Privacy and cookie policy

Last updated: 30 September 2026

Who is responsible for your data

We process personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, GDPR), Portuguese Law 58/2019 and other applicable Portuguese law.

Your rights

Under articles 15–22 GDPR you may ask for access to your data, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, portability and you may object to processing. Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time; this does not affect processing carried out before. Write to ola@sintra.house. We reply within one month; for complex requests this may be extended by two further months (art. 12(3) GDPR), and we will tell you why. You may also complain to the Portuguese data protection authority, the Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados (CNPD), www.cnpd.pt, or to the authority in the EU country where you live.

I. Website, hosting and security

The site is hosted by our hosting provider Dominios.pt in Portugal, which also runs our email server. When you open a page, the server records technical data — IP address, date and time, the page requested, browser and device type — to deliver the page and protect the site. The provider processes this data on our behalf as a processor (art. 28 GDPR). Legal basis: our legitimate interest in running a secure website (art. 6(1)(f)). Server logs are kept only as long as needed for security and troubleshooting.

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures — encrypted connections (HTTPS), restricted access to enquiries and subscriber lists, and credentials stored outside the public part of the server — to protect data against unauthorised access, loss or alteration.

The fonts on this site are served from our own server; we do not load Google Fonts or other external font services.

II. Enquiries, the buyer's guide and alerts

What we collect. When you use the contact form, the quick enquiry, the “check my numbers” form of a calculator, or ask for the buyer's guide or listing alerts, we receive what you enter — name, phone, email, preferred language, what you are looking for (property type, area, bedrooms, budget, timeline), your message and, if you send it, the calculator summary — together with the page you sent it from, the campaign parameters of your visit if any (utm, gclid, fbclid), the date and time and the IP address of the submission (used to prevent abuse). The data reaches us by email at ola@sintra.house; guide and alert sign-ups are also recorded in a private list on our server.

Why.

• to answer your enquiry and advise you on your purchase;
• to send the guide or the alerts you asked for;
• to select and contact suitable partner service providers when this helps your request;
• to follow up on your request and improve our service, and to see which pages and campaigns bring enquiries;
• to comply with legal obligations and to protect the forms against spam and abuse.

Legal bases.

• steps taken at your request before a possible contract — art. 6(1)(b) GDPR;
• your consent for the guide and alerts, which you can withdraw at any time — art. 6(1)(a);
• legal obligations, where they apply — art. 6(1)(c);
• our legitimate interest in security, preventing abuse and knowing which pages bring enquiries — art. 6(1)(f).

Passing your contact to service providers. sintra.house is a free service for buyers. Leitstern may, at its discretion and when it helps your request, pass your contact details and the strictly necessary details of your request to vetted partner service providers — for example lawyers and solicitadores, mortgage intermediaries and banks, licensed real estate professionals and developers, surveyors, relocation and property-service companies. Partners are chosen by the area they cover, the type of service and their availability; there are no decisions based solely on automated processing with legal or similarly significant effects (art. 22 GDPR). Each partner acts as an independent controller for its own contact with you and its proposal, and must comply with the GDPR. Leitstern is not a party to any contract between you and a partner. We do not sell personal data. If you prefer that we do not pass your details to anyone, say so in your message or write to us, and we will answer you ourselves only.

How long we keep it. Enquiries: up to 24 months after the last relevant contact, unless the law requires longer. Guide and alert sign-ups: until you unsubscribe or withdraw consent; then we delete them, keeping only the record needed to prove consent.

Is it required? A name and an email or phone number are needed to answer you; everything else is optional.

III. Email, phone, WhatsApp and Telegram

If you write to ola@sintra.house, call us or message us, we use what you send to answer you (art. 6(1)(b) or (f) GDPR) and keep it as long as needed for your matter, within the periods above. The WhatsApp and Telegram buttons open those services, which are provided by WhatsApp Ireland Limited (Meta) and Telegram; their own privacy policies apply to what you send through them.

IV. Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small files stored on your device when you visit a site; similar technologies include the browser's local and session storage. We use:

• strictly necessary storage, without which the site cannot remember your cookie choice;
• statistics — Google Analytics 4, and the record of how you reached the site, only after you click Accept all.

When you first visit, a banner lets you Accept all or keep Essential only. Until you accept, Google Analytics is not loaded and nothing is sent to Google. You can change your choice at any time with Cookie settings (also in the footer of every page); withdrawing consent does not affect processing carried out before. You can also delete or block cookies in your browser; blocking necessary storage may affect how the site works.

Google Analytics is provided by Google Ireland Limited. Google may process data outside the European Economic Area, in particular in the United States, under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework adequacy decision and standard contractual clauses. Analytics data are kept for the retention period set in our account (at most 14 months). More: policies.google.com/privacy. Links to Google Maps or OpenStreetMap open those sites only when you click them.

Other information

Transfers outside the EEA. Apart from Google Analytics (above) and the messaging services you choose to use, we process your data in the European Economic Area.

Children. The site is not aimed at people under 16 and we do not knowingly collect their data.

Changes. We may update this policy; the date at the top shows the current version.

See also our legal notice and disclaimer.

Questions about privacy

Does sintra.house pass my contact details to other companies?

Only when it helps your request, and only the strictly necessary details, to vetted partner service providers such as lawyers, mortgage intermediaries or licensed real estate professionals. We never sell data. If you prefer, tell us and we will answer only ourselves.

Does sintra.house use Google Analytics without my consent?

No. Google Analytics is loaded only after you click Accept all in the cookie banner; you can change your choice at any time in Cookie settings.

How do I get my data deleted?

Write to ola@sintra.house. We reply within one month. You can also complain to the Portuguese data protection authority, the CNPD.