pii-and-private-data.md

PII and Private Data Policy

This repository is public. This document is the plain-English rule for what must never enter it.

The one rule

If a file identifies a real person, a real property transaction, or a Blac internal practice, it does not belong in this public repo.

Never commit

Category	Examples
Client personal information	Vendor/buyer names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, ID
Transaction records	Contracts of sale, owner statements, settlement statements, commission invoices, trust records
Signed or completed forms	Any real Form 6 / Form 2 / Form 8 / appointment with party details
Private Blac policy	Internal scripts, house rules, commission rates, escalation contacts, agency procedures
Licensed or paid material	REIQ member templates, paid contract templates, paywalled content
Crown-copyright source text	Full text of Acts, Regulations, or OFT form PDFs (cite and link instead)
Credentials	API keys, tokens, passwords, .env files

Where private material goes instead

• Private Blac policy lives in the internal/ directory, which is gitignored. The public repo ships only the redacted internal.example/ template so the structure is visible without exposing the content.
• Downloaded forms and legislation PDFs (kept for your own reference while writing rules) go in sources/_downloads/, which is gitignored. Never commit them.

Before every commit

• Confirm no file under rules/, tests/, or sources/ contains a real name, address, or transaction.
• Confirm git status does not show anything from internal/ or sources/_downloads/.
• If in doubt, leave it out.

See also: SECURITY.md and docs/public-content-policy.md.