions about users and devices (e.g., that a user of multiple devices is the same user or household) (“Cross-device Data”).
Device and Activity Monitoring: Technologies that monitor, and may record, certain of your interactions with the Service, and/or collect and analyze information from your device, such as, without limitation, your operating system, plug-ins, system fonts, and other data, for purposes such as identification, security, fraud prevention, troubleshooting, tracking and/or improving the Services and customizing or optimizing your experience on the Services.

You may exercise choices regarding the use of cookies from Google Analytics by going to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout or downloading the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. You may exercise choices regarding the use of cookies from Adobe Analytics by going to http://www.adobe.com/privacy/opt-out.html under the section labeled “Tell our customers not to measure your use of their web sites or tailor their online ads for you.”

Essex is not responsible for effectiveness of, or compliance with, any third-parties’ opt-out options or programs or the accuracy of their statements regarding their programs.

You can opt out of receiving certain promotional communications (emails or text messaging) from Essex at any time by (i) for promotional e-mails, following the instructions provided in emails to click on the unsubscribe link, or if available by changing your communication preferences by logging onto your account; and (ii) for text messages, following the instructions provided in text messages from Essex to text the word, “STOP”. Please note that your opt-out is limited to the e-mail address or phone number used and will not affect subsequent subscriptions. If you opt-out of only certain communications, other subscription communications may continue. Even if you opt out of receiving promotional communications, Essex may, subject to applicable law, continue to send you non-promotional communications, such as those about your account, transactions, servicing, or Essex’s ongoing business relations.

Child Protection and Privacy

Essex does not knowingly seek to collect PII from children under the age of 13 online. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to delete any PII or other information later determined to be provided by a child under the age of 13 online, as required by applicable law. Use of the Services by children under the age of 13 is not permitted. If you become aware that a child has provided PII through our Services, please email us at privacy@essex.com.

Your Choices

In general, you may browse the Services without providing PII. However, if you choose not to provide certain PII through the Services, Essex may not be able to provide certain services or process certain of your requests. You may not be able to submit an application for employment, access resident services online, or otherwise use all of the features and products that Essex offers through the Services.

Depending on the functionality associated with the Service feature you are using, you may be able to update certain aspects of your PII on the Services. If you no longer wish to receive marketing emails from us, you can opt out of these communications by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link included in those emails. Please see the “Contact Us” section of this Privacy Policy for information about how to contact us with questions.

Legal Requirements and Law Enforcement

We may disclose PII when we believe in good faith that the law requires it; at the request of governmental authorities conducting an audit or investigation; pursuant to a court order, subpoena, or discovery request in litigation; to verify or enforce compliance with our Terms of Use or other agreements or policies governing the Services and applicable laws, rules, and regulations; or whenever we believe disclosure is necessary to limit our legal liability or to protect or enforce the rights, interests, or safety of the Services, its users or other third parties. We also reserve the right to report to law enforcement agencies any activities that we, in good faith, believe to be unlawful.

Sweepstakes and Promotions

If you choose to enter a sweepstakes, contest or other promotion, your PII may be disclosed to third parties in connection with the administration of such promotion, including, without limitation, in connection with winner selection, prize fulfillment, and as required by law, such as on a winners list. Also, by entering a promotion, you are agreeing to the official rules that govern that promotion, which may contain specific requirements of you, including, except where prohibited by law, allowing the sponsor(s) of the promotion to use your name, voice and/or likeness in advertising or marketing associated with the promotion.

Security

Essex will take reasonable steps to secure the PII you provide via the Services. Please note that no transmission of PII over the Internet or the subsequent electronic storage of this information can be absolutely guaranteed to be free from unauthorized use or access. Before submitting any PII via the Services, please be aware of these inherent risks and know that you do so at your own risk.

Information Retention

We will retain your PII for as long as it is needed to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected or as required by the law. We are under no obligation to store such information indefinitely and disclaim any liability arising out of, or related to, the destruction of such information.

Changes to This Privacy Statement

We reserve the right to prospectively alter, modify, update, add to, subtract from or otherwise change this Privacy Policy at any time, which will become effective as of posting on the Services. We encourage you to periodically review this privacy statement to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the PII we collect.

Jurisdiction

The Services is operated in the United States of America (U.S.) and is only intended for use by individuals accessing it from the U.S. If you are located in another jurisdiction, then please be aware that any PII you elect to supply will be transferred from your current location to the U.S. – to our servers, offices, and/or to the third parties described above (see “How Does Essex Use PII?”), and be subject to U.S. laws regarding data privacy and collection, which may be less stringent than or otherwise different from the laws in effect in the country in which you are located. By using this Services or by voluntarily providing us with your PII, you acknowledge and agree with your PII being processed and transferred as described above.